Dir: Sun Chung
Scr: Ni Kuang
Orig Story: Jin Yong's The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
Prod Co: Shaw Brothers
Cast: Wang Yu, Shih Sze, Michael Chan Wai-man, Stanley Fung, Ling Wan
1978 / Colour / D Beta / Mandarin / Chi & Eng subtitles / 92min

 

Popularity of the  wuxia  genre was waning in the late 1970s when Shaw Brothers nabbed the rights to Jin Yong's immensely popular novel  The Smiling, Proud Wanderer . With a script by renowned novelist Ni Kuang, the story traces the eventful journey of Hua Mountain swordsman Linghu Chong (Wang Yu) as he is unwittingly dragged into an epic power struggle between clans, with complicated allegiances and perplexing moralities. This adaptation eliminates several characters from the lengthy novel, concentrating instead on a few major players, delving deeper into the cunning, horrific animations of greed and desire. Because Jin's work was banned in both the Mainland and Taiwan at the time for its supposed political references, director Sun Chung was forced to change the names of songs and characters in the film's Mandarin version to secure theatrical releases in some markets.