Fate of Lee Khan

A Hong Kong masterpiece

First off: I haven't seen this tape so this is a review of the movie only. According to Tai Seng's web site, the tape is in Chinese (most likely mandarin) with subtitles, so the "dubbed in unknown" shouldn't scare you off.

I'm a big fan of the wuxia ("martial chivalry") genre. This is also a genre that seems to be quite misunderstood in the West. So, let's get back to school. The wuxia genre can be divided in two loosely separate categories, which we from now on will refer to as "traditional" wuxia film, and "modern" xuxia film.

Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, Butterfly and Sword, and the Swordsman trilogy are examples of "traditional" wuxia film. These are more of fantasy yarns with concepts like qinggong, wulin, and jianghu which Western viewers seem to have much difficulty to comprehend.

Then there's the "modern" wuxia film that started with King Hu's Come Drink With Me in 1966. New Dragon Inn, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are examples of these. Xia and xianü (the male and female protagonists in wuxia film, usually referred to as "swordsmen" and "swordswomen") can still leap great distances. But the qinggong (let's just call it "superhuman powers") is kept to a minimum. The Fate of Lee Khan belongs to this later group.

A side note: Even when the prolific director Chang Cheh started churning out martial arts films by the dozen, he never really left the wuxia formula. Same goes for his most famous protégé, John Woo. A Better Tomorrow, and The Killer are nothing more than wuxia films set in modern times. What we refer to as "heroic bloodshed" is xiao (piety), xia (chivalry), and jianghu (a closed world (be it Wulin or, as here, the criminal world) with its own professional and ethical codes). Of course, a visionary like Ching Siu-tung has set many of the conventions on ears. Like his Ling character, played by Jet Li in Swordsman II, who prefers to get drunk over following some jianghu.

Anyway, back to the movie. Director King Hu, until recently virtually unknown (or ignored) to Western critics, is today considered one of the true masters of the craft. And The Fate of Lee Khan isn't far from his masterpieces, Dragon Inn, and A Touch of Zen. (Actually, nothing in the history of film really matches up to the epochal A Touch of Zen. But that's not here or there.)

I won't go into the story, which is told in a pretty straightforward fashion, since it won't do the film justice. What I can tell you, though, is that his beautifully filmed movie is a rare fusion of theater and film. Five stars might be too high, but, at the same time, four stars just don't seem sufficient enough.

Don't expect a martial arts film, even though you get the mandatory fight scenes. (Angela Mao is by far the best fighter. I guess 12 years of grueling opera studies and a black belt in hapkido makes all the difference.) King Hu's preference of trampolines over wires results in some odd-looking scenes, which, by the way, were choreographed by Sammo Hung. Also, there's none of the yanggang (Chinese machismo) you find in movies by Chang Cheh, Bruce Lee, and John Woo.

If you like this movie, you should try to locate King Hu's other productions from 1966 to 1978: Come Drink With Me, Dragon Inn, A Touch of Zen, The Valiant Ones, Legend of the Mountain, and Raining in the Mountain. It's a shame most of these aren't available on tape or DVD.

I know this is an odd review. I could probably babble on forever about King Hu. I just love this films. And if you all buy this one, maybe they'll find it profitable enough to release the others. You can't stop a guy from dreaming. [....] August 13, 2001

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