THE BRAVE ARCHER is the first of a four-part film series made by the Shaw Brothers studio as an adaptation of a Louis Cha novel of the 1950s. The films were directed by Chang Cheh and starred Alexander Fu Sheng as the eponymous hero who undergoes a massive journey, transforming from a put-upon youth to a brave hero by the end of the series. It's not for the faint of heart, either; this film doesn't really have much of a climax, instead merely setting up the sequel, and some of the characters introduced at the outset don't even appear yet. Watching it is a massive undertaking.I had no idea what to expect from this film, but the end result is a good one. It's not one of my favourite Shaw movies for a number of reasons, and chief of these is the action. There are some brief fight scenes here but they're heavily outweighed by the dense plotting, which throws a ton of information at the viewer constantly. It's not one of those movies which you can watch while distracted - you need your full attention just to keep up with what's being portrayed.A huge and complex cast adds to the depth of the thing, with each character representing a different faction and various rivalries and teamings up between them. The film is fine looking which you'd expect by Shaw standards, and eminently watchable. It's the constant flow of familiar faces that make this such a fun experience. Fu Sheng and Tien Niu are the couple at the centre of the tale and their romantic scenes come as a surprise given Cheh's usual sidelining of women in his films.Wang Lung Wei, Fan Mei Sheng, Chan Shen, and Danny Lee play various adversaries who come and go as the story progresses. Kara Hui has a small part but is breathlessly beautiful in it. Ku Feng is cast against type as a friendly beggar and Philip Kwok is almost unrecognisable beneath a huge grey wig. The other Venoms are here too: Chiang Sheng has unnamed cameos, Lu Feng is excellent in an early role, Wang Li appears, and Lo Meng is an ally who hangs around in the background a lot. Li Yi-Min is an arrogant prince. One of my favourite characters is Dick Wei, who has an important role early on in the proceedings. Treat THE BRAVE ARCHER not as a complete film but merely the first quarter of a bigger undertaking that's here to set up the story, similar to THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.

At the intro it drags a bit too long introducing a bit too many characters, being a little confusing at times. The number of characters showcased is rather more than in the 5 Deadly Venoms movie, while also being more boring. Overall it's a romantic movie with some decent kung fu in it and a couple of teachings. A lot of young people that are in schools think that memorizing useless crap won't do them any good, but that's wrong: it trains your memory. Without giving a spoiler, this movie will show a perfect example of that. It's worth about a 7 at most, but I gave it an 8 just to balance. There where some parts where the sound was just damn terrible, when of the characters kept playing some stupid "song" crap for probably 5 minutes, which messed up with my ears, that was a really bad decision but I think might have heard worse...

The opening introduction of the major players in this one takes some time, but it's all for the best: this is a LONG story, and there's a LOT of exposition to be done. (It helps that the version I saw had commentary by Brian Camp- whose martial arts movie reviews can be found here on the IMDb-, as he manages to flesh out a lot of what would otherwise be almost impossible-to-follow story.) When Alexander Fu Sheng's father and a friend agree to hide a severed head, it leads to both of them being killed and one of them being skinned (a Kung Fu manual has been tattooed on his back). (The "skin" is actually a piece of plastic, so there's very little in the way of gross-out fx.) Fu Sheng and his father's friend's son are separated and take very divergent paths (the other kid grows up rich, while Fu Sheng doesn't). At one point, Fu Sheng is attacked by a snake that's been fed gen sing for years and he bites it and inadvertently drinks its blood. This gives him super powers. He falls for a young lady who disguises herself as a beggar, thus giving the movie a rare romantic element that works out nicely. There are a lot of interesting characters throughout (more characters than you can shake a three-sectional staff at, in fact, including a blind woman who lives in a cave), but the fights, while good, are all much too brief. Chiang Sheng and Kuo Choi are both nigh unrecognizable and there's another character who peels off his face at one point only to reveal the same face underneath... The ending seems a bit rushed (which is nothing new for a martial arts movie), but there ARE several sequels.

BRAVE ARCHER (1977, aka KUNG FU WARLORDS) is a sprawling two-hour costume drama with a sprinkling of kung fu action staged on lavish sets at the Shaw Bros. studio, directed by Chang Cheh, and boasting an all-star cast. Adapted from celebrated novelist Louis Cha's "Legend of the Condor Heroes," it's packed with characters and incidents, many zipping across the screen with barely enough time to register before the next wave comes in.The central plot is hard to summarize, but has to do, initially, with two 18-year-old kung fu trainees, each of whom was raised apart from the other by different teachers, whose intent is to have the boys fight to determine which teachers were better. (The boys' fathers had been sworn brothers, but an attack by Chin troops, when the boys were infants, had left one father dead and the other in hiding.) This plot thread is dropped when one of the boys, Kuo Ching (Fu Sheng) meets a young girl, Yong (Tien Niu), whose father is a celebrated teacher whose disciple had been killed earlier in the film by Kuo in defense of his own teacher. Things get really complicated and involve families reuniting, priests, rival teachers, a two-part kung fu manual and a madman who knows the manual. It all comes down to a contest for the hand of Yong between Kuo and a rival suitor.Fu Sheng is cast in an appealing role and his romance with Yong (Tien Niu) is cute and endearing. That it lasts through the whole film, with a happy ending in store, is unusual for a kung fu film, most of which avoid romance entirely. There are lots of other interesting women characters, including one of Fu Sheng's teachers and a blind woman in a cave who teaches the other boy 'evil kung fu,' foreshadowing the character of Jade Fox in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000).The real joy for fans of these films is the star-spotting. In addition to Fu Sheng, there's Wang Lung Wei, who fights Fu on a tree limb near the end; Kuo Chui (one of the Five Venoms) as the madman in a gray fright wig who controls the key manuals and teaches what he knows to Fu Sheng; Ku Feng as Beggar Hong, another teacher; Lee Yi Min (THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING) as Fu Sheng's counterpart (who leaves the film too soon); Kara Hui Ying Hung as the kung fu-fighting adopted daughter of the surviving sworn brother; Tsai Hung as a blind teacher; and Danny Lee (THE KILLER) as Fu Sheng's rival for the girl. Also on hand are three of the other Venoms (Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng). Tien Niu, as Yong, is quite a remarkable young actress and a worthy match for the great Fu Sheng.It's all shot on magnificent studio sets and moves at a breathless pace. There are so many plot threads and so many characters that there's little time for any extended fights. Die-hard kung fu fans, for whom the film may be too plot- and character-driven, are better off with other films directed by Chang Cheh at the time, including THE CHINATOWN KID, made the same year and with many of the same stars, and the subsequent group of films starring the Five Venoms. For those who appreciate Shaw Bros. costume epics, however, this is a must-see, although good-quality copies are extremely rare at this time in the U.S.ADDENDUM (1/25/08): Since I first did this review back in 2001, BRAVE ARCHER has come out in a beautifully restored, remastered R3 DVD edition from Celestial Pictures/IVL, Hong Kong, as have all three of the BRAVE ARCHER sequels, all of which I've reviewed on this site as well. The length of the film on the DVD is 117 min., virtually identical to the running time of the taped-off TV broadcast version I watched for the initial review. The IMDb lists 127 min. as the running time, so I don't know if there's some elusive longer version out there somewhere or not, or if the 117-minute cut is the definitive one. It should be noted that not all of the Celestial DVD releases of Shaw Bros. titles are complete prints. ADDITIONAL ADDENDUM (11/3/10): Since the last addendum, Media Blasters released an R1 DVD edition of THE BRAVE ARCHER, with audio commentary by...yours truly.