Absolutely King Hu  THE FATE OF LEE KHAN and THE VALIANT ONES at Melbourne Cinematheque 2002
Mention the name 'King Hu' to anyone In The Know and they'll invariably respond by saying Hu is unconditionally the greatest martial arts director ever to walk the earth. (This is, of course, merely a figure of speech, as it's unlikely Hu's feet ever even touched the ground - the man was so talented he could probably fly.) Hu has achieved legendary status amongst both critics (the freaks) and HK film fans (the geeks), despite the fact that very few - among the geek crowd, at least - have actually seen any of his films. Hu's work is rarely screened, which means that the vast majority of his 'fans' will probably never even have the opportunity to watch him strut his cinematic stuff (bad luck for them, but great for anyone who's actually had the chance to sit down with one, and if you've seen two you've really got something to smile about). This, probably more than anything else, has built up the mythos that surrounds Hu - being dead for five years hasn't exactly stopped his reputation from growing.
The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975) were screened as a double bill as part of the Melbourne Cinematheque 'initiative,' and freaks and geeks alike were out in force to marvel at the wonders of King Hu. I'm not a fan of Cteq audiences at the best of times, most of them being aggressively intellectual quiche-eating types, but to be fair, a number of them seemed to be as excited as the true HK believers about what they were going to see. Not that this really changed anything. I was unfortunate enough to overhear a number of the reactions of those around me (it was impossible not to), and of these the most grating would have to be "Oh daaaaahling, wasn't that maaaahvelous?"
Well, neither The Fate of Lee Khan nor The Valiant Ones is maaaahvelous, or even faaaahntastic. That said, if a kung fu flick can ever qualify as high art, then you'd be hard pressed to do better than The Fate of Lee Khan. Similarly, The Valiant Ones rivals any martial-arts film (period piece or not!) made in the last ten years. Brilliant they may be, but not in a European-art-film-Cinematheque-cineaste kind of a way. Both films succeed because, thanks to Hu's direction, they are far more than the sum of their parts. The production values are nothing special. The SFX are appalling (not that I'd have it any other way). The actors certainly seem to love their cheese, and the respective plots are so simple they don't even bear repeating here, but Hu (aided in no small part by Sammo Hung's fight choreography) proves himself to be a true master of the form, and it's easy to see why the establishment of so much of genre convention gets ascribed to him. The danger in breaking down these films to their constituent elements is that they can so easily become little more that academic curios - which they ain't. Far from being of value simply because they show the beginnings of what we know today as kung fu movies, both pictures are a hell of a lot of fun and testament to the fact that there is little in life more entertaining that watching a pirate having the crap beaten out of him by a man in a pigtail and a dress. The Fate of Lee Khan and The Valiant Ones aren't simply forerunners to the genre that have since been improved on - they're the real thing. It's all here - the wirework, the score, the melodrama, every stock character that you know and love - only this time, it's being brought to you by the original, and, yes, the best. King Hu, that Director among directors, deserves all the praise and respect he can get, so do whatever you can to track any of his stuff down - it's worth it!
Ratings: The Fate of Lee Khan: 9 1/2 flying waitresses out of 10 (that's the top half, by the way - the other bit's got a sword through it) The Valiant Ones: 9 Project A's out of 10 (oops...) Reviewed by Jonathan McCoy   Next: Alison Jobling's review of the Adelaide screening

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