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The Lizard
(1972)
Director:
Chor Yuen
Cast: Connie Chan, Yueh Hua, Lo
Lieh
Publisher:
Celestial/IVL; Format: VCD and DVD
English subtitles: Yes
Full credits and synposis from the HKFA online catalog
I’ll Get
You One Day (1970)
Director:
Chan Lit-ban
Cast: Connie Chan, Nancy Sit, Tsang
Kong
Publisher:
Universe; Format: VCD
English subtitles: No
Full credits and synposis from the HKFA online catalog
YouTube
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YouTube
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YouTube
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The Lizard was Connie
Chan’s final farewell to the silver screen before she retired
in 1972. It is ironic that the last film of Cantonese cinema’s
most beloved superstar was a Mandarin-language production from
the Shaw Brothers, the studio goliath whose big-budget spectacles
made even the most expensive Cantonese productions pale in comparison.
The film’s director was Chor Yuen, who had made some of Connie’s
best films during the 60s (The Black
Rose; Opposite
Love; Young,
Pregnant and Unmarried). But a lot had changed since then: Chor
had joined the Shaw Brothers during the brief collapse of Cantonese
film production in the early 70s. At Shaw Brothers, he had bigger
budgets, better equipment, larger sets, and more extras than ever before.
The Lizard certainly benefits from all of these luxuries, and it
is a well-crafted film, but it doesn’t quite possess the zest and zip
of Connie’s Cantonese films (even though Connie does make some of her
usual funny faces, like sticking out her tongue).
But what The Lizard lacks in funk,
it compensates with martial mayhem. Energetic and complex,
the fight scenes are definitely the film’s main attraction.
And Connie gets plenty of opportunity to show her stuff, thanks to
action choreographers Yuen Woo-ping and younger brother Yuen Cheung-yan.
It’s a revelation to witness the early work of the Yuen brothers, and
even more surprising to discover that they had previously worked with
Connie in 1967—as extras in
Lady Black Cat Strikes Again!
Yet while watching The Lizard, I couldn’t
help thinking that it wasn’t quite as good as Connie’s other action
films. Perhaps it was just a case of sour grapes, a bemoaning of
the fact that the video releases of Connie’s Cantonese films don’t
look as good as this one. But shouldn’t I be grateful? After all, this
is the only Connie Chan film that has been
digitally restored and released in its original aspect ratio with
English subtitles. However, what’s sad—and again ironic—is that it
will probably be the only one of her films to receive such dignified
treatment. Many of her earlier and better films are thankfully
available, but often times only on VCD, frequently with missing
scenes, and almost always without English subtitles. Don’t get
me wrong: The Lizard is a great movie. But I believe that another
one of Connie’s final films, made two years earlier just before she left
Hong Kong to go to school in the United States, is a more fitting farewell
from Hong Kong cinema’s top idol and action hero.
I’ll Get You One Day
is the final collaboration between director Chan Lit-ban
and Connie Chan. The two first worked together when she was
just 15 years old on New Tale of the Flying Crane in
1962. Over the next eight years, he would direct Connie in 26 films,
among which are some of her greatest swordplay and action films.
Chan Lit-ban first started off at MP&GI, where he was assistant
director on such classics as The Wild, Wild
Rose and The Greatest Civil War on Earth. But it wasn’t
until he joined Sin Hok Kong Luen that he started making his mark
as one of the great innovators of martial-arts cinema with his three-
and four-part adaptations of popular wuxia novels. His films, such as
The Six-Fingered Lord of
the Lute and Paragon
of Sword and Knife were known for their intricate plots,
inventive effects, and complex action choreography.
Chan Lit-ban
made only two modern-day action movies (the other was the excellent
She Is Our Senior), but he made them with
same flair shown in his swordplay films. I’ll Get You One Day
is an outstanding crime thriller—with five musical numbers thrown
in for good measure! In other words, it’s a fairly typical
Connie Chan film, much more so than The Lizard. The first three songs
come one after another in gentle psychedelic waves, starting
off in a real nightclub setting and ending in a fantasy wonderland.
Later, another song comes totally out of left field during a sequence
where Connie disguises herself as a tough guy and infiltrates a
gang of crooks in order to rescue the kidnapped Nancy Sit. After the
thugs and their gals collapse on the floor of their pad, stoned and
epileptic from taking booze and pills, Connie and Nancy suddenly break
into a funky song and dance routine. Why? I say, why not!
Connie is no Grace Chang when
it comes to dancing. She is much more graceful when she’s
kicking butt. And she does that aplenty. It’s a good sign
that I’ll Get You One Day starts off with
Connie, a judo instructor, flipping her students to the mat one
after another in quick succession. Throughout the rest of the
movie, we are treated to a series of tautly choreographed fights
by action maestro Lau Kar-leung. The film’s finale is an amazing
chase-and-fight, starting in the streets before moving into a
stranger’s house and ending up in the ruins of an abandoned village.
Here we can see the use of constructive editing (rather than long, single
takes) and the movement of combat through a variety of environments that
would become hallmarks of Hong Kong action cinema.
While I prefer the funk of I’ll Get
You One Day to the polish of The Lizard, both films are
undeniable proof that Connie Chan was Hong Kong cinema’s premiere
female action star.
Reviewed by Dave
Wells
NOTE: The
DVD of The Lizard includes the original movie
trailer, which features footage of Connie
greeting her fans outside the Shaw Brothers studio. |
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Images above:
from The Lizard.
Images below: from I’ll
Get You One Day.
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