#Beach of the war gods 1973 movie#
#Beach of the war gods 1973 series#

Then-boom!-the battle begins and lasts till the end of the film! The humble villagers we've met earlier are all now skilled uniformed fighters taking on hardened Japanese swordsmen with a range of sophisticated tactics. After a simple setup, Wang Yu and company gather and prepare for battle. This one, in particular, explicitly recalls Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI.) The film could have used more buildup to the main battle, more training scenes, and more character development. (Interestingly, Wang Yu often made kung fu films with anti-Japanese themes, yet his films often reflected the influence of Japanese samurai films. The swordfights are reminiscent of those found in Japanese samurai films, but with more action and vigor. It all leads quickly to a massive battle in the town streets. One of the fighters is an expert knife thrower and comes with his own arsenal.

#Beach of the war gods 1973 movie#

The disc also includes an in-depth appreciation of the work of Jimmy Wang Yu by critic and movie historian Tony Rayns and also a rare and welcome interview with Wang Yu filmed in 2001 in France.īEACH OF THE WAR GODS is released on Blu-ray by Eureka on October 23rd.In BEACH OF THE WAR GODS, an action-packed Hong Kong swordplay adventure from 1973, Jimmy Wang Yu rallies three fighters to help lead the men of a Chinese beach town in battle against the invading Japanese.

The trailer for the film makes much of the fact that it has an all-male cast, and it’s true that there are no women seen from beginning to end. There are some pretty strong anti-Japanese sensibilities voiced in this film in common with Chinese cinema of that era that can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable in the 21st century. He decides to establish himself as the village’s protector and begins to enlist an impressive bunch of mercenary fighters to join him in his fight against the pirates and also trains the villagers into a formidable fighting force who stand up against their enemy in an impressive and lengthy battle that takes up the second half of the film.īeach of the War Gods is presented in its Chinese version with English subtitles and also in a dubbed English version – the dialogue is perfunctory at best and never intrudes upon the spectacular martial arts action, which is what the movie is all about when all said and done. Wang Yu swiftly assesses the situation the meek villagers find themselves in, and when some of them are threatened by seven of the pirates in the village square, he dispatches them all in the blink of an eye, revealing himself to be no slouch with bladed weapons himself. It is at this point that we witness the arrival of a mysterious stranger walking towards the village along the bleak beach of the title this is Hsia Feng, played by Wang Yu, who also impressively directs this thunderous action opus. The movie opens in 1556 when a small coastal village is under constant attack from a vicious army of Japanese pirates led by a particularly nasty individual who happens to be a feared master swordsman.

This is the case with 1973’s Beach of the War Gods, a thrilling and well-made drama that looks better on this Eureka Blu-ray release than it has ever done before to Western audiences.

#Beach of the war gods 1973 series#

Prior to the arrival of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong in 1971, the most popular Asian action star was the mercurial Jimmy Wang Yu, who thrilled Eastern audiences with a series of rousing and violent pseudo-epics set for the most part in China’s brutal past with many of them pitting the hero against Japanese invaders.