Director: Chang Cheh
Notable Cast: Ti Lung, Ku Feng, Fu Sheng, Sun Chien, Lu Feng, Wei Pai, Kuo Chui, Lo Mang, Chiang Sheng
The fact that “Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung” had an essential all
star cast of Shaw Brothers A-list martial artists and was directed by the
illustrious Chang Cheh instantly sets it up for failure in many ways. While one
might want the film to be an “Avengers” like accumulation of charm, action, and
awesomeness, the film comes off more like an “Ocean’s Thirteen” with far too
much talent that’s essentially wasted on throw away characters and an overly
ambitious plot that seems unsure of what to do with half of them anyway. While
the film is saved to some extent by its star power with a few strong
performances and a strong sense of action sequence pacing, the rest of “Ten
Tigers” stumbles to get it right overall.
When a young man and corrupt leader combine forces to
extract revenge on five young ‘brothers’ they set into motion a plan to bring
the legendary “Ten Tigers” out of hiding to finish a plan that failed years
prior when the Ten Tigers originally joined forces to establish a rebellion
against the authorities.
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| The guy with the stick obviously doesn't know the stance yet. |
The idea behind “Ten Tigers” is quite simply…fucking epic.
Ten legendary fighters teaming together to kick start a rebellion against the
authorities? A cast of legendary Shaw actors like Ti Lung and a handful of the
Venoms mob make for a film that any self respecting Shaw Brothers fan needs to
see and under the direction of Chang Cheh, “Ten Tigers” does sport some
charismatic performances all the way around as each member comes packing with a
gimmicky kung fu style to help out including a man whose fingers are
unbreakable and immensely strong. While the action is impressive, particularly
towards the end, it’s the cast that’s the most impressive of all.
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| "Rock, paper...STOOL!" |
“Ten Tigers” isn’t the perfect film though. Despite all of
the elements it has going for it with cast and director, the concept of “Ten
Tigers” is simply too big for the film. It’s almost like there was a “Ten
Tigers” and a “Ten Tigers” sequel that were mashed together to try and make one
large epic film. The main story is actually about the Ten Tigers’ sons who are
being killed off one by one by the vengeful son of a corrupt leader whom the
original Ten Tigers had to kill in their rebellion. So the film jumps back with
elongated flashbacks to the original Ten Tigers (this is where are amazing cast
resides) and how they came together outside of their differences to kick ass.
It then jumps back to the present to continue the main story. The leaping back
and forth tends to be a little jarring at times and while most of the character
development is left for the flashbacks, the sons of our heroes tend to be left
with little in the way of development. There are far too many characters to
begin with in both stories, but combing them leaves even less time for anything
outside of a few to be fleshed out.
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| "Where's my character arc?!" |
On the plus side, the film has enough action and crazy
martial arts sequences to satiate any kung fu fans’ hunger. In the flash backs,
our heroes settle their differences with a solid amount of fist-to-cuffs and in
the “present” sequences, the sons have to team up to fight ridiculously
gimmicky villains and their assassination weapons. The latter leads to one of
the most epic decapitations I have ever seen on film let alone in a kung fu
film. Oh Chang Cheh, you always did know how to jack the violence of your films
to the next level.
“Ten Tigers” is still a massively entertaining film and
despite flaws in trying to jam two movies worth of material into one and rather
broad stroke characters, the charming cast and vicious fight sequences fill in
for many of those issues. As a Shaw Brothers fan, it’s a great film for my
collection even if I’m occasionally dumbfounded by the lacking cohesion of the
film.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
Ace review!
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