ID this early 80s action extravaganza

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ID this early 80s action extravaganza

Postby STSH » Mon Jan 03, 2022 6:56 am

Saw this one at a cinemateque at Adelaide Uni in the mid-80s, well before I had discovered HK cinema.

There was a well-informed talk by an Aussie fan before the screening and a chat afterwards. I got the impression this film was probably well-known, but have since found out if was nothing of the kind, as I have never been able to pin it down.

Set in historical times, a young man appointed to a low rank in the local court. There were rebels and lots of fu fighting, of course. My clearest memory is of a very old court official who is this guy's mentor, who walked with an incredibly exaggerated limp. While walking, this very tall grey haired wrinkly would bob up about two heads height on one side each time he took a painful two steps. He said, with great passion, "pull them out by the roots !".
This was his first advice to the young man, and also in the middle.

The fu set pieces were very elaborate, well-staged, with many fighters and extremely bloody, so this could not have been a low-budget production.

In the end, the young man is promoted, after he has betrayed all those close to him, leaving nearly of them dead. He is given a higher rank red-threaded hat in the final frames to show this.

The host opined that this was a Hong Kong parable i.e. that HK was going to be taken over by China, and will only get anywhere by betraying their way of life to become more like China.

My strong impression, when I later saw a number of his movies, was that the young man was Chen Kuan Tai. However, I have closely looked at the cast lists of every movie around this time, and there is absolutely no match.
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STSH
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