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| Available at Amazon.com |
Like Westerns and Samurai films, when it comes to Martial Arts pictures you usually know what you’re going to get. The formulaic way the films are made is part of the reason we like them so much, because the familiarity with the stories serve to put us at ease while the action tries to exhilarate us. Human Lanterns, a Sun Chung film produced during the golden age at the Shaw Bros. studio tries to break that formula by adding in very effective Horror movie elements to his film, which ends up being the movie’s biggest asset but also its biggest letdown.
The movie centers around a feud between two wealthy socialites, always trying to desperately one-up each other in public, often resulting in high flying brawls between the two. The biggest point of contention between the adversaries is a local lantern festival, in which the two aristocrats, Tan Fu (Chen Kuan) and Lung (Lau Wing), annually vie for the best entry in the contest. Especially desperate to win this year, Lung hires a formal rival to make him the ultimate lantern, but the craftsman’s methods are less than savory. When women close to the two men keep disappearing, we learn the secret of the beautiful lanterns and the movie erupts in shattering violence.
On many levels, Human Lanterns is an interesting Shaw Bros experiment. Trying to do a crossover film with the Horror genre is a definite break from their usual formula, and on a lot of levels it works. The sequences where the women are stalked by a masked assailant are effectively creepy, and then further when we see the results of the villain’s work, its hard not to have your stomach churned, at least just a little bit. Even with the minimal gore effects used in this picture, you really get the full effect of what the film makers were trying to accomplish.
On the other hand, you still wish this movie was a Martial Arts film first, and a Horror film second. You never really get a sense as to why Fu and Lung hate each other so much, and you wish you’d get more full on Martial Arts action in the this movie, which feels like it comes farther between than it should, and when it does come its broken up by more Horror sequences. Yes, the shock scenes are good, but not really as well executed as say the Italian Horror masters of the era, and this is why it seems like both the Horror and the Martial Arts of the film are a little half hearted, instead of a full on exploration of both.
In the end, this is an entertaining film, but not nearly as great as some of the classics that the Shaws have given us before. This is a curious oddity, but far from a classic. Human Lanterns is as repulsive as it should be, but doesn’t do a good enough job exhilarating us in the way a Shaw Bros movie from this era should to really be anything but mediocre.
Good, but not great, the print on this film hasn’t had the restoration work that many of the Shaw Bros movies on the Dragon Dynasty label have had. Still, there’s no problems with watching this, it just doesn’t sparkle like it probably once did. Also, the film’s audio is somewhat cleaned up, but less than spectacular as well.
Shaw’s Baby Doll: An Interview with Shawn Yin Yin – This is a very interesting interview about the actress’ career, especially a section early on when an innocent trip to the Cannes Film Festival ended up with her being declared a Chinese spy. The actress has some other cool tidbits in this 14 minute interview.
“The Skin Peel Scene” Alternate Take – There is a scene in the movie where the villain actually skins a woman alive, and here is an alternate take. This one is not edited as well and is not nearly as effective.
Trailers – A ridiculous amount of trailers can be found on this disc.
While again, I can applaud the film makers here for trying to go out of the box, the results just aren’t as successful as they should be. The resultant film is a fun diversion, but little else can be said about it.
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Image presents Human Lanterns. Directed by Sun Chung. Starring Tony Liu, Kuan Tai Chen, Lieh Lo, Ni Tien. Written by Kuang Ni, Chung Sun. Running time: 95 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: Jun 10, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
About Robert Sutton
