a.k.a. Ying Xiong Ben Se
company: First Films
year: 1973
runtime: 89′
country: Taiwan
director: Ting Shan-Hsi
cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Yasuaki Kurata,
Lung Fei, Shan Mao, Got Siu-Bo,
Eddy Ko Hung, Ngai So, Tse Gam-Guk,
Sit Hon, Blacky Ko Sau-Leung,
Cheung Yee-Kwai, Ng Tung-Kiu
writer: Ting Shan-Hsi
cinematographer: Chi Bun Lin
original music: Fu Liang Chou
disc company: Pathfinder Pictures
release date: May 3, 2005
retail price: $14.98
disc details: Region 1 / NTSC / single layer
video: interlaced / 2.35:1 / anamorphic
audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 (English, Mandarin)
subtitles: English
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Plot: Taxi driver Lin Huo-Shan (Jimmy Wang Yu) must defend his family after the three sons of a dead captain in the former Japanese Imperial Army arrive in Taiwan with revenge on their minds.
Everything I needed to know about this low budget brawler I learned from its German theatrical trailer. Firstly, the ever inventive German film distributors opted to re-title the picture Wang Yu – Der Karatebomber (I’m not sure what the hell karatebombs are, but put them in the title of a movie and I’m there). Secondly, the trailer prominently features hand to hand combat between star Jimmy Wang Yu and a short old Japanese woman, combat that appears to culminate with Wang Yu running the woman over with a car.
A film that promises both karatebombs and wanton vehicular violence against elderly people? Needless to say this reviewer had to see it.
Out on domestic DVD from Pathfinder Pictures (stateside distributors of Wang Yu’s cult hit Master of the Flying Guillotine), the film’s English release title of Knight Errant isn’t nearly so exciting, but no matter. This little exploitationer still packs plenty of well choreographed punch. The promised battle between Wang Yu and an elderly Japanese woman is here to be relished and is, if anything, even more amusingly absurd than the trailer for the film might indicate, but more on that later.
From a narrative standpoint, Knight Errant is pretty standard genre fare, though its contemporary setting is a bit unusual for the time (Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss and Enter the Dragon went a long way towards popularizing non-period action). The script by frequent Wang Yu collaborator and director Tsing Shan-Hsi (Fast Fists, The Executioner) begins with a revenge plot similar to that of the later Master of the Flying Guillotine, showing a trio of brothers wronged training to assassinate their sworn enemy, Lin Ming Chung (Ngai So). During the war Ming Chung had helped a Japanese prisoner to escape, leading to the humiliation and eventual suicide of the three brothers’ father and mother. Training the brothers is the nameless Lady with the Iron Fist, a brutal elderly Japanese woman whose connection to the family is unclear.
Balancing the tables on the other side is Taiwanese cabbie Lin Huo-Shan (Wang Yu), the well meaning street fighting son of Lin Ming Chung. Huo-Shan’s sister Yueh Feng is blind and in need of a corrective operation, but the young man’s preponderance for street brawls (noble though they may be) is sucking the family’s savings dry. Complicating matters is the arrival of the three brothers in town. They beat Huo-Shan’s father and cousin senseless, leaving Huo-Shan no option but to take the law into his own hands and put an end to both the trio and their master.
Knight Errant‘s dramatics are of the sort parodied far and wide in the Western world. Performances are full of hand gestures and intense facial expressions while the family dynamic at the center of the story is calculated to no so much tug as yank at the heart strings of the audience. The lines between good and bad are clearly drawn, and any potentially questionable action on the part of the good guys (like running an old woman down with a car, for example) is rendered acceptable simply by virtue of their presumed goodness.
Common for the time, the villains of Knight Errant are Japanese, a reflection of tension between that country and the Chinese (be they in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or the mainland) resulting from the occupation and atrocities of the last World War. Interestingly, the three brothers here are not so much beastly (the fanged Okinawan of The One Armed Boxer) or conniving (the knife-wielding Win Without a Knife Yakuma of Master of the Flying Guillotine) as they are completely and utterly incompetent. The bulk of their training consists of repeated humiliation at the hands of the Lady with the Iron Fist, and their assassination mission in Taiwan goes spectacularly awry. The Lin family escapes their efforts relatively unscathed, with Huo-Shan’s quadruple homicide passed off by the authorities as self defense. Little sister Yueh Feng even gets her eye operation!
Of course Knight Errant‘s drama is secondary to its action set pieces, which are every bit as plentiful as one can hope for. The film certainly establishes Huo-Shan’s reputation as a street fighter, engaging him in half a dozen epic brawls before the bad guys even arrive. Combat with the three brothers is surprisingly limited in comparison, totalling only two (albeit lengthy) sequences – both taking place in a lumber mill. For sheer absurdity Huo-Shan’s impromptu car attack on the Lady with the Iron Fist takes the prize. The old woman proves startlingly resilient, surviving being run over not one but three times, and goes so far as to hop into Huo-Shan’s trunk so that she can leap out later and fight him again!
Knight Errant offers up a host of faces that will be familiar to those who have seen other Wang Yu films. Two of the three brothers are played by Lung Fei (perhaps best known stateside for playing the villainous Lu Ting Chu in Savage Killers, which was later re-edited into Kung Pow: Enter the Fist and his character renamed Master “Betty” Pain) and Shan Mao (Taek Won Do fighter Chin Chi Yung in The One Armed Boxer). The other is played by Yasuaki Kurata, a rising martial arts star in his own right. Even Sit Hon (the tournament announcer in Master of the Flying Guillotine) makes an appearance, here playing a would-be thief put in his place by Huo-Shan early on. Lady with the Iron Fist is herbalist, martial artist, and sometimes actor Tse Gam-Guk, who would star in the hilariously named Kung Fu Mama the same year.
The 2005 DVD from Pathfinder Pictures is generally excellent, especially after their two so-so (and never the less recommended) handlings of the much more popular Master of the Flying Guillotine. The transfer is of an international print with English titles and is presented in 16:9 enhanced 2.35:1. The image suffers a bit from its interlacing, but still presents with reasonable color, contrast, and detail. The only real complaint to be had is with the unrestored image, which shows varying degrees of damage (none of which particularly bothered this reviewer) throughout. Audio is offered up in two dubs (Mandarin or English) in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo. Both sound appropriately rough, replicating the low budget sound design of the production just fine. Optional English subtitles are provided for the feature.
The disc sports a healthy little bunch of supplements, starting with a commentary track by Wade Major and Tim Cogshell of Boxoffice Magazine. Next up is a brief interview (11′) with star Jimmy Wang Yu that appears to have been prepared for a Japanese release of the title. A still image gallery, some text biographies / filmographies, and a faded English language theatrical trailer round out the disc.
I’m a long-time Jimmy Wang Yu fan, so it should come as no surprise that Knight Errant gets my approval. The Pathfinder Pictures release is well produced and reasonably priced, making it an easy recommendation for those interested in the picture. See it!
