THE UNDAUNTED WUDANG

Yes, yes, I know... long time no review . Been crazy busy with other stuff, and I plead guilty of neglecting my ambitious endeavor of regularly paying homage to the best of the best of the 80's Mainland China Wushu flicks. But somehow I've finally managed to come up with Part III of this review collection & I hope that you guys who used to check out my blog particularly for this little columnwill enjoy the new sequel all the more...

Wudang

武当

This is actually it. The movie that started it all. I had never even heard of Li Lianjie 李連杰 and The Shaolin Temple 少林寺, when Wudangwas first aired on German TV in January 1985.

None of the actors’ names rang a bell, but the TV guide said something about “... real-life Chinese martial arts champions...” and for the first time in my life I heard the term Wushu.

The lead roles were played by 2 Mainland Chinese W ushu hotshots of the time: Lin Quan

林泉 (member of the Guangdong Wushu Team

广东武术队) and Zhao Changjun

赵长军 (from Sha’anxi Wushu Team

陕西武术队 & Li Lianjie’s follow-up as National Wushu All-round Champion of China).

The movie was released in 1983 by the Changchun Film Studios and – produced in the Mainland, 2 years after the box-office hit The Shaolin Temple – wasn’t too well received with Hong Kong audiences. A local reviewer called it a “...mainland mediocre film...” and criticized the director for not knowing how to shoot fight scenes and the extras for doing what they want.

Well, I’m not sure about the extras. When I watched this film, I was apparently too enamored by the unknowably shot action scenes to pay much attention to what the extras were doing.

Lin Quan... Chinese babe in the woods

As to the fight scenes, they had such a lasting effect on me  - and many other martial artists that I know of - that we keep discussing certain scenes in this movie even now. Granted, the way of shooting these Wushu virtuosos at work was completely different from what had been coming out of the Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studios for decades. No wire-fu... no excessive mini tramp work... no speeding up of the fighting movements, making the actors look like Looney Tunes characters on amphetamines...

Au contraire, the martial arts performances of the actors in this picture are nothing short of superb and therefore repeatedly & deliberately shown in gorgeous slow motion... for all to see... no cheating involved. Unforgettable the image of Lin Quan biting her braid before she sets about kicking ass (even the merciless Hong Kong reviewer couldn’t help praising her “wild beauty”). The 2 shots when she does an aerial & a butterfly twist in slow-mo, landing each movement effortlessly in the splits, made me fall in love on the spot... firstly, with the sport and secondly, with the actress... (or was it the other way round?). 

And then young Zhao Changjun! Bare-chested & ripped to shreds, whirling his way through some wicked Ditangquan (ground tumbling boxing) 地趟拳 & Gunshu(cudgel play) 棍术 training sequences... or propelling a hapless attacker through a wooden window screen with a simply breath-taking flying lotus kick.

Ma Zhenbang

马振帮, a highly-respected Xingyiquan 形意拳 grandmaster & one of the original coaches of the Sha’anxi Wushu Team, is perfectly cast as the silver-bearded Taoist abbot at the Wudang Temple and showcases some of the finest Internal Style performances ever featured in one film: Xingyi 形意 , Baguazhang 八卦掌, Taijisword 太极剑, and some authentic Chen-style Taijiquan 陳式太極拳.

Lin Quan taking a Taoist philosophy class from abbot Ma Zhenbang

The actual fight scenes are not fragmented by fast-paced and often distracting Hong Kong style editing... in some of the choreographies involving several fighters and elaborate, tight-knit combat moves, the director chose to simply shoot the whole thing in one long take , using only one camera angle at times. This is apparently mistaken for a lack of finesse by some reviewers, but it is in fact the smartest thing to do, because it makes the actors’ unbelievable skills look even more real & impressive. It’s like saying: “Hey, look at this! I’m not doing anything here. Just watch what these guys can do.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcjkTJ6A2Z0

The camera work is beautiful in its simplicity. The images of the autumnal Wudang

mountains and the original Taoist monastery are awesome and have nothing of the artificial, gaudy post-card feel that some of the sound stage scenes in The Shaolin Temple suffer from.

