Hap Ki Do
合气道
Hong Kong, 1972, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins.
Director: Huang Feng 黄枫.
Rating: 7/10.
Structured like a ranch-war western, this period tale of rival martial-arts schools has a rigid asceticism.
STORY
Seoul, 1934. In Japanese-occupied Korea, three Chinese students – Yu Ying (Mao Ying), Gao Zhong (Huang Jiada) and Fan Wei (Hong Jinbao), who have been studying hapkido there for five years – get into a fight with some Japanese who insult them during a picnic in a park. To avoid further trouble, their teacher (Ji Han-jae) sends them back to China, suggesting they open a school of their own. He awards them all seventh-degree black belts but cautions them to control their tempers and not to get into fights with rival martial-arts schools. In Cangzhou, Hebei province, northern China, they set up the Eagle Hapkido School, but soon find themselves up against the Black Bear School, run by a Korean-hating Japanese (Yamane Teruo) with a Chinese chief instructor (Bai Ying). Events are accelerated by the headstrong Fan Wei beating up some arrogant Black Bear students, first in a restaurant and then in the marketplace. Yu Ying orders Fan Wei to hide out in order to let tempers cool, but as the leader of the trio she finds her own self-control stretched to the limit.
REVIEW
It was only a matter of time before the kung fu studios added the extra permutation of a girl as unarmed hero. “Don’t let your girl friend see this film!” trumpet the [UK release] posters, conveniently forgetting the fact that she probably saw far worse while waiting for Jon Finch in The Final Programme (1973) – namely the extraordinary goings-on of Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan 爱奴 (1972) [billed on UK release in autumn 1973 as “the first Chinese sex film!” and released in a double bill with The Final Programme]. That latter film (a Shaw product) featured the amazing He Lili 何莉莉 [Lily Ho] and Bei Di 贝蒂 (otherwise Betty) in the female leads, and even after heavy censoring [in the UK] amounted to 83 bloodthirsty minutes, climaxed by a no-holds-barred swordfight between the two women. Hap Ki Do 合气道 is an entirely different proposition, distinguished by a rigid and simple asceticism entirely absent in Confessions. Despite its lip-smacking title, Confessions showed a well-composed sensual style in both visuals and overall atmosphere, its gratuitous indulgence in violence and varied sex so outraging the senses that the film imposed its own level of surreal acceptance on its audience. Hap Ki Do (a Golden Harvest production) lies at the opposite end of the spectrum, a work which obeys all the classic rules of the well-tested American western and adds some extra touches besides.
This being unarmed combat, we are spared the severed limbs and disembowelling of Intimate Confessions, and given a world where restraint is the key-word. As the Trusty Trio of two men and a girl receive their graduation insignia after five years at a hapkido school [in Korea], we learn that the central guide-line of this particular form of unarmed combat is “patience”. Throughout the film this is to be the most important motif, and although no opportunities are missed for frequent fight sequences, the clenched fist of frustration (particularly in the case of the girl) often replaces the more obvious right to the jaw. Hap Ki Do centres around the difficulties the trio encounter in trying to establish their own school in a Japanese-dominated village [in northern China in 1934, not long before Japan’s full-scale invasion]. The powerful Black Bear school, sneering at the supposedly antiquated [Korean] art of hapkido, terrorises the townspeople and tries its hardest to destroy the newcomers. The Japanese are the classic villains: black-garbed, ruled by a bloated cigar-smoking boss, and featuring a snivelling second-rate dandy as their spokesman. The film develops in classic ranch-war style, with reprisal action forming the bulk of the plot. On a secondary front, it is also a demonstration of restraint over indulgence, purity over corruption, and this ethos is rigidly enforced: patience, we are told, is a peculiarly Chinese attribute, something to be maintained, albeit with difficulty, at all times; the hapkido graduates must gain harsh experience, and so the establishment of their school becomes a testing ground for their suitability to the art; the one of the trio who does not learn to control his feelings eventually dies, and superfluous weaponry is shown to be of little use against the purity of hapkido. Even a friendly Chinaman [played by Hong Kong’s Jin Di 金帝] who helps the trio is eventually killed because of his basic character weakness which found expression in food and drink. The arena of unarmed combat is not for amateurs: one of the trio dies, while another narrowly escapes death; only the girl wins through relatively unscathed, and then only after an exacting final fight. Punishment is meted out in direct ratio to characters’ desire to engage in unwarranted combat. The girl leader is shown to have the stronger personality and greater reserves of patience – until the second half she hardly engages in any serious fighting: even the Black Bear boss acknowledges her genuine talent (not evident in her two compatriots) – a partial meeting of two minds on a higher, more neutral level. Though the Japanese are drawn as dribbling beasts on a human level, they are given fair play in the combat scenes, with their more “modern” style of combat frequently beating hapkido on an equal footing. The failure here of hapkido is shown to be not of the system but of the person practising it, and at all times it is made clear that nothing breeds better combatants than adversity. When the trio are hard pressed, they open a sealed letter from their [Korean] master in the hope of salutary advice – only to be confronted again by the word “patience” 忍. When they later request his actual presence on the scene, he is unable to come – the home school [in Seoul] has been attacked and he has been forced into hiding. It is such rigorous application of the Chinese ethos, right down the line, which distinguishes Hap Ki Do as a film.
In the central role Mao Ying 茅瑛 [Angela Mao] is nothing less than superb. A 19-year-old ballet student until pounced on by producer Zou Wenhuai 邹文怀 [Raymond Chow], she handles her combat sequences with a grace and suppleness of limb that are a pleasure to watch. Broad-shouldered and petite, and (as the film progresses) sporting an increasingly stunning succession of uniforms, she provides a picture of determination which manages to keep the film unwaveringly on course. It is a refreshing change to have a fighting heroine demonstrate her powers with some conviction, rather than merely adopt a succession of picturesque poses from which the stuntmen hurl themselves. Whether the form of combat shown in the picture is really hapkido is immaterial, but a curious epilepsy afflicts the soundtrack whenever the word is mentioned; perhaps the producers changed their mind at the last moment. Dubbing otherwise is, as expected, excruciating – a particularly nauseous example being the decision to give a twee girl-friend [played by Hong Kong’s Xue Jiayan 薛家燕 (Nancy Sit)] an English Rose accent.
CREDITS
Presented by Golden Harvest (HK). Produced by Golden Film (HK).
Script: He Ren. Photography: Li Yutang. Editing: Zhang Yaozong [Peter Cheung]. Music: Li Zhaohua. Art direction: Li Sen. Sound: Zhang Hua. Action: Zhu Yuanlong [Hong Jinbao/Sammo Hung].
Cast: Mao Ying [Angela Mao] (Yu Ying), Huang Jiada [Carter Wong] (Gao Zhong), Bai Ying (Black Bear School chief instructor), Ji Han-jae (hapkido school head), Xue Jiayan [Nancy Sit] (Su Xiaohong), Wei Ping’ao (Zhang, Black Bear School lackey), Hwang In-shik (hapkido chief instructor), Hong Jinbao [Sammo Hung] (Fan Wei), Yamane Teruo (Black Bear School head), Sun Lan (Black Bear School sneaky student), Jin Di (Fan Wei’s friend), Liang Xiaolong (Hu Jia), Yang Wei (Korean student at Black Bear School), Li Jiading (chief disciple), Hao Lvren (restaurant owner), Lv Hong (woman in marketplace), Zhang Zhao (taiji school head), Chen Huiyi [Billy Chan], Lin Zhengying (marketplace fighters), Cheng Long [Jackie Chan] (Black Bear School student), Yuan Biao, Yuan Kui [Corey Yuen] (Japanese martial-arts students).
Release: Hong Kong, 12 Oct 1972.
(Review section originally published in UK monthly films and filming, Apr 1974. Modern annotations in square brackets.)