Starring Chang Yi, Ivy Ling Po, Shih Szu, Fang Mian, James Nam Gung-Fan, Ku Feng, Wang Hsieh, James Tin Jun, Chow Siu-Loi, Unicorn Chan, Hung Lau, Wong Wai, Lee Ka-Ting, Wong Ching Ho
Directed by Huang Feng
Expectations: Moderate.
The Crimson Charm starts out innocently enough. A father and daughter stop at an inn for the night and are enjoying a meal when a group of obviously bad individuals come looking for a different father and daughter who have done them wrong. They murder the father they’re looking for and then the leader tries to rape the daughter, and that’s when our first father/daughter duo step in. They can’t stand to see such villainy, and their altercation results in the death of the bandit leader who’s also the son of the chief of the Crimson Charm Gang. The Crimson Charm Chief vows to take revenge and murder the entire Chung Chow Sword School. Seems a bit extreme, but then that’s just how the Crimson Charm Gang rolls. But when the gang comes to take that revenge, they aren’t as thorough as they set out to be. They leave three survivors, and those survivors vow to take revenge on the Crimson Charm gang!
It might sound a little convoluted but it never feels that way during the movie, and for a wuxia film this is one of the more direct plots. The Crimson Charm is very much a transitional film between the complex early wuxias and the simple, paper-thin plots of later kung fu films, and it plays rather well as a combo of both. The film has a nice flow to it, naturally taking us through the chain of revenge before dropping us into the main struggle between the survivors of the massacre and the Crimson Charm Gang.
For some reason in wuxia films, there’s a lot of girls posing as guys and no one notices that they’re obviously female. I’ve come to accept this, and to expect it, so it rarely causes any viewing hiccups. In The Crimson Charm that acceptance is pushed past the breaking point, though, as two characters that have known each other for years come face to face and the male character doesn’t recognize the female at all. I suppose I shouldn’t care too much, as this fantasy film also has characters running across a lake’s surface and jumping 20 feet into the air, but this non-recognition really bugged me.
Regardless of that, if you enjoy a good wuxia film, The Crimson Charm will definitely entertain well. It’s not anything truly spectacular, but it’s a lot of fun and that should count for something. Definitely check it out Shaw fans.
Next up in this chronological jaunt through the Shaw Brothers Martial Arts catalog is The Anonymous Heroes from director Chang Cheh! This one seems to be one of Chang’s lesser known films, so I’m looking forward to hopefully finding a hidden gem.