Having said this, The Undaunted Wudang is far from perfect. Zhao Changjun – pretty much like Steven Seagal - seems only capable of one single facial expression. The plot is hardly brimming over with originality and has low budget written all over it. And yes, there’s that worn-out anti-Japanese theme we’ve seen so many times before, yet scrīptwriters & audiences never seem to get tired of.

But other than that, this is a charming little film, with outstanding Wushu, memorable cinematography and an endearing acting debut by Lin Quan.

It may be interesting to know that the English dubbing on the U.S. release is done by Chinese people, which makes the result much more natural.

Highly recommended.

The plot:

The story is simple & quickly explained: At the end of the 19th century, Japanese martial arts fighters - in order to prove their superiority - challenge Chinese Gongfu masters in an open tournament. But the Japanese use dirty & lethal tricks to win the contest, and reputed Master Chen of the famous Wu School is brutally killed by unfair means. His daughter Chen Xuejiao (played by Lin Quan) swears bloody vengeance and travels to the legendary Wudang mountains to improve her combat technique with the help of the Taoist Head Priest of Nanshan Ma Zhenbang... sounds familiar? You don’t say!!!

She gets two-fisted support from freedom fighter Sima Jian (Zhao Changjun), who – in a classic cornball ending - heroically gives his life for the worthy cause. Sniff.

Gloss:

The star of the movie, Lin Quan (Lam Chuen in Cantonese), only made one more appearance in a mainland production, the relatively unknown and rather quaint   Heroine in a Melon Shed  瓜棚女傑 (1985). She kind of faded into oblivion, until in 2004 I couldn’t believe my eyes when I met her in Zhuhai, on the set of the Hong Kong action cheapie The King of Wrestlers  搏击之霸. Like a timid third-grader I asked her: “Are you the actress from The Undaunted Wudang?” She was evidently touched by this stammering gweilo who remembered her brief spell as a big-screen actress from about 20 years ago. And I was absolutely thrilled to meet the athlete in person that had initiated & inspired my early Wushu career (she speaks excellent English, by the way).

I still use some of the sword techniques she shows in the movie in my own swordplay repertoire. No kiddin’.

Lin Quan has lived in Hong Kong for many years now. She is a happy wife and mother and rarely steps back into the limelight. She teaches Wushuclasses for kids at the "Wushu & Arts Centre" in Kowloon, but with increasing regularity she whips top-billing stars like Michelle Yeoh

楊紫瓊 into shape for their action roles.

The evil samurai unsheathing his katana

Quiet & supermodest Zhao Changjun (alias Chiu Cheung-Gwan) went back to competitive pro Wushu for a number of years,  defending his title as Chinese National Wushu All-round Champion (he won a total of 54 gold medals in the course of his athletic career). In the late 80s he was eventually succeeded by the young Wushu phenomenon from neighboring Shanxi 山西, the Chinese tornado Yuan Wenqing

原文庆. That was the end of an era.

Zhao Changjun, a member of the Hui muslim minority, has since appeared in a number of martial arts flicks (e.g. Sammo Hung’s

洪金寶 Blade of Fury 一刀傾城, where he is also credited as the action director ), but because of his deadpan and his somewhat plain looks he has never really made it as a leading man in the flickers.

Over the years, he has trained many Wushu celebs & movie actors like Donnie Yen

甄子丹 at the Sha’anxi Athletic Technical Institute ; and in 1991 he founded his own Zhao Changjun Wushu Institute

赵长军武术学院 in his birth place Xi’an 西安, home of the world-famous Terracotta Warriors.

He is a polite, busy & dogged ambassador for Chinese martial arts, teaching seminars and giving guest performances all over the world. Alongside Li Lianjie and Yuan Wenqing, he will have a special place in the Wushu Hall of Fame forever.

Other titles for

Wudang :

The Undaunted WudangWu Tang Director: Sun Sha 孫沙Action Director: Ma Zhenbang, Han Mingnan 韓明男

Producer: Mao Yinghai 毛英海

Film Company: Changchun Film Studio 長春電影製片廠

Starring: Lin Quan (as Chen Xuejiao), Zhao Changjun (as Sima Jian), Li Yuwen 李宇文 (as Wu Yunlong), Ma Zhenbang (as the Head Priest of Nanshan), Tang Yali唐亞麗 (as Wu Jingjing)