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Richard James Havis

Adapting a novel for the big screen is always a challenge. This is especially true of books by martial arts novelist Louis Cha Leung-yung, better known as Jin Yong.
Cha’s multifaceted, multi-volume works, first serialised in newspapers including Ming Pao, are not only extremely long but have complicated plots involving many characters, scenarios and locations.
This is why his books have often been considered more suitable for television adaptations – of which there are numerous examples in Hong Kong and mainland China – as they can be long enough to represent the entire arc of a story.
When Cha’s works have been successfully adapted for film, these have generally taken a single storyline from a book.

The story in Tsui Hark and Tony Ching Siu-tung’s classic Swordsman II, for instance, is taken from the novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer – but the tale that Tsui tells is based on just 12 pages of the book.
Tsui recently directed Legends of the Condor Heroes: the Gallants, a film based on seven chapters of Cha’s 1959 book The Legend of the Condor Heroes.
So why, when Chang Cheh adapted the same book to make The Brave Archer film series, did the legendary martial arts film director try to cram in as much as he could?
The narrative density of the first three “official” films in the series and a further two “unofficial” ones, the second of which was directed by Hua Shan, has confused the most forgiving of viewers.


“There was too much crammed into the first Brave Archer film,” notes Hong Kong-born film historian Frank Djeng. “That film alone could have easily have been two or three movies.”
The continually changing cast of the film series added to the confusion. The key character of Huang Rong, played by Tien Niu in part one, is played by Niu Niu (no relation) in parts two and three, and other actors confusingly swap between characters as the series progresses.
The most bewildering casting decision occurs in part four, The Brave Archer and his Mate. “The fourth film is really where confusion sets in for viewers not familiar with the book, due to its bizarre casting,” says Djeng.
Alexander Fu Sheng, a protégé of Chang who played the hero Guo Jing in the first three films, plays a completely different character, Djeng notes, while, inexplicably, Guo Jing is played by Philip Kwok Chun-fung – who played the character Zhou Botong in the first three films.

Directors of films adapted from Hong Kong novels often assume viewers have read the books they are based on and so feel they can take such liberties without losing the audience.
Because they assume the audience knows the story, they leave parts of it out and focus on the action which, they feel, is what audiences really want to see.
Chang, however, wanted to film the book as closely as he could out of respect for its author. He knew Cha personally, and the two men reportedly got on well.
The idea of filming The Brave Archer came not from studio boss Run Run Shaw – Chang was one of the few directors with real power at the Shaw Brothers studio – but from a conversation Chang had with Cha in the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel.
The book had been filmed in 1958 as the two-part Story of the Vulture Conqueror, and Chang and Cha felt it was due for a remake. Chang wanted to do the book justice and be true to the story, he said, and that was why he crammed so much in.

However, even though the first three films in the series are around 30 minutes longer than most Shaw Brothers films – which lasted around 90 minutes so that cinemas could maximise daily screenings – much of the footage he shot for the first, 1977’s The Brave Archer, went unused. That may account for some of the confusion.
“It’s hard to make it just right,” Chang told Southern Screen, a Shaw Brothers publication, according to Terrence J. Brady’s biography of Fu. “For the first episode of The Brave Archer I approved 18,000 feet of shots. But a few thousand feet were snipped as we had to fit it into the show times of the cinemas.
“This makes some scenes look hasty or lacking.”
In this first instalment, Fu’s portrayal of Guo Jing is much different to Chang’s typical heroic yang gang (macho) types, and even to the young “brat” characters in the director’s Shaolin kung fu cycle.


Guo is portrayed as a clueless character who has a lot to learn. Chang rarely gave female performers impressive roles, but here Tien Niu proves to be a martial arts master.
The film’s pace is slower than that of most Chang films, and Ni Kuang’s script leaves room for true romance and lengthy conversations. There is even a dream sequence in a peach forest which is more like something out of director Chor Yuen’s magical swordplay films than Chang’s hard-hitting movies.
By the time The Brave Archer 2 was released in 1978, Fu had achieved major stardom for his role in The Chinatown Kid. But he was still one of many in this sprawling, confusing yet enjoyable film, which picks up directly where part one left off.
Chang spends time depicting the mystical kung fu techniques of the novel, and although that was not his forte, it makes for excellent entertainment. An unusual pole fight provides one of the film’s many watchable moments.


The Brave Archer 3 (1981) came with good ideas, such as a scene with boiling quicksand, while trickery, puzzles and riddles add fun to the plot. Martial arts legend Ti Lung, who was credited in the 1977 film, finally appears as a prince turned monk and adds some gravitas.
In hindsight, some people put the films’ flaws down to the overall decline in the quality of Chang’s filmmaking after he returned to Hong Kong from a spell in Taiwan working under the banner of Chang’s Film Company.
“He returned to Hong Kong and Shaw’s in 1977 and released a string of films in the years that followed, including his adaptations of Jin Yong’s novels,” wrote critic Sek Kei. “However, he was past his peak and the films are largely contractual obligations.”
Djeng notes that, in spite of their flaws, “all the films are highly entertaining”.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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Niu Niu as Huang Rong and Alexander Fu Sheng as Guo Jing in a still from The Brave Archer 3.

Alexander Fu Sheng in a still from The Brave Archer. Chang Cheh’s 1977 film adaptation of Louis Cha’s novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes was the first in a series marked by plotting so dense as to make them confusing.

A still from The Brave Archer (1977), adapted from a book by Louis Cha.

Philip Kwok (centre) as Zhou Botong in a still from The Brave Archer 3 (1981).

Alexander Fu Sheng (front, left) in a still from The Brave Archer (1977).

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A still from Dr Wai in the Scripture with No Words, starring Jet Li (centre).

Film director Tony Ching Siu-tung, pictured in 1999. From a film starring Kelly Chen and Donnie Yen to an Indiana Jones rip-off with Jet Li, we look at four less well known films he directed. Photo: SCMP

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Zhang Yimou (left) and Gong Li in a still from A Terra-Cotta Warrior.

(From left) Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung and Jet Li in a still from Dr Wai in the Scripture with No Words.

Donnie Yen and Kelly Chen in a still from An Empress and the Warriors.

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Eric Tsang (centre) and Nicholas Tse in a still from Riley Ip’s 1999 film Metade Fumaca, one of five he made around the turn of the century.

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Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Lavender (2000).

Ip (left) talks to his stars Kaneshiro and Kelly Chen on the set of Lavender.

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Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin in a still from Just One Look (2002).

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Cheng Pei-pei (left) and Yueh Hua in a still from Dragon Swamp (1969).

(From left) Wang Chung, Ching Li and Yueh Hua in a still from The Web of Death (1976), one of several Chinese fantasy wuxia films to feature weird monsters. 

Angela Yu Chien and Lo Lieh in a still from The Web of Death (1976).

Yueh Hua (left) and Derek Yee Tung-sing in a still from Black Lizard (1981).

Lee Ga-sai in a still from The Devil’s Mirror (1972).

Cheng Pei-pei in a still from Dragon Swamp (1969).

Kung fu queen Angela Mao’s unusual turn in Broken Oath, a remake of Japan’s Lady Snowblood

Angela Mao in a still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Angela Mao in a still from Broken Oath, in which she plays a Qing dynasty assassin, one of her greatest performances. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

A still from Broken Oath. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

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Hong Kong filmmaker Chang Cheh wanted to do justice to Louis Cha’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes. But his trilogy is dense and confusing


Hong Kong filmmaker Chang Cheh wanted to do justice to Louis Cha’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes. But his trilogy is dense and confusing.
