A fun filled pantomime from the Shaw Brothers – with super extending legs that can deliver a kick from a distance, dwarfs that squirt Alien-like acid puss from their spots and pet dragons…
Buddha’s Palm can make baffling viewing for the uninitiated, rushing along at break neck speed. Ku Han-hun (Alex Man Chi-leung) – upon finding his master near-death after locking himself away in the hall of a Thousand Buddha’s learning its secrets – decides to carry out his revenge against the entire kung fu community. He does a pretty good job, using his masters Buddha’s Palm technique – a style that amounts to a holding a martial art stance while animated palms and swastikas (in their original Buddhist context) emanate from his hands.
In fact only four clan heads can withstand this self-christened ‘Evil Fire God’s’ power: Lui Piao-piao (Chen Szu-chia) – the ‘Nine Roped Rings’; Pi Li Shen-chun (Lung Tien-chiang) – the ‘Thunderbolt Devil’; Sun- Pi-ling (Shaw Yin-yin) – the ‘Unpredictable Dashing Ring’; and Wai Chein Tien-chun (Sek Kin, Enter the Dragon, A Better Tomorrow 3) – the ‘Heavenly Foot.’ After a terrible battle at Tianshan the four held fast against Han-hun, and left him for dead. And that’s just the opening credits.
The story then picks up twenty years later when Lung Chien-Fei (Derek Yee, Death Duel) stumbles, or rather lands in Ku Han-Hun’s hiding place. Blinded by that battle, an overly friendly pet dragon his only companion, it’s safe to say the last vestiges of his sanity have definitely left the building. Ku offers Lung the chance to learn the Buddha’s Palm if he can retrieve the Golden Dragon’s egg. Successful, he also claims the Golden Dragon’s dagger – a spitting image of a lightsabre, a newly trained Lung sets out on a path that crosses each of Ku’s old foes.
He also saves the sword fighting sisters Chu Yu-hua (Yu An-an) and Chu Yu-chan (Hui Ying-hung), the later of which is the mirror image Lung’s ex-fiancé Ming Ying, from the monsters of the Left Mountain. Annoying minstrels who use their instruments like sirens against even the most powerful warriors. No fear, one strike with the dragon’s dagger leaves their cloaks empty (yes, just like Obi Wan when struck by Darth Vader).
Is their master, Sun Pi-Ling, grateful for this intervention? No, of course not. She traps him in a complex prison, completely surrounded by spikes before the girls risk all to help him. Meanwhile, Wai Chein, the ‘Heavenly Foot’, is using his massively extending limb to put the boot in on the other clans. He even has a dwarf and giant henchmen duo, the former of which shoots out acid melting puss, rather like the blood in Alien, from a very unsightly bit of acne. It’s time for Han-hun to come out of his self-imposed exile and sort this mess out.
The story of the Buddha’s Palm, based on a novel called Palm of a Thousand Buddha’s, was originally brought to the screen in the mid-60s as an extremely popular series of films when Cantonese language movies ruled the Hong Kong box office. Just about at the time the Shaw Brothers studio who produced this version, with their lavish production values in comparison, started to take over with Mandarin language films.
Director Taylor Wong makes more than a deliberate nod, not only to the original series – Sek Kin virtually reprises his role from the last sequel, The Furious Buddha’s Palm in 1965 – but also to the passing of time from their original release. Taylor counts on fond memories of the series from that time and their subsequent showing on Hong Kong’s terrestrial television in the 70s. The result is sequel cum remake, a franchise remodelled for the 1980s, neatly allowing the Shaw Brothers studio to take ownership of it. There’s direct reference to Hollywood fantasy output of the time, particularly Star Wars, Alien and Superman. (The opening titles even make reference to a comic book version of the story.)
In some respects Taylor Wong could almost be seen as part of the new wave that included Tsui Hark, Ching Siu-tung and Patrick Tam. Just like them, he had a strong background in television, where he’d worked previously with Alex Man, before embarking on a cinema career. He even pre-empted the trend for remaking classic movies that Hark himself undertook in the nineties directing or producing gritty takes on One-Armed Swordsman, Dragon Inn and Burning of the Red Lotus Temple. Buddha’s Palm, however, is not by any means gritty.
Though it attempts to bring spectacular effects of Hollywood movies to Hong Kong much like Hark’s Zu: the Warriors of Magic Mountain, which came out within a year, it suffers greatly from being laden with Shaw Brothers increasingly shorthand narrative – or excuse for it. The result is a series of set pieces rather than any sort of running story, so that more conflicts can be packed in. Mindful of this, each character is introduced with their name on-screen, rather like a comic book – a device often used since the mid-70s which exposed the pulpy source material of the film.
Completely studio-based with no sign of the outside world beyond the opening credits, Buddha’s Palm becomes more of a filmed pantomime. The pet dragon is rather obviously played by two men in a suit. There’s even a little chime theme and a call of “Pi Ku of East Island is here” whenever the character, played by Lo Lieh, appears. Compared to the inspired lunacy of Hark’s Zu or Siu-ting’s Duel to the Death, Palm seems both out of date and most definitely out of step with it’s audience – like most of Shaw Brothers output at this time.
Perhaps the comparison isn’t exactly fair. Buddha’s Palm is by no means a classic, but taken at face value it can be a hell of a lot of fun. The film looks pretty good despite their budgetary constraints, the palm effect neatly updated for the 80s. (Though the restoration job by Celestial Pictures has no doubt helped.) It’s more inspired moments of creativity – often bizarrely referencing Hollywood films of that time – make up for much of the poor storytelling. Sek Kin, best remembered in the West as the bad guy in Enter the Dragon though he was arch villain in hundreds of Hong Kong films from the 50s and 60s, plays his role with delirious camp – even though the film has more ham than a butcher’s. It doesn’t even completely follow the SB formula. For instance, the complete absence of nudity that by this time was nearly obligatory in all their movies. But was Taylor Wong aiming to create something different, or just recapture those more innocent times?
Wong later went on to much greater success when he worked with Chow Yun-fat on several films, including Spiritual Love, Rich and Famous, its sequel Tragic Hero – which was released first, and Triads: the Inside Story.
DVD details
Distributor: IVL (Hong Kong)
Once again, it's another great restoration job by Celestial Pictures that has this film looking better than it probably did on it's original release. There are stills and behind the scenes shots, but this entry is more than a little light on extras.
