The Valiant Ones, from legendary Chinese director King Hu (best known for A Touch of Zen (1971) and Dragon Inn (1967)) is generally considered one of the last great wuxia films. Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction, literally translating to ‘martial chivalry', which tends to focus on sword-carrying heroes who find freedom in their specific, often coded ways of life.
The Valiant Ones places an emphasis on this, following a group of skilled fighters who are employed to fight off dangerous Japanese pirates. The film primarily looks at a wife and husband duo within this talented group, Wu Ji-yuan (Wing Bai) and Wu Ruo-shi (Feng Hsu), and tracks their fight against these pirates while simultaneously pulling from real historical events and people from Chinese history.
What stands out most in the film is its action. With stunts by Sammo Hung, famed for his excellent work co-ordinating stunts for films starring Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jean-Claude Van Damme and for appearing in over 200 films throughout his career, The Valiant Ones' action is incredibly crisp and beautifully captured. It has some of the best swordplay sequences in ‘70s cinema without a doubt. This is thanks to Hu's patience within the action, the great choreography of each sequence and the way that cinematographer Chris Chen Ching-Chu captures them. The film oscillates between portraying its action through clean tracking shots, allowing the action to be felt and seen very clearly, to making use of very jagged, enticing cutting by editor Siu Nam. The sound design has a bite of its own, with the clanging of swords melting into the chaotic, energetic score by Yun-Dong Wang and Wang Jun-Dong.
The work of Ching-Chu is some of the most exciting throughout the film more generally, too. The opening scene of The Valiant Ones is a great introduction to the film's world through its visual style. It begins with gorgeous, sweeping shots of the sea (made more impressive by Eureka's loving restoration, taken from an original 35mm scan). Immediately, the locations speak for themselves. The colours in particular are stunning, consisting of gorgeous greens and blues, the forests being covered in fog which hangs over the characters beautifully. It's visually engaging before we meet a single character, and the film is consistent with its elegant, painterly shot compositions.
The film's story can be overwhelming, featuring a lot of different characters and revolving partially around the idea of conversational trickery itself. There is consistent deception throughout, which can make the story difficult to follow at times but adds to King Hu's representation of this violent, unpredictable world. The focus on the upper class and governmental leaders in particular is interesting, as Hu sets out to portray them as clumsy and incompetent. There's a general sense of the films of Akira Kurosawa felt throughout, channelled through Hu's distinctive style.
A beautiful restoration of a film with terrific action but a somewhat alienating story, Eureka's new release of The Valiant Ones also brings quality special features for fans of Hu or wuxia more generally.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [2000 copies]
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation, presented in Dolby Vision HDR from a 4K digital restoration of the original negatives gifted by director King Hu to the Hong Kong Film Archive
- Uncompressed original Mandarin mono restored from the original soundtrack negative
- Optional English subtitles newly translated for this release
- Brand new audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival)
- Tony Rayns on The Valiant Ones – Brand new interview with critic and Asian film expert Tony Rayns
- Tsar of all the Wuxia – a new video essay by David Cairns
- The Life of a Lucky Stuntman – Brand new interview with stuntman Billy Chan
- My Father and I – Brand new interview with actor Ng Ming-choi
- Memories of Hu – Archival 2003 interview with Roger Garcia (Hong Kong International Film Festival Society) by Frédéric Ambroisine
- Archival 2003 interview with actress Hsu Feng by Frédéric Ambroisine
- Archival 2016 interview with actor Ng Ming-choi by Frédéric Ambroisine
- A collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jonathan Clements
The Valiant Ones is available in 4K UHD courtesy of Eureka Entertainment
