Killer Constable (Wan Ren Zan)

  Killer Constable is one of the Shaw Brothers films I best remember watching when I was a kid - a shockingly bleak, extremely bloody tale about skewed justice. Not that I would have been able to tell you that at the time, though; I just thought it was cool and felt more 'adult' than any of the other films channel 9 aired on their martial arts weekend programming. And all the bloodshed helped a lot, of course.

 The titular Killer Constable (KC) is played with steely determination and undeniable presence by Chen Kuan Tai brandishing an oversized one-edged sword. He's justly called a killer because he seemingly always leaves the room before someone can finish the phrase "bring them in dead or alive." This causes a rift with his brother early on after he resolves a hostage situation: it's a great demonstration of his badassery (he jumps clean through a thatch roof and starts cutting up the bandits inside). Which is awesome. Unfortunately he also rides down and brutally kills the last bandit as he tries to escape, unarmed. 

 You might disagree with his methods, but the man gets results; So when the ruling Manchu dowager empress asks her ministers to find out what happened to two million taels missing from the treasury within ten days, they immediately appoint KC to track down the thieves to bring them back dead or... oh, wait, he's gone. Not again! Oh well, what are you going to do.

 KC appoints a few good men to follow him into the war- and famine-torn lands outside the palace and right out the bat they get a clue that points them at the people who stole the money. It's a simple setup; There's treasure to recover, a few colourful bandits to kill, and maybe a twist reveal about the mastermind behind the heist. KC is true to his name throughout the whole 'investigation'; His first collar, a hopelessly outmatched miller, ends up getting skewered in front of his family.

 KC's dichotomy - the pureness of his pursuit of the law, coupled with the violence he applies it with - continues throughout the movie, but it's given a nasty complexity by the fact that when one of the constable underlings tries to show a little kindness to the impoverished villagers, he's tortured and left dying in another ridiculously harsh scene. This movie does not fuck around, nor does it provide any easy answers.

 It's a film that seems to despair for humanity - everyone sucks, and those who don't don't last long. Every element of the film reinforces this brutal thesis, not the least the blood effects, which are frequent and extremely well realised. As KC and his gang make their way killing assassins, bandits and thieves, it really does start to seem like hardening their hearts to the slaughter is the only way to survive in this bleak world.
 But to buy that you'd need to ignore that the movie explicitly frames the constables' activities as enforcing the will of the Manchu against the Han people; The script comes right out and says it, just in case you aren't steeped in Chinese history. All the commoners in the film either are victims or had to resort to thievery. As honest and righteous as the portrayal of the constables is, their brutality in service of the powers that be makes any of their virtues ring (by design) very hollow. #hanlivesmatter.

 The film reveals most of its cards when one of the final thieves (the great Ku Feng) reveals a link to the imperial court... and the fact that he was stealing to give his saintly blind daughter (Yau Chui-Ling) a better life.
 She's the only pure person in the movie who doesn't meet an ignoble death. Not that she gets a happy ending... This really, really isn't that type of film; But it is thoughtful in its unsparing violence.

 It's never a chore to watch. For all that it drags you through the muck, there's always some excellent, imaginative action just around the corner. And trace amounts of humour as well; If you're as soul-dead as I am, the final confrontation might make you laugh appreciatively a few times. This movie features not one, but two of the funniest foot amputations I've seen.

 The fact that it's absolutely gorgeous, technically immaculate film also helps make it go down easy. Director Chih-hung Kuei was known for his horror and gangster films (he would go on to direct the absolutely batshit Boxer's Omen), and this was his only Wuxia movie.

 It's a deeply atmospheric film, with some truly spectacular scenes using driving rain, mists, and beautifully lit darkened rooms - and cinematographer Lee San-Yip shows a consistent knack for getting the cameras to capture reflected light just so. The fights are portrayed cleanly and with an eye for causing maximum impact. There are also a lot of the elaborate soundstages the Shaw Brothers were known for (all beautifully crafted), great use of complementary colours, and some compositions that seem to take inspiration from Japanese cinema.

The fights are, of course, a highlight, and not just because of the incredible choreographies involved. I love, for example, that a fight where our constable fights with an assassin to get the antidote to save another man is staged on a giant sundial; The clock is ticking! And of course the script (credited to On Szeto) provides a nasty low blow as a punctuation to that scene. The script for this movie is an absolute dick.

 Not that it (the script) is perfect - there are two ambushes which, while impressive and excellently staged, seem to be there just to hijack the plot and take it from point A to point B in a pretty jarring fashion- the film's third act feels more than a little bit haphazard. It does do an incredible job of reinforcing its unremitting bleakness throughout.

 Watching this again after thirty-odd years... yeah, this is still one of my favourites. I probably like it even more now that I can parse out why it felt so 'adult' at the time. It's one long, powerful gut-punch of a movie.
 If at all possible, I'd also recommend you watch Grady Hendrix's wonderful introduction to it, available with the Arrow Video release - it goes into some detail into the film's angry undercurrent, and makes a compelling case tying it into the abusive practices over at SB studios. If nothing else, it's worth it to find out that one of the actors lost a pinky finger because the director insisted they film with sharpened swords.