THE CRIMSON CHARM

This is another casual review where I give my immediate thoughts after watching a movie. Today I am discussing The Crimson Charm. 

The Crimson Charm is a 1971 film directed by Huang Feng, starring Ivy Ling Po, Chang Yi, Shih Szu, Fang Mian and James Nam Seok-Hoon. Huang Feng would go on to direct a number of Angela Mao movies for Golden Harvest, including Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind, which we have covered on the podcast. 

The movie opens when Chief Jiang Zi Chao of Zhongzhou Sword Sect and his daughter, Shang Qing, are traveling to his 60th birthday celebration, when they save a woman from the son of one of the Crimson Charm Gang's chiefs. In the fight, the son is killed, and they are soon issued a formal declaration from the father, Yellow Gowned Chief Chao, that he intends to extinguish their entire sect at the gathering. Blood Master Linghu Lei, the grandson of an unorthodox master, comes to Chief's aid and promises to join them for the celebration. 

True to their word, the Crimson Charm Gang shows up at the birthday celebration and it is a massacre. By the end, only four survive: Senior Han, Yu Fang Fang, Blood Master Linghu Lei, and Shan Qing (though she suffers a horrible internal injury). 

The story is essentially about three of these characters seeking revenge three years later against the Crimson Charm Gan. But it develops more complexity. Each of the heroes seeking revenge gets growth and we learn there is more to the slaughter of Zhengzhou Sword Sect, that the killing of the Yellow Gowned Chief's son was a pretext. 

The three heroes the movie follows are Blood Master Linghu Lei, Senior Han and Yu Fang Fang. Blood Master Linghu Lei, escapes the slaughter with an injured Shang Qing. Bringing Qing to a cave he tries to cure her internal injuries over the three years. They fall in love, but she succumbs and asks him to erect a grave tablet to her as his wife. After her death he is even more formidable than before, but half-crazed. Senior Han was kicked out of the sect before the slaughter and found a master named Holy Sword to help train him for revenge. He is the most straight forward of the three heroes here (and I had the impression the master ejected him from the sect before the slaughter over a minor issue of etiquette so he could avenge them). Yu Fang Fang feels almost like the real protagonist of the movie. Played by Ivy Ling Po, she lost her arm in the attack on Zhongzhou Sword Sect, but was later found by their grandmaster, a woman who took her to the mountain temple and trained her. She fights one-armed and has the Dragon Sword, a clever blade that can retract into the hilt and extend to a variety of lengths. This allows her for instance to slip away easily when her sword gets hooked by another blade. It felt fitting fort a one-armed swordswoman. 

I liked how they gave each hero a section of time to develop and grow. I was especially interested in the love story between Blood Master Linghu Lei and Shang Qing. Yu Fang Fang was a fun character to follow around as she investigated the Crimson Charm Gang. She gets a great scene in one of the inns. 

I enjoyed the direction, there were some interesting uses of angles and the close-ups were effective for me. The sound on the version I saw felt a little off during the fight sequences (it is possible this was an issue with my TV, but it was only during the battles). The movie looks good and there is a nice variety of locations so you get the sense of a full world. 

The fights are not perfect but they are fun, filled with inventive weaponry and swagger. There were a few moments where some of the movements felt off to me. These were pretty rare but when they happened I noticed. Still there were lots of good performances and the showdown at the end is terrific. The movie teases who the final chief of the Crimson Charm Gang is throughout the movie (it is the kind of film where you only see the back of the villain before the final scene). I won't spoil who it was, but I was glad who they cast when it was revealed. 

The Crimson Charm Gang are my favorite kind of wuxia thugs: eccentric and morbid. We get cool bad guys like White-Faced Yama King. The leader of the gang is terrifying when he shows up, and he has deadly weapons with abilities the viewer isn't sure of until he uses them (this heightens a lot of the tension in the final fight). 

The Crimson Charm was a movie I hadn't really heard of before but was a nice surprise. For a ranking I am giving it a 7.5. I may have given it a 7 but the doomed love of Master Linigu Lei and Shang Qing, and the look on Ivy Ling Po's face when she is dropping henchmen like flies with one hand, elevated it for me. I believe this is included in the Shaw Brothers Classics Volume 2 Boxed set. I saw it on prime. I would like to get it on disc to see what extras are available as I really wanted to learn more about this movie. 

Rating: 7.5