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Last Hurrah for Chivalry begins with a bloody confrontation between warring clans during the wedding of Lord Kao (Lau Kong). To seek revenge against the ruthless Pak Chung Tong (Lee Hoi-sang), Kao hires two killers: Tsing Yi (Damian Lau) and Chang San (Wai Pak). But with honor and loyalty on the line, can they all keep track of the many moves from each other?
As I was about to close my journey through John Woo's filmography, I wanted to see something that predated the 80s-90s crime films I had already seen, so I settled for this wuxia from 1979. It was quite nice to find out pretty much all the elements that Woo has popularized in his later films – lots of fights and blood, acrobatics, with two "brothers" in the middle of it all – but transposed to ancient China.
Like pretty much every single Woo film I've seen (with the exception of Hard Target), the backbone of this film is in the interactions between Tsing Yi and Chang San. Once they finally pair together, their chemistry sizzles. The thing is that although they meet very early, the film does take a while to put them together for good. The journey is fun, but it does feel a bit "questy": find this sword here, beat this other swordsmen there.
But this leads me to the other strength of the film, and that is in its amazing fight choreographies, which are highlighted often. It is pretty much as if you swapped the guns from Woo's later films with swords, because there's the same stylized and acrobatic approach to the fights. The way they unfold doesn't necessarily make sense from a realistic point of view, but they do look cool as hell.
Some of the performances do feel a bit exaggerated, but I suppose it is a thing of the times and place. There are also a couple of female characters whose role I'm still not entirely convinced that works (yet another parallelism with Woo's later career). However, the film more than makes up with a memorable villain in Pak Chung Tong, two great heroes, and a good dose of moves you probably can't defend against.
Grade:
LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY
(1979, Woo)
(1979, Woo)
"When it comes to friendship there are just too many moves. You just can't defend against them all."
Last Hurrah for Chivalry begins with a bloody confrontation between warring clans during the wedding of Lord Kao (Lau Kong). To seek revenge against the ruthless Pak Chung Tong (Lee Hoi-sang), Kao hires two killers: Tsing Yi (Damian Lau) and Chang San (Wai Pak). But with honor and loyalty on the line, can they all keep track of the many moves from each other?
As I was about to close my journey through John Woo's filmography, I wanted to see something that predated the 80s-90s crime films I had already seen, so I settled for this wuxia from 1979. It was quite nice to find out pretty much all the elements that Woo has popularized in his later films – lots of fights and blood, acrobatics, with two "brothers" in the middle of it all – but transposed to ancient China.
Like pretty much every single Woo film I've seen (with the exception of Hard Target), the backbone of this film is in the interactions between Tsing Yi and Chang San. Once they finally pair together, their chemistry sizzles. The thing is that although they meet very early, the film does take a while to put them together for good. The journey is fun, but it does feel a bit "questy": find this sword here, beat this other swordsmen there.
But this leads me to the other strength of the film, and that is in its amazing fight choreographies, which are highlighted often. It is pretty much as if you swapped the guns from Woo's later films with swords, because there's the same stylized and acrobatic approach to the fights. The way they unfold doesn't necessarily make sense from a realistic point of view, but they do look cool as hell.
Some of the performances do feel a bit exaggerated, but I suppose it is a thing of the times and place. There are also a couple of female characters whose role I'm still not entirely convinced that works (yet another parallelism with Woo's later career). However, the film more than makes up with a memorable villain in Pak Chung Tong, two great heroes, and a good dose of moves you probably can't defend against.
Grade: