Last Hurrah for Chivalry | DVD Review

The Weinstein Company’s Dragon Dynasty series of DVD releases is quickly becoming essential viewing for North American fans of Asian cinema, but with the release of John Woo’s 1978 martial arts and swordplay epic Last Hurrah for Chivalry they’ve hit a bump in the road. Or have they?

Being an early foray into action for John Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer), who was more of a director of comedies at the time, there’s not much in the way of trademark Woo-isms in Last Hurrah for Chivalry. There are a couple of early variations on his normal themes and tricks, like honor among friends and slow motion action sequences, but you’re more apt to see his comedic leanings in the one-liners and camaraderie between the two heroes, Chang (Wai Pak) and Green (Liu Sung Yan). The action, however, is unrelenting and what little time is spent on story and character development is fairly well-structured, considering how convoluted a plot it is. Written by John Woo, the story involves a desperate man named Kao (Liu Lau Kong) who hires our two heroes to exact revenge on Pak (renowned kung fu villain Lee Hoi-San) for murdering Kao’s family. But Kao has other tricks up his billowing sleeves, including hiring another assasin (Fung Hak-On, who also choreographed the action scenes) to murder his master in order to claim his famous sword. Chang and Green start to wonder whether they are pawns in a devious plot hatched by Kao. Pretty complex stuff for a film that tells its story in small bursts between extended (and admittedly awesome) fight sequences.

Last Hurrah for Chivalry has everything one might expect from a martial arts film of this era, an era that includes Bruce Lee and Shaw Brothers films: mediocre acting from performers who were hired primarily for their physical abilities; extreme sound effects (amplified punches, clanging swords, etc.) so brazenly loud you almost expect to see Batman-like Pow!-Biff!-Clang! bubbles pop onto the screen; and an English dub that seems intentionally bad. Remember that Eddie Murphy bit about old kung fu movies? He must have watched this film before coming up with that. Despite all this, Last Hurrah for Chivalry manages to be quite entertaining due to its intense and quite elaborate action scenes, including a fantastic sequence in which Chang and Green fight “Sleeping Wizard” (Chin Yuet-Sang, Fung’s choreography assistant), a narcoleptic master swordsman who keeps falling asleep during their epic battle. The scene manages to be funny and intense at the same time.

The film is presented in a nice widescreen transfer and is offered in the aforementioned horrible 5.1 English dub, a 5.1 enhanced Cantonese version (where it seems like they’ve added in some background noise to flesh out the sound), and the original Cantonese mono track for all you die-hards out there. As far as bonus features go, we’re treated to a couple of interesting interviews from the actors who played the two main villains, but they’re a little on the short side at just around ten minutes each. Fung Hak-On talks mostly of how he came to know and work with John Woo, while Lee Hoi-San discusses his background in martial arts films and the significance of the weapons used in the film. There’s a great featurette on the Legendary Weapons of China, where Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan introduces us to the various weapons used in Last Hurrah for Chivalry and explains their importance in Chinese history. Logan also provides his usual insightful thoughts on the film and its place in the martial arts pantheon on the feature commentary. What’s great about his commentaries on these Dragon Dynasty releases is he’s not afraid to point out the bad stuff in the films he’s commenting on, and his seemingly limitless knowledge of every bit player and location in the film is nothing short of astounding. What’s missing from this disc, though, is any input at all from Woo himself. His total absence feels like this release didn’t have his blessing.

While Last Hurrah for Chivalry amounts to little more than a curiosity for John Woo fans, it still features some fantastic martial arts and swordplay sequences that are sure to please fans of late-70s/early-80s kung fu cinema. Just beware of the cheesy sound effects and please don’t watch it with the English dub; that’s just plain wrong.

Movie rating – 2.5

Disc Rating – 2.5