Last Hurrah for Chivalry
The first ten minutes of this film are as deliriously crazy as anything John Woo has made since. You can see, in them, the seeds of “The Killer,” “Hard-Boiled” and “Face/Off” when it comes to over-the-top action with purpose, as a wedding is crashed over past family rivalries, the bride stabs the groom, and that groom gets away, vowing vengeance. I’m grateful that I watched the “Lone Wolf and Cub” series a few months earlier- it helps me get acquainted to the wicked tone of 1970s kung fu cinema that Woo’s film is a part of.
You can see the remarkable action choreography that would make Woo’s Hong Kong crime films so legendary during the martial arts sequences in “Last Hurrah for Chivalry,” but you also have the sound effects adding to the their impact. This is where seeing “Lone Wolf and Cub” was an important step for me before watching this film- I don’t know that I would have been prepared for the tone of the action, that level of fantasy that the exaggerated sound effects adds to the action here. This isn’t a film like “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” or “Seven Samurai” that plays with to the reality of the world by presenting it as real; this is action fantasy, and it’s deliriously entertaining. Woo traded the lack of reality in sound effects for his cinematic flourishes when he did his action thrillers in the ’80s and ’90s, and it was great seeing this early film, and the evolution of the filmmaker’s style from this to his later films.
The film begins with Kao Pun’s wedding day getting interrupted by the powerful Pai, who looks to reclaim the ancestral homeland Kao Pun’s father once took from Pai’s family. The ensuing battle reveals Kao’s prostitute wife as working for Pai, and Pai’s forces are too powerful for Kao Pun, who manages to get away. He makes his way to his master’s home to heal from his wounds; he is not capable of defeating Pai, so Kao must find someone who can. He does in Chang, but he has vowed to stop fighting. It will not be long before Chang agrees to fight for Kao, with a fellow swordsman, Ching Yi, by his side.
As the film progresses, Woo’s trademark themes of friendship, honor and betrayal come out (no doves, though) alongside the action, and “Last Hurrah for Chivalry” feels very familiar as a John Woo film, even if it’s set in a different time and place, and engages in action sequences that are driven as much by hand-to-hand choreography as they are cinematography and editing. The last 40 minutes of this film is a wonderful orgy of martial arts swordsplay by Woo, and may lead to twists and turns that probably were unnecessary, but play into the title, and the emotional core of this film.
