Constable) sets out into the countryside and discovers some clues near an abandoned temple. However, he also starts losing his men to adversaries who at- tack in the dark of night and also faces competition from fellow law- man Fan Jin-peng (HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD’s Jason Pai Piao), who lacks Leng’s dedi- cation to duty and is merely in- terested in grabbing the gold for himself. The bandit leader Fang Feng-jia (Ku Feng) may prove to be Leng’s match but, even if the constable does prevail over him, another, seemingly incon- ceivable, obstacle is in his path. A very intriguing and exciting contrast to the kind of period kung fu fare being produced by Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung for Shaw Brothers during this period, KILLER CONSTABLE is fashioned more along the lines of a horror movie. Director Kuei Chih-hung (THE KILLER SNAKES, THE BOXER’S OMEN) stages some of the swordfights in semi- darkness and most of the action unfolds in ruined, smoky locales and black, gnarled forests, all rendered with exquisite detail. The tone is also much grimmer and the swordplay (co-directed by a Japanese action choreogra- pher) is less stylized and more savage than the norm. The at- mosphere is thick with impend- ing death; Leng (played by Chen with his customary presence and authority) spends much of the film on the verge of dying from his wounds and even the weather is against him. A scene where Leng and Fang must pretend to be old friends, so that the latter’s blind, delicate daughter (Yu Tsui-ling) will not know what is really transpiring, must have been the inspiration for an ex- tremely similar sequence seen nine years later in John Woo’s THE KILLER. Also worthy of note is that the hero is a Manchurian,
66
almost always the villains in these films. While Leng is hardly an admirable figure from a moral standpoint, the few Hans seen here are little more than thieves and helpless victims. Veteran Walter Cho Tat-wah co- stars as the high ranking offi- cial tasked by the Empress Dowager with finding the gold, and other cast members include Yuen Wah (as Cho’s deadly as- sistant), Donald Kong To, Dick Wei, and Ha Ping.
Converted from PAL (95m 24s at 24 fps), the 2.35:1 im- age is colorful and fairly well- detailed, but softish. As is almost always the case with Celestial, the standards conver- sion has been done in second- rate fashion, causing intermittent instability; it’s not greatly distract- ing, but was clearly avoidable. That said, the properly framed presentation is still leagues above the wretched, center-cropped En- glish dub released on tape by Master Arts under the thoroughly inappropriate title, LIGHTNING KUNG FU. The post-synced Man- darin mono track has no notable problems. English and Tradi- tional Chinese subtitles are in- cluded, along with the original theatrical trailer (worn but wel- come), video promo spots, some bios, and a still gallery.
THE SAVAGE HUNT OF KING STACH
Dikaya okhota korolya Stakha 1979, Ruscico/
PeterShop.com, DD-5.1 & 2.0/MA/+, €13.99, 105m 1s, DVD-0 By Tim Lucas
In a 12m interview supple- ment, director Valery Rubinchik says that it was not his intention to make a horror film with this adaptation of a novel by Vladimir Korotkovich, but rather a realist film that was receptive to the fears and mysteries inherent in
life. Regardless of his ambitions, and indeed the ultimate disclo- sures of the story, this Soviet-era Russian production pushes most of the same buttons as the best horror cinema. Boris Plotnikov stars as Bielarecki, a young eth- nographer who, at the end of the 19th century, requests the hos- pitality of Marsh Firs, an isolated castle in the Northwest marsh- lands, while he conducts re- search into the myths and legends of the region. He dis- covers from the castle’s young and tragic owner, Nadzieja Jankowska (Yelena Dimotrova), that the place is haunted by two ghosts—the Little Man of Marsh Firs and the Lady in Blue—and that her family line was accursed centuries ago when ancestor Roman Jankowska denied the hand of his daughter to King Stach, whose ghost rides with those of thirteen horsemen to drag Jankowska offspring and their servants to death in the surrounding marshes. Meta- physical notes are introduced by the reclusive Nadzieja’s feel- ing that she has met her visitor before, which causes him to won- der if he might be one of the castle ghosts himself. A rare example of post-VIY Russian dark fantastyka, this winner of numerous interna- tional film festival prizes could be described as THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS meets TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, with grace notes of THE HOUND OF THE BAS- KERVILLES, LISA AND THE DEVIL and DON’T LOOK NOW. It sticks in the memory on the strength of various unsettling or poetical images: Bielarecki spy- ing on his hostess, supine and frontally nude, as an old incan- tation-babbling crone covers her in a literal feather bed; a crazed widow waving from a passing carriage; a dwarf pursued to his
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