THE SWORD AND THE LUTE (1967)

THE SWORD AND THE LUTE (1967) 

THE SWORD AND THE LUTE is the next and last movie of our trilogy and takes place some time after the conclusion of THE TWIN SWORDS and the Gan family's raid on THE TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS to rescue the third generation's daughter, Gan Lianzhu from the clutches of the Red Lotus Clan.

In the previous movie (THE TWIN SWORDS) we were introduced to three sacred items but only shown two of them. The first sacred item is The Fish Intestine Sword. It is the Gan's family heirloom and cuts all kinds of iron. This item was handed down to Gan Xiaoling, a forth generation daughter and is in her possession. (In THE SWORD AND THE LUTE it is called The Invincible Sword). The second sacred item is the Phoenix Lute. The Phoenix Lute is a weapon of mass destruction that can hurl forward scores of hair thin poisonous needles. This attack is impossible to guard against within 500 steps. The Phoenix Lute is not made of wood or stone and only the Fish Intestine Sword can destroy it. The Phoenix Lute was acquired by The Red Lady (In THE SWORD AND THE LUTE she is called The Scarlet Maid) with great effort and is in her possession. The third and final sacred item is the Seven Stars Stone of the Sun family in Baifu (In THE SWORD AND THE LUTE it is called the Shen family's heirloom). We never see the stone but are told only it can heal people injured by the Phoenix Lute by drawing the needles out of the injured party. These sacred items play heavily in our final story.  

In THE TWIN SWORDS Gan Lianzhu is being held captive in THE TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS so the Gan family go to rescue her. The losses of the Gan family during their battle with the Red Lotus Clan and the successful rescuing of Lianzhu from the Red Lotus Temple causes the family great sorrow and they decide to retire from jiang hu and live in seclusion in an undisclosed location. Gui Wu (Gan Lianzhu's husband) and Gan Lianzhu have gone to Scarlet Maid's Magic Mountain retreat (where fairies live) to improve their martial arts with the Scarlet Maid and have become known as the Yin Yang Swordmen. All of the above takes place off-screen after the end of THE TWIN SWORDS but is given to us in pieces during THE SWORD AND THE LUTE.

LIU CHIA-LIANG behind seated lady.

The movie begins with the Yin Yang Swordmen leaving Scarlet Maid's place with the Phoenix Lute and instructions from the Scarlet Maid to not only not use the Phoenix Lute but to destroy it with the Gan's family heirloom: The Invincible Sword. On their way Gui Wu suggest they cut through the woods, but once there, they are ambushed by the Flying Tiger Clan intent on robbing them. The Flying Tiger Clan proves to be quite large in number and after Gui Wu sees a large number of them surrounding his wife, decides he has had enough and retrieves the Phoenix Lute from Gan Lianzhu's horse and fires it on the robbers. A great number of them are indeed hit and all that can appear to run off. The squad leader of the bandits however is the clan's "thinker" (Master Wen). He is uninjured and intrigued by the weapon so he sneakily follows Wu'er and Lianzhu as they leave the woods with Lianzhu quite upset with Wu'er. As they stop at a small natural water fall, she scolds him for disobeying his aunt, the Scarlet Maid. Master Wen is extremely fortunate to be able to eavesdrop on the couple and through their argument learns of the Shen family's Seven Stars Stone. He decides he has learned some valuable information worthy of his chief's attention. As he turns to leave he realizes the arguing young couple are not paying any attention to their horses or the Phoenix Lute...

THE SWORD AND THE LUTE has a excellent cast, first we have returning characters Jimmy Wang Yu as Gui Wu, Chin Ping as Gan Lingzhu, Petrina Fung Bo-Bo as Gan Xiaoling and Ivy Ling Po as the Scarlet Maid. Then we have some cast members returning but with a twist, such as Lo Lieh as his former character's little brother Du Ying, Ku Feng in pretty much a cameo role as Master Song, Lee Wan Chung is back as a villian but this time the Flying Tiger Clan's Master Wen, Cheng Miu is also back as the clan chief but this time as Master Flying Tiger. Wu Ma is the chief's son Bao Erh). Joining the cast are Yuen Hua as Master Shen Shu-Wen responsible for the Shen family's Seven Stars Stone. Peng Peng from the famous multi-part JOURNEY TO THE WEST movies is a special guest star as Xiaoling's guardian Da Shin. For the villains, Lily Ho joins the cast as the fierce Wei Mei-Er, the Flying Tiger's daughter and Clan's lady fighter who takes a back seat to no one! The great Liu Chia-Liang is one of the Flying Tigers upper level henchmen and the legendary Sam Seed himself,Yuen Siu-tien plays the only Red Lotus Clan fake monk left in the movie series.

And now for my favorite part of the kung fu movie, the kung fu! I count 7 fight scenes in THE SWORD AND THE LUTE which means there is sufficient kung fu in the movie to keep you from getting bored --unless the fight scenes suck, which here, they don't but...

I remember being a lot happier with the quality of the fight scenes in the first two movies. The fight scenes in THE SWORD AND THE LUTE lack the edge of the first two movies. Something is missing or something seems just a little off when they throw down and I don't buy it one hundred percent but it is still a sale. This is a wuxia series so there is no need to criticize mystical weapons, items or chi kung in combat application. That's what these movies do. If this is not your thing, then please, there are plenty of dramas out there to satisfy you.

THE SWORD AND THE LUTE (1967) is not the best over-all movie of the three [TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS (1965) and THE TWIN SWORDS (1965) being the other two] but is the best of the three as a stand alone movie. I feel THE TWIN SWORDS is the best over-all movie of the three based on its focus and the quality of its fight scenes. I did like THE SWORD AND THE LUTE, and would very much recommend it to everyone on the strength of its plot and subplots. I would also like to advocate it to be remade but as a prequel to Lady Sun's Justice but that is a debate for another time.

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NEXT UP: COME DRINK WITH ME (1966)

THE TWIN SWORDS (1965) #002

THE TWIN SWORDS (1965)

THE TWIN SWORDS (1965) is the seamless sequel to TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS (1965) and starts off with the last 4 1/2 minutes of the action-packed finale of its predecessor where the Red Lady saves the day with a handful of well placed red darts.

After the young couple are rescued by the Red Lady (Ivy Ling Po) only in this sequel she is now called "The Scarlet Maid", she gives the young couple Gui Wu(Wang Yu) and Gan Lianzhu (Ching Ping) two important instructions to send them off. One: "mind your own business" and Two: "practice hard and revenge for your family." Needless to say they fail miserably at both instructions and end up right back in the hands of the evil Red Lotus Clan. Well, at least Gan Lianzhu does and she convinces Gui Wu to go back to her home and beg her family to come rescue her. The problem? They still have that big unresolved issue of them leaving home while her father was away in the first place. Oh yeah, he is not at all looking forward to the type of reception he will get when he arrives back at the castle and has to tell the family he lost their daughter to the  Red Lotus Clan. Speaking of the Red Lotus Clan, they are not at all happy to have lost one base of operations to the young couple and plan a very special hosts of welcomes for their anticipated return. Oh, it's on baby!

The cast of TWIN SWORDS, as in all perfect sequels is excellent. Everybody is back: in addition to Ivy Ling Po, Wang Yu and Ching Ping mentioned above, Lo Lieh is back as Du Zhuang and still so very much in love with Lianzhu. Bo Bo Fung is back as the high spirited Xiao Ling along with all of the very stern Gan clan elders and all the Red Lotus clan villains and so seamlessly they return I suspect the two movies came about in one big production and because of length became two movies -- but this is just my thinking and I have no inside source for my speculation. It is just that these two regular length movies could have easily had been on great big long all-star blockbuster instead of the two movies as they are presented. To tell the truth more that one reviewer has felt that as stand alone movies neither of them really do just that. You really need to see first TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS and them immediately THE TWIN SWORDS for one complete story. As I look back on it I don't completely disagree with them.

As for the kung fu, first of all there is more of it. I count nine fight scenes although the first is a re-play of the previous movie's finale but that still leaves eight fight scenes which alone is still enough to call this sequel "action-packed". The standard of quality of the fight choreography of the first film is also upheld in the second, namely the techniques displayed are realistic and to the point with very little flailing about to fake action BUT there is a major departure from realism in the final fight scene of the movie between the two grandmasters (the master teacher of the Red Lotus Clan and the Scarlet Maid). Fortunately it does not ruin the movie but I cannot say the movie benefits from it either. What I honestly believe however is that when the movie was released and the audiences first saw these effects they were probably blow n away by them. Sadly, it is just too late for me to feel that way.

THE TWIN SWORDS definitively concludes the story started in TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS. There are some very strong dramatic moments in the conclusion that marks this a wuxia tale worth watching again for the purposes of discussion. Finding a story of this caliber so early in the history of the modern kung fu era makes me wonder how the chop-socky  films of the 70's ever came about -but I digress. I strongly recommend THE TWIN SWORDS to anyone wanting to see a quality kung fu movie from any era. 

If you liked this review please comment on the blog, become a follower of the blog, join me on my Facebook account by sending me a message first and then a friend request so I know who I am friending (  https://www.facebook.com/Michael529P   ) and like my Facebook page: SHAW Brothers Kung Fu Movies 1965-1986. I thank you and would appreciate it very much!

NEXT UP: THE SWORD AND THE LUTE (1965)