Fu Hung-hsueh in The Magic Blade (top), and Fu Hung-hsueh in A Warrior's Tragedy (bottom)
The Magic Blade is a 1976 Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Movie starring Ti Lung, the first of four films featuring the legendary, poncho-clad warrior, Fu Hung-hsueh (傅红雪), from the Gu-long novel series of the same name. Notably one of two film adaptations of Gu-long's novels starring Ti Lung (the other being Li the Flying Dagger from the The Sentimental Swordsman trilogy), the film plays out like a Western, but set in the Ming Dynasty (so... an Eastern?), featuring a mysterious wanderer and drifter who finds himself deep in a war for power during his travels.
Fu Hung-hsueh, once a powerful warrior who had renounced his ways of killing, uncovers a plot to overthrow the world of martial arts with a deadly weapon called the Peacock Scale. Fu has to track down said weapon, but he's not the only one who's interested in it's powers.
A year later, the sequel, Pursuit of Vengeance is released, this time with Fu uncovering a secret from his past. Forced into an alliance with two other killers from the martial arts world, Fu and his new allies are in for the battle of their lives.
The third and final movie, A Warrior's Tragedy, is released... 17 years later. It's the only movie of the series NOT produced or distributed by Shaw Brothers, and despite having Ti Lung portray Fu Hung-hsueh once more, most fans consider this third installment to be In Name Only.
Besides the trilogy, Fu Hung-hsueh's only other appearance in film is a cameo in an Intercontinuity Crossover in the Shaw Brothers film, Death Duel. note
The Fu Hung-hsueh series of films contains the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: In The Magic Blade, Lo Lieh plays Yen Nan-fai, the main villain who ends the movie choosing to kill himself after being defeated by Fu Hung-hsueh. In the sequel, Pursuit of Vengeance, Lo Lieh plays Lu Xiao-jia, a warrior seeking to challenge Fu Hung-hsueh to a battle... because he lose a fight against Fu in an offscreen duel between the events of the two movies. Talk about Casting Gag...
- Badass Crew: In the sequel, Fu Hung-hsueh forms a team of three with Ye-kai and Lu Xiao-jia, and all three of them ends the film fighting an entire army of mooks, killing everybody that gets in their way with ease.
- Badass Cape: Fu Hung-hsueh's poncho, which he's never seen without.
- Big Bad: Yen Nan-fei in The Magic Blade, Ma Kong-Qun in Pursuit of Vengeance.
- Blood from the Mouth: Many victims defeated by Fu Hung-hsueh will inevitably spill blood from the edge of their mouths. Notably the swordsman, Gu, from The Magic Blade, with the camera lingering on his face as he utters his Dying Curse while succumbing.
- Chain Pain: One fight scene in Pursuit of Vengeance has Fu Hung-hsueh being surrounded by Elite Mooks, armed with hidden dart launchers with chains attached, which they use to ambush and ensnare Fu and then entangle him with the chains. Fu managed to slip out of those chains (thanks to his poncho) where he then proceeds to slice apart those mooks as they try using their chains on him again.
- Chaste Hero: Fu Hung-hsueh has more than one woman trying to hook up with him in the first two movies, but he shoots down all their advances towards him. Even when the prostitute Moon Heart (from The Magic Blade) tries to seduce him (wearing what equals to lingerie in the Ming Dynasty), he doesn't even bat an eye.
- Clothing Damage: Fu Hung-hsueh's poncho gets shredded multiple times in the first two movies, and in Pursuit of Vengeance has Ye-kai having a trouser leg ripped off in the final battle. And in the same movie, the Duel to the Death between Fu Hung-hsueh and Lu Xiao-jia, since they're reluctant to kill each other after all they've been through, is instead changed into a contest where they slice up each other's pants. Yes, really.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite wearing black robes in a dark poncho in all three movies, Fu Hung-hsueh is the protagonist and hero of the trilogy.
- Determined Defeatist: Lu Xiao-jia from the second movie, a failed warrior defeated by Fu Hung-hsueh in the past, is actively seeking Fu for a rematch, despite learning how Fu has defeated Yen Nan-fei and his legion of expert killers, and witnessing Fu in battle where Fu is clearly leagues above him in terms of combat. Nevertheless, Lu Xiao-jia still wants a fight for his own reasons.
- Distant Sequel: Several decades have passed between Pursuit of Vengeance and A Warrior's Tragedy (16 years in real life), enough for Fu Hung-hsueh to go from a badass One-Man Army killing machine to a Retired Badass that have since lost most of his purpose in life due to being Lonely at the Top.
- The Drifter: Fu Hung-hsueh is a wanderer and vagabond, who spend his days aimlessly drifting all over the world of martial arts.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Fu Hung-hsueh making his first onscreen appearance in The Magic Blade.
- Enemy Mine: Pursuit of Vengeance has it's heroes Fu Hung-hsueh, Lu Xiao-jia and Ye-kai originally NOT on the same side, but eventually deciding to work together when realizing they have a common enemy with Master Ma Kong-Qun and his legion of 50-odd killers.
- Evil Old Folks: The Ghost Granny appears to be a benelovent and kindly old woman, but is in fact a dangerous murderer and assassin, who takes delight in butchering her victims and cooking them for her soup.
- Face Framed in Shadow: The Ghost Granny's debut has her entirely hidden in the dark, with her silohoutte and voice being the only thing visible to audiences. She finally reveals how she actually looks like in a later scene.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Inverted, when a funeral scene in Pursuit of Vengeance turns out to be a set up for an ambush, with the mourners drawing swords and pikes to ambush Fu Hung-hsueh and Lu Xiao-jia.
- Furo Scene: Lu Xiao-jia's intro in the second film has him taking a bath in a wooden tub... in the middle of crowded city streets. For some reason.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The first movie's climax has this happening to a Mook Lieutenant who's sneaking up on Fu Hung-hsueh, while he's in the midst of battling Yen Nan-fei. Said mