Beach of the War Gods (1973)

Another martial arts classic from Jimmy Wang Yu, the difference here being that the film focuses on swordplay (as did Wang Yu's earlier movies, before the fists craze) over the more usual kung-fu activities. But what swordplay it is, with hundreds of extras engaging in all kinds of frenetic battles which are a delight to watch and take up most of the running time of the movie. Wang Yu takes Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI as his inspiration for the simple plot, in which he plays a swordsman who gathers together some of the locality's best men to fight an invading Japanese army. The irony being, of course, that the baddies are the Japanese, and he's ripping off a Japanese film for the story.This is very much a man's film, in fact there is not one single female characte in it as far as I can remember. After the initial set-up, which takes about an hour, the film becomes one big long battle-cum-massacre which really is classic stuff. The action is excellently filmed and large scale, with swords clashing together in blurs and the top fighters using all manner of exotic skills and weaponry to defeat the enemy. Of course, it wouldn't be a Wang Yu movie without violence, and there's a fair share of that here, especially in the superb blood-spurting windmill duel at the film's conclusion.BEACH OF THE WAR GODS definitely won't appeal to a mainstream audience, mainly because there is NO characterisation in the film whatsoever. Now I know Hong Kung kung-fu films usually have little characterisation in them anyway, but there's absolutely none here - it's just about men getting ready to fight, and actually fighting. Action lovers will be in movie heaven with the no holds barred fights to the death, and the film - being a fairly expensive Golden Harvest production - has a professional sheen to make it look good with it. A highlight of the genre.

BEACH OF THE WAR GODS starts off with a belligerent Japanese warlord pushing around the Chinese villagers he's overseeing: he informs them that he'll be raising their taxes- soon- and they'll pay or suffer the consequences. Enter Hsiao (Wang Yu), traveling swordsman. He promptly puts the Japanese in their place. Knowing they'll retaliate, he begins recruiting local swordsmen for the upcoming festivities. By the time the Japanese arrive en masse to set things right, Yu and his friends have booby-trapped the beach in every way conceivable (and in some ways inconceivable; this being a Wang Yu movie and all). The first assault comes at night. The Japanese retreat to lick their wounds until daylight, when the second wave attacks. They fare no better in the light of day. In quintessential Wang Yu fashion, he throws in everything but the kitchen sink when it comes to his larger than life free-for-alls. One of the things that make Wang Yu movies worth watching is that they're no-holds-barred fun, especially when Wang Yu goes all Wang Yu on their a**es (watch for him dangling from a windmill, a la the end of AMBUSH). Can't beat that.

One of my friends said that the only movie that he disagreed with Des Mangan of SBS was this movie. Obviously my friend did not like this movie, so unfortunately my approach to this movie was slightly tainted. I was also quite tired and slept through the last part of it, but I caught enough of it to know what it was about and to talk about it.Beach of the War Gods is set in medieval china when Japanese pirates were attacking and capturing cities and moving south along the coast. They sent envoys to a small village and told them to give up 1000 gold or die. The villagers could not pay so attacked and the pirates inflicted a large number of casualties. At that time, a lone wanderer was in the village and challenged and killed the envoys. As such the village was set on a course to go to war with the pirates. The wanderer then goes and recruits a small army and returns to set up a defence of the village. The second half of the movie is one long battle scene where the villagers fight off the pirates.There is nothing that deep about the movie, other than the old idea that if you force somebody to do something that is impossible for them to do, then they will do what is least expected. Here the villagers had no hope in fighting off the pirates, but as they could not meet the pirates demands, they had to fight or die. It was fortunate that they had a helper, but even then the pirates learnt that they could not force their demands onto people because they can and will fight back. This is a story of an underdog turning on his or her oppressors.This movie also had a feel of a 1960's swashbuckling movie. I remember seeing a few of them some years ago and one in particular had a huge battle raging for at least half of the movie. This movie was quite reminiscent of them, and it was that feeling that I liked in the movie. Also the ending was quite well done.

The 70's kung fu craze that swept North American B movie theatres with the popularity of Bruce Lee reached its pinnacle with this movie. Following Lee's death there were many heirs presumptive that were supposed to take off as international kung fu stars, but never did. These include Bruce Li, Sonny Chiba, Jackie Chan (whose international popularity took hold many years later and in fact has surpassed Lee's in many ways), Chuck Norris, (who had inherent North American appeal, but lacked the mysticism surrounding Lee), and perhaps the most talented of them all, Jimmy Wang Yu.Wang Yu movies had elements of myth, magic, history and violence that has been touched on, but not equaled by Ang Lee's recent Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.Old all the Wang Yu movies, Beach of the War Gods comes together in a way that truly raised the genre to new heights. A Chinese general arrives in a coastal town to fend off a Japanese invasion. While based on an historical incident, the movie employs all the trademark fantastical elements of great kung fu films. The various leaders of the Chinese and Japanese forces have special powers and skills and these are the 'hard men' of movies before the term existed.The costumes and sets in Beach of the War Gods are something to marvel at. The fight scenes are seamless and bloody, and the pacing is enticing from beginning to end. While the characterizations are a bit thin, well..get with it..this is a kung fu movie, not Pride and Prejudice. All in all, a must-see for fans of the genre.