Last Hurrah for Chivalry

When Kong's Lau's marriage is interrupted by Hoi Sang Lee for revenge -- Kong's father had stolen the villa from him -- Kong befriends Pai Wei, a notable fighter with no friends, who offers to go kill Kong's enemy. Damian Lau, a hard-drinking wanderer joins him on his quest.

It's all of John Woo's operatic and balletic techniques, and a story about professional honor among hitmen, applied to Wuxia, except for the bit where the hero rolls over firing two handguns simultaneously. I got the impression that Woo didn't really believe in what he was doing; he had been directing for about five years at this time, and had recently switched from the Shaw Brothers to Raymond Chow as his producer. Although there's lots of humor in the movie, including a "Sleeping Wizard" who fights in his sleep, this one, while worth looking at -- what John Woo movie isn't? -- is one of those movies that tries to move its genre tropes outside of its usual settings, and winds up awkward for that.

I am a kung fu fan, but not a Woo fan. I have no interest in gangster movies filled with over-the-top gun-play. Now, martial arts; *that's* beautiful! And John Woo surprised me here by producing a highly entertaining kung fu movie, which almost has *too much* fighting, if such a thing is possible! This is good stuff.

Many of the fight scenes are very good (and some of them are less good), and the main characters are amusing and likable. The bad guys are a bit too unbelievably evil, but entertaining none the less. You gotta see the Sleeping Wizard!! He can only fight when he's asleep - it's hysterical!

Upon repeated viewings, however, Last Hurrah For Chivalry can tend to get a little boring and long-winded, also especially because many of the fight scenes are actually not that good. Hence, I rate it "only" a 7 out of 10. But it really is almost an "8".

All in all one of the better kung fu movies, made smack-dab in the heart of kung fu cinema's prime. All the really good kung fu movies are from the mid- to late 1970ies, with some notable exceptions from the late '60ies and early '70ies (and early '80ies, to be fair).

This is one of my favourite martial arts movies from Hong Kong. It is one of John Woo's earliest films and one of only a few traditional martial arts movies he directed. You can see his influences from working under Chang Cheh in this film. The action is good, the fight choreography is conducted by Fong Hak On who appears as one of the bad guys in the movie. It stars Wei Pei of "Five Venoms" fame and a whole host of faces familiar to fans of Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers productions. The story line is interesting, there are a few decent plot twists and the build up of the characters and their relationships with each other is cleverly done. This film has only had a VHS release in the UK. Media Asia have released a region 3 DVD and there are versions of it on DVD available from the USA. The film is lovely to watch in either it's original language or in it's English dubbed version. I highly recommend this movie.

The pros of this film are the astonishing fighting scenes - absolutely incredible sword-moves and martial art show off. A true John Woo masterpiece. The story tends to be a bit week though, but it never overshadows the overwhelming display of acrobatic martial art action. If you are into martial art movies, you are going to LOVE this one!

LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY is an engaging Golden Harvest swordplay adventure and early film in the career of John Woo, who gets a chance to explore the themes of brotherhood and loyalty that would later pop up in his heroic bloodshed movies. This one begins with a wedding which turns red in a gruesome fashion with a huge betrayal. We then cut to some time later, where a survivor is looking for revenge and hires a couple of swordsmen to help him out. The story is packed with swordplay from beginning to end and the choreography is very good indeed. There's a pretty big cast with multiple characters, all of whom follow their own motivations, so there's plenty going on even when they're not fighting. Fun stuff.