Film / Slaughter in Xi'an

The poster gives away the best part of the movie.

Slaughter In Xi'an is a 1990 martial arts action movie directed by Shaw Brothers' Chang Cheh, notably Chang's version of a John Woo-style action flick about blood brothers and a morally ambiguous protagonist against mobsters, combining Chang's usual Wuxia trademarks with elements seen in Heroic Bloodshed cinema.

Set in 1924, Xi'an, China, a thief turned Chinese opera performer, Ma Teng-yun befriends a supercop, Ho Yuen-hsing. When a delivery of machine guns is stolen by the corrupt local police, working in cahoots with the Qu family mob which controls Xi'an, the police tries to get rid of Ho Yuen-hsing, the only lawful officer in the force, while pinning the blame on Ma Teng-yun. With one conspiracy after another popping up and Yuen-hsing realizing the people closest to him are in danger, he will have to take matters into his own hands and confront the Qu criminal empire, led by its ruthless kingpin Lord Qu and his sons, the sadistic Qu Dai-tong and the subservient Qu Hsiao-tong.

So, a film whose poster features a giant-ass heavy Lewis Machine Gun, with the word "slaughter" in its title, what do you think is going to happen?

The movie is often mistaken for being from the 70s or 80s, despite being released in 1990, due to it being a massive Genre Throwback hoping to invoke the "feel" of much older films from Shaw Brothers' classic era two decades earlier.

And if the main character, Ho Yuen-hsing, looks somewhat familiar, its because he's played by Chinese actor Tung Chi-wa, who plays the chubby tailor in Kung Fu Hustle 14 years later.

