Ba bai luo han

Different than the ordinary martial art flicks in employing large scale animal performance, the monkeys and hawks. For martial art enthusiasts, this film may be a little disappointing in that the fight scene is not too action packed, but what lacks in human action is made up by animal actions.

Wang Hsing Loy's swan song as a director is quite an interesting film. It's like a mix of a Shaw Brothers production, with its intense kung-fu action and even gory violence, along with shades of a Mainland Chinese film which leaves a few of the characters looking like they've stepped out of a Peking Opera production. The result may be a bit of an uneven story overall, but nothing that takes away from the great action on display!

Don't get me wrong, Arhats In Fury is definitely worth a watch (at least once) for many reasons. For example; there's the lead monk who happily sits on the ground while birds attack him violently until he tears one of them apart, before dripping its blood into his dying masters mouth to revive him. A live cow is ripped in two in a violent scene (cut). There is a cast of thousands, which looks highly impressive with many colourful costumes and great weapons. Half-way through, our hero monk whistles once, calling upon armies of monkeys and eagles who tear the enemy a new one, in a 'has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed' scene. The cinematography is actually quite beautiful a lot of the time, showing some incredible settings in the Szechuan Province - and although camera work on the fight scenes is kept wide to allow the actors to show what they can do, close-ups could have been captured better. And of course, there is the kung-fu action...

Directed by Hong Kong actor and fight choreographer Huang Ha, star of many Shaw Brothers classics, Encounters Of A Spooky Kind, Miracle Fighters, Heart Of The Dragon and many more, the fights in Arhats In Fury are a fantastic mix of Chinese Wu Shu combined with (minimal) Hong Kong style wire-enhanced reactions and stunt-work. There's no denying the skills of each fighter on screen as the fights offer quite lengthy battles with some great choreography and moves. Huang Ha is joined by Steve Mak Fei Hung, an actor and choreographer from films such as 10 Magnificent Killers, Godfathers Daughters Mafia Blues, and a host of Shaw classics. Together, they mix some beautiful Wu Shu moves with bloody violence and some nice stunts in a mix of one-to-one fights, and huge battles.

Although made as the kung-fu movie was dying out to make way for the Hong Kong style, modern action movie, Arhats In Fury still holds up as one of the best and last of its era. Given that his previous film (Angry Young Man), was a sight disappointment, one can't deny the scale and effort of Loy's last production, ending with an epic finale that will please any die-hard, kung-fu fan!

Overall: This 2006 UK release was cut due to animal cruelty, which is understandable, but Arhats In Fury still entertains and delivers as a kung-fu film worth watching!

In a war torn country, a bunch of monks decide to either allow others to torture and kill them or they torture the $#!+ out of each other. I'm still trying to figure out as to whether the film's intent is arousal or cultural psychosis. Yeeesh! Anyways, this is indeed an impressive film from Mainland China. It appears to have a high budget with the amount of people in it and the wonderful cinematography. Plus the action was well performed. But, still I think this movie leans more towards exploitation with its insane amount of torture, violence, over the top acting, awkwardly shot scenes (the monk suicides were funny as hell), and it's unfocused storytelling. In the end, I enjoyed this mountain of lunacy.

A strange hybrid. The film has the HK action intensity and gore of a Shaw Bros. film from the 1970's and the theatricality of old style Communist propaganda. Plus there's the abstract visual sensibility of the Mainland Chinese New Wave cinema that you rarely ever see in a martial art film. Does it all work together? Well...no.

The story of novice monk Zhixing is set against a larger story dealing with the interaction of the Szechuan Shaolin temple and the JIn invasion. The Jins came from the same area that the Manchus later came from so they are similar type of villain for films like this one. The senior monks are locked into a set of strict rules thats prevents them from responding to the violence of the Jins. In fact the monks prefer to horribly punish the other monks who contemplate resisting the invaders. Zhixing and his teacher are rebels of sorts and we first see them in horrible condition after being sent on a journey in punishment for breaking the rules. Zhixing and his master witness a JIn invasion of a mining village. Zhixing attacks the Jin attempting to prevent a cruel atrocity. This brings him to the attention of the noble Lin clan who are fighting the JIn with an army of common people (stock propaganda characters). In particular to the attention of a beautiful fighting woman. Of course, Zhixing is a noble person and his breaking of the rules is to save innocents from the barbarism of the invaders but this is meaningless to the head monk who sentences Zhixing to cruel punishments. While some of the other senior abbots protest, they quickly back down and leave our hero and his master to their punishment.

I usually don't give away this much info about a film's plot but I thought that this is important in discussing the political motives behind the story. One of Mao Zedong's peeves was how the religious establishment supported the cruelties of the ruling class either thru outright collaboration or by retreating into inaction. Clearly the "rules" of the Shaolin temple in this movie were being used by the fearful senior monks to protect themselves and ignore the plight of the people. There's an interesting concept stuck in the film.

Unfortunately, stuck it remains. The film is shot in high propaganda style which doesn't allow for nuanced characters or anything but obvious plot development. The villains are all lurid and wide-eyed. They are only one step away from a Peking Opera production. The photography is great at times, some of the landscapes are almost abstractly beautiful but the camera-work during the fight scenes isn't very good. The film lurches from gritty realism to completely posed phoniness. Some of the action clearly shows the influence of the HK producers which isn't bad but the Wu Shu trained performers and choreographers weren't ready for it. The story is very uneven with sudden changes and confusing connections. There is some disturbing abuse of birds in the film. A living crow is ripped in two (shades of "Fistfull of Talons') and some stunt men roll around pretending that they being attacked by large live vultures that are tied to them. That vulture scene is from a very strange, unexplained moment in the middle of the film when Zhixing suddenly gains Tarzan-like powers and summons wildlife to attack the Jin. He never repeats the feat.

So what's good about all this? The action is fast paced and great when it comes. Ignore some of the attempts to imitate HK films of the time with wire work. When these performers just jump at each other with weapons swinging at full speed you'll be astounded. The settings are very interesting as few films set in Szechuan province are actually filmed there.

Interesting, try it.