The Proud Youth [笑傲江湖] (1978)
Starring Wong Yu, Shih Szu, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Stanley Fung Sui-Fan, Lau Wai-Ling, Chong Lee, Ling Yun, Ding Ying, Yue Wing, Ku Feng, Wong Chung, Tin Ching, Yau Chui-Ling, Ching Miao, Chan Shen, Yang Chi-Ching, Teresa Ha Ping, Wong Ching-Ho, Ng Hong-Sang, Chan Wai-Ying, Yuen Wah
Directed by Sun Chung
Expectations: High. I have a feeling about this one.
When I was a teenager, I didn’t know anything about the wuxia genre, and fantasy wasn’t what I wanted from Hong Kong movies. Like many Western viewers, I generally saw wirework as a negative, thinking of it more as a crutch or an excuse not to do those incredible Hong Kong stunts I loved Jackie Chan for. A few wuxia films broke through my naive mental wall, though, and the Swordsman films — specifically Swordsman II — still hold a treasured place in my heart. So when I learned that The Proud Youth shared DNA with the Swordsman films, I was fascinated and excited by the prospect of revisiting this tale told through the Shaw Brothers lens.
The Proud Youth is based on the Jin Yong novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖), and shares the book’s Chinese title (which literally translates to Laughing Proudly in the Martial World). Despite sharing titles, the film changed most of the character names for some reason. So if you’re familiar with the Swordsman movies (or the book), Brigitte Lin’s iconic Invincible Asia character is represented here as the castrated and effeminate Sima Wuji (Tin Ching), and Wong Yu plays the same character as Samuel Hui/Jet Li (or Chow Yun-Fat if you’re watching the 1984 TVB version 😀 ). While I haven’t read the book — no official English translation exists — The Proud Youth seemingly attempts to boil the whole thing down into one 90-minute movie, so the film covers some major events from both Swordsman and Swordsman II (I believe Swordsman III is largely unrelated to the book).