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Tropes found in this Film include:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Between all the action, shootout, fight scenes and murders, there’s also plenty of intimate moments between Siew-yi and Yuen-hsing, especially after Yuen-hsing declares his intention that his main priority is revenge, not romance.
• Age-Gap Romance: Invoked in the relationship between Siew-yi and Yuen-hsing. She confesses her love for him and she’s willing to wait for him no mattere what because she’s only 16; he replies that he’s 10 years older than her. But then again both characters looks older than they claimed their ages to be.
• Alliterative Title: Well, sorta. "X" is pronounced roughly the same way as "S"…
• Arrested for Heroism: Being a killing machine with a Code of Honour means you’re screwed either way. While Yuen-hsing may have survived the bloodbath after killing the entire Qu family triad empire, he knew the authorities will not let him go for the murders he’s committed even in the name of being a vigilante, as such he decides the best way is to turn himself over and be executed.
• Ass Shove: Part of Ma Teng-yun’s Undignified Death; getting a one-meter thin iron rod with a pointy tip shoved through his anus, all the way through until his insides are pierced, killing him slowly and painfully.
• Bald of Evil: Tang Zhan-kui, The Dragon and Disc-One Final Boss antagonizing Yuen-hsing.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Qu family crime empire, with Lord Qu as The Don, his sons Dai-tong (playing the Big Bad) and Hsiao-tong (as The Evil Genius) running his businesses, Tang Zhan-kui as The Dragon and the local Xi'an police led by Captain Ma being bribed under their payroll.
• Borrowed Without Permission: The movie has the film's policeman protagonist, Ho Yuan-Xing, "borrowing" a bicycle from a civilain while pursuing an escaped suspect, even asking "I'll need to borrow this, police business". What's even better is that Ho's subordinates actually holds down the bike's owner for him.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: In the climax, Yuen-hsing confronts a single mook (that is clad in the same black-and-white uniform much like the rest of the mooks) in a storeroom, and despite Yuen-hsing having the element of surprise and dropping on the mook from above, said mook retaliates rather brutally, taking hit after hit without any signs of stopping, and is finally taken down after Yuen-hsing kicks a knife through his gut. This mook, against all odds, actually puts up a more difficult fight than Tang Zhan-kui The Dragon.
• Chairman of the Brawl: The battle between Yuen-hsing and Zhan-kui in the illegal gambling den culminates into both combatants Dual Wielding benches and stools to bash each other with. Until Zhan-kui happens to see a halberd on display nearby…
• Chekhov's Gun: Chekhov’s Lewis Machine-Gun… the moment the Lewis Gun shows up right at the beginning of the film you’d know it would turn up somehow later in the film, and sure enough right in the climatic final battle Yuen-hsing manage to find it before the rest of Dai-tong’s minions and use it to kick a hundred shades of ass.
• Combat Pragmatist: In the one-on-one confrontation between Yuen-hsing and Captain Ma, the latter got his hands on some ropes and ties his knife to one point, using it as a flail. So Yuen-hsing responds by shooting Captain Ma from up close.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: In the scene where the coroner tries to investigate the circumstances behind Ma Teng-yun’s demise. When the coroner notes the amount of blood coming from the corpse’s anus, Dai-tong decides to bribe him into sealing his mouth shut.
  Coroner: "I don't know why, but it seems like there's a lot of blood leaking out of the dead man's anus."
  Dai-tong: (shoving five hundred bucks into the coroner’s pockets) "It must be the dead man having hemorrhaged in his dying spasms."
  Coroner: "Why yes sir, of course it is."
• Cowboy Cop: Yuan-hsing, in typical Heroic Bloodshed fashion.
• Darkened Building Shootout: Yuen-hsing and several policemen confronts Zhan-kui and a few mooks in a mansion after sunset, with every light out causing both sides to fire randomly hitting nothing.
• Duel to the Death: Between Yuen-hsing and Zhan-kui. Invoked between Yuen-hsing and Dai-tong, but Dai-tong’s mooks interrupts.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: This is an insanely violent movie with around 100 onscreen deaths, and it’s set entirely in the Chinese town of Xi'an.
• Fake-Out Opening: The opening scene is seemingly set in the present, where Yuan-hsing is shown kicking ass using a modern-day AK-47, while everyone present in the shootout is shown in khakhis, T-shirts, and jeans. Then after the opening titles, suddenly the film pulls back to the 1920s, the actual time period it was set.
• Frame-Up: Ma Teng-yun ends up being framed for being an informer, because of Dai-tong bribing the suspect as well as the entire police force.
• Genre Mashup: Part wuxia martial arts, part heroic bloodshed, with some romance thrown in.
• Good Is Not Soft: Yuen-hsing isn’t the nicest guy in the movie, and tends to be a loose cannon in the force, despite being The Hero.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Yeah, the execution of Ma is pretty disturbing, but at least it’s a Sound-Only Death where the film didn’t show its audience a man having a long piece of metal being inserted through his anus into his digestive tract.
• Hero Stole My Bike: During the arrest scene early on, Zhan-kui manage to give the police the slip and takes off on his motorcycle. Yuan-hsing immediately grabs a bystander’s bike to pursue, and his fellow police officers even help hold the bystander down!
• Hidden Supplies: Lord Qu hides pistols under his chairs, and the Lewis Gun under an antique table. Too bad he didn’t tell his sons where he hid the latter weapon…
• Illegal Gambling Den: The business Master Qu and his sons are running, which is also the same place where Yuan-hsing and Zhan-kui have their fateful confrontation.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • Ma Teng-yun, through the ass. Ouch.
  • Also Zhan-kui on a set of vertical wood banisters which are pointed on the top.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Yuan-hsing in the final shootout. He almost never misses, even when firing from a high window using Mausers at mooks on lower levels at least 500 meters away. The fact that Dai-tong’s mooks trained in the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy doesn’t help.
• Impromptu Tracheotomy: Wan’s fate, after Dai-tong decides to execute him by shoving a long, thin wire down his trachea, seemingly a reverse of Ma Teng-yun’s fate.
• Improvised Weapon: Yuan-hsing uses plenty of random objects in his fight scenes, including stools, tables, nets, and even a telephone to whack a mook out cold.
