![]() ![]() ![]() Feng looks at it then carries on walking, the music becoming seriously amazing as a distorted electric guitar and a jew’s harp take over. A much closer shot reveals it to be some kind of gravestone, The English dubbed version, which is, of course, the one that I mostly watched, doesn’t let you know what the words on it are, but the Mandarin dubbed version has text show up to tell us. ![]() He’s first seen as a tiny figure dwarfed in the distance dwarfed by the acres of sand of the beach, while on the right hand side is some kind of slab. The introduction of our hero is a great one. Sea waves crash over rocks followed by shots of the Beach itself while onscreen text sets the scene, to be followed by a narrator who adds s few more details, such as thousands of Chinese having been slaughtered and a resistance movement forming. As I watched it, I wondered why this film wasn’t better known because of this. The half hour-long battle, despite the budget not being able to stretch to as many extras as were probably needed to make things totally convincing, is superbly staged and sustained throughout its length. Wang Yu is supercool as a Zatoichi-type figure, and the fighting is mostly top class for the period, thougb of course one can but chuckle at the strong influence of Japanese movies of the chambara kind yet the film again having the Japanese portrayed not just as the enemy again but a cheating and non-nuanced, one. However, there’s a strong sense of time and place. Yes, it’s possible to be disappointed in the fact that there are only five magnificent ones, there are no female character at all, and if anything the film is too short, with the section between the helpers just having been recruited and the big battle being something that could have done with expansion. There are even a lot of memorable shots which, even fans of this kind of film will admit, isn’t the kind of thing that you tend to get, or indeed look out for, unless you’re watching something by one of more “artsy” directors such as King Hu. This passion project of director / writer / star Jimmy Wang Yu relocates the action to Ming Dynasty China and the world of martial arts, and right from the offset it’s very clear that he poured his heart and soul into it, with a great deal of attention to detail and direction which reaches heights Wang Yu was never able to reach again. Beach Of The War Gods is one of several movies which basically remakes Seven Samurai, and I’m surprised that there haven’t been more after all, it’s a formula which always seems to work. Well it’s a cracking title for a start, though I guess they could have called this film Five Martial Artists or The Magnificent Five. This has caused the town to be even more in danger, so Hsiao agrees to help defend it, and sets out to recruit the best help he can get from the locals…. Wandering swordsman Hsia Feng arrives at the town of Lei-Ha where a group of the foreign thugs are demanding payment or they will kill everyone there, and dispatches all of them. Starring: Fei Lung, Han Hsieh, Jimmy Wang Yu, Yeh TienĪVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: 23RD OCT: from EUREKA ENTERTAINMENTġ556, in the waning days of the Ming dynasty, Japanese marauders led by famed swordsman Shinobu Hashimoto raid villages on the Chinese coast. ![]()
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