The famed Golden Swallow returns in this sequel to King Hu’s Come Drink with Me, when an angry, powerful swordsman named Silver Roc travels about the country brutally killing evildoers and leaving Golden Swallow’s darts at the scenes to gain her attention. After she is implicated for these murders and sought out by vengeful bandits, she learns of Silver Roc and deduces that he is an old friend who trained with her under the same master. With her newfound friends Golden Whip and Flying Fox, Swallow sets out to find Silver and stop his rampage.
While this may be billed as a sequel, and feature Cheng Pei-pei in her famous role again, Golden Swallow has very little to do with its predecessor. Even stylistically, the film takes a different direction with Chang Cheh as director, coming straight off of his success with One Armed Swordsman and The Assassin. He injects his trademark gore and brutality into the film, featuring plenty of streaks of blood, scenes of torture and even a ridiculous moment of disembowelment involving a young child. The screen is littered with bodies from frequent, well-choreographed fight scenes, courtesy of Lau Kar-leung, as Cheh gravitates towards the violence, the beauty of martial arts in the wide-shot and the masculinity of it all.
This masculinity is what makes Golden Swallow an interesting transitional film. In the 1970s, Hong Kong cinema would undergo a shift from the female superstars dominating the box office to the rise of the male star. Though Come Drink with Me puts aside Cheng Pei-pei in the final reel, she is still the most memorable part of the film. Golden Swallow, however, takes this a step further by initiating a love triangle between stars Jimmy Wang Yu, Lo Lieh and Pei-pei, and relegating Golden Swallow, the titular character, to a love object that the two males fight for. They aren’t terribly likeable characters though, so the romance lacks a certain punch, and Swallow soon serves little purpose.
So if viewers are coming to see her kick some more butt, they may be slightly disappointed. But on the other hand, her replacement is the superb Wang Yu; Silver Roc becomes the grave center of this film with epic, bloody, one versus many battles in open fields, the middle of a tavern and on a long set of stairs. Sure, it might not be what was expected, but this is still another solid classic of the genre with a simple story, strong action and three of the best stars of the era.
Reviewed by Tarun