• It Works Better with Bullets: In the standoff between Yuan-hsing and Lord Qu, a moment of distraction allows Lord Qu to retrieve Yuan-hsing's mini-pistol from his belt, and pull the trigger from up close. Except Yuan-hsing had already used up all the rounds in that pistol, and is counting on Lord Qu to do exactly that. It gives Yuan-hsing the perfect excuse to blow Lord Qu’s brains out.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Yuen-hsing have a personal vendetta against Zhan-kui for being the instigator of the entire massacre which leaves much of his friends dead, but once Zhan-kui is killed the remaining 30 minutes of the film goes back to Yuen-hsing’s vendetta with Lord Qu and his gang.
• Knife Fight: One happens between Yuan-hsing and Captain Ma, before the climatic shootout. Captain Ma even manage to get his hands on some ropes and ties his knife by the handle, turning it into an improvised Epic Flail.
• Knows the Ropes: Ma Teng-yun tries making a run for it after the false arrest scene, only to get ambushed by Dai-tong’s mooks which are armed with ropes and nooses, which allows them to tie him up and put him through Unwilling Suspension.
• Leap and Fire: Yuen-hsing. While holding a Lewis Gun!
• Martyrdom Culture: Yuen-hsing appears to follow this by the end of the film, to the point where despite being given a chance to escape by his Superintendent, he still comes back a second time, which gets himself arrested and summarily executed.
• Mexican Standoff: It shows up here too in typical Heroic Bloodshed manner, with Yuen-hsing pointing guns at Dai-tong while a dozen mooks have their guns on Yuen-hsing.
• More Dakka: The moment Yuen-hsing gets hold of the Lewis Gun, he gets to have great fun with it firing away at mook after mook on full auto, for at least a minute onscreen.
• Mook Lieutenant: Some of Dai-tong’s mooks puts up a much better fight than the rest, such as the few who corners Yuen-hsing into an artificial stone cave, the one in the supply room which puts up hell of a fight, and the two Elite Mook assisting Dai-tong in the three-on-one fight.
• Never One Murder: Lord Qu and his sons, Dai-tong and Hsiao-tong, arranges to have literally everyone who knows about their illegal activities murdered, one by one, from ther car full of suspects to Ma Teng-yun’s execution and Dai-tong killing Wan. Of course, each time, they Make It Look Like an Accident.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • During the gambling den fight between Yuen-hsing and Zhan-kui, the latter manage to grab a halberd and swing it towards Yuen-hsing, only to miss and end up slicing off the top of a staircase’s wooden bannisters, leaving the structure as a row of spikes pointed upwards. Yuen-hsing then flips Zhan-kui ON the spikes.
  • In the final battle, Yuen-hsing is being beaten up by Dai-tong just as several mooks comes to reinforce their boss. Dai-tong decide to kick Yuen-hsing backwards, causing Yuen-hsing to roll underneath a table… and finding the Lewis Gun attached on the table’s bottom.
• Of Corpse He's Alive: Yuen-hsing have killed Lord Qu with the last bullet in his Mauser when Dai-tong and two Elite Mook bursts in, pistols trained on Yuen-hsing. Still holding the corpse, Yuen-hsing pretends to hold his weapon to Lord Qu’s temple threatening Dai-tong and his mooks to throw their guns out of the window. They reluctantly did just that, at which point Yuen-hsing reveals his gun is empty too, and he’s holding a dead body hostage the whole time. Cue epic 3-vs-1 fist fight.
• One-Man Army: Yuen-hsing, during his final Storming the Castle assault on the Qu criminal empire’s hideout, killing scores and scores of mooks in the process.
• Practice Target Overkill: In their first scene, Dai-tong and his minions receives the new Lewis Gun they purchased from America while in their outdoors shooting gallery filled with straw dummies, at which point Dai-tong decides to test its powers, instantly ripping a dozen of the dummies completely to shreds.
• Railing Kill: Happens several times in the final shootout. Especially when Yuan-hsing got his hands on the Lewis Gun and starts mowing down mooks in a balcony, resulting in a dozen dead mooks flipping over the adjacent railing.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: After killing Dai-tong and all 60-odd of Dai-tong’s minions in the final shootout, Yuen-hsing marches himself back to the police station, machine-gun in hand, and decides to turn himself over to the authorities for the murders he have committed. But Yuen-hsing’s Superintendent knew Yuen-hsing was being a vigilante and avenging his best friend, at which point the Superintendent responds by saying he won’t take arrests since he’s off duty. Subverted that Yuen-hsing still turns himself over to the authorities the next day, deciding to atone for the murders he have committed.
• Revenge Before Reason: Yuen-hsing will stop at NOTHING to tear Master Qu’s criminal empire apart the moment he learns their involvement with Ma Teng-yun’s excruciatingly humiliating death.
• Shot at Dawn: Yuen-hsing’s eventual fate, since being a cop his sense of duty will not allow him to escape the massacre, and ultimately, he ends up facing the firing squad. His execution happens over the end credits of the movie.
• Slashed Throat: The corrupt police lieutenant suffers this fate when Yuen-hsing pushes his head into the bladed part of a knife Yuen-hsing is holding, with the metal going through the throat.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The romance between Yuen-hsing and Siew-yi, which is doomed from the start because of Ho’s sense of duty, honour and responsibility. Namely, he doesn’t want her to end up romantically involved with a mass-murderer who had killed at least 60 people…
• Stop, or I Will Shoot!: Yuen-hsing tends to point his Mauser at anything that moves, even before shit gets real halfway through the film.
• Stylistic Suck: The movie comes out in 1990, but the film’s quality looks more like its from at least a decade earlier. This is because Chang Cheh wants to invoke the same feeling of Shaw Brothers’ older movies from its glory days, to the point of re-using the same cameras they used back from the 70s.
• The Mistress: Lord Qu turns out to have a mistress which looks about a quarter of his age. In the finale, while Yuen-hsing pretty much puts a bullet into literally everybody he sees, he only knocks the mistress out with a pistol whip.
• Too Dumb to Live: Lord Qu decides to keep the Lewis Gun in his private quarters, which is easy for him to use on intruders after him. Except for some reason, he kept it under a heavy antique table, tucked rather deeply inside to prevent intruders from finding it, which only makes it difficult for him to retrieve in case an intruder managed to sneak up on him (which is precisely what happens at the end of the film). For a crime lord that's a hilariously amateurish mistake.
• Vigilante Man: Yuan-hsing in the second half of the film, on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Qu criminal family.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Yuan-hsing gets his shirt cut up by Captain Ma, and after he killed Captain Ma, he ends up getting captured alive, where two mooks rips off his shirt to ensure he isn’t hiding any weapons. Its likely done on purpose to show off Yuan-hsing’s abs.
• White Shirt of Death: Enforced, in the final shootout most of Dai-tong’s mooks are clad in white coats, and they got splattered with blood in the various shootouts in the movie.
• Wuxia: Combining wuxia with Heroic Bloodshed.

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