Story of the Vulture Conqueror (Parts One &Two)

Dir: Wu Pang
Scrs: Miu Ching (Part One) / Yu Fei (Part Two)
Orig story: Jin Yong's The Eagle Shooting Heroes
Prod Co: Emei
Cast: Hsia Moon, Ping Fan, Jiang Ming, Su Qin, Betty Loh Ti
1958-59 / B&W / D Beta / Cantonese / 97 min (Part One) / 101 min (Part Two)
* Intermission of 10 minutes between Parts One & Two

History was made in the making of this two-part film. It's the first cinematic adaptation of Jin Yong literature. Emei, a fledgling company which went on to specialise in wuxia films, recognised the potential of Jin's The Eagle Shooting Heroes , making this diptych its inaugural productions and spending a considerable fortune to acquire the novel's rights while it was still in newspaper serialisation. The films were actually completed before the serialisation run was over, covering only about 60% of the story. The plot remains largely faithful to Jin's original, beginning with the introduction of the major male characters' parents and ending with the hero avenging his father's killing. Wu Pang, resident director of the popular series featuring the kung fu master Wong Fei-hung, blends the moral simplicity of the Wong franchise with the new-school sensibilities of Jin's novel, making the film readily accessible to the audience of 1950s Cantonese cinema. He also stages action sequences with the physical choreography typical of the Wong films, mounting demonstrative displays of punches, kicks and weapons instead of trying to realise the high-flying, fantastical dynamism in Jin's novels. Also of interest is the films' dialogue, which adjusts Jin's literary words to the everyday Cantonese of Hong Kong.

日期日期 Date	時間时间 Time	地點地点 Venue
1/7/2017 （Sat） ^	2:30pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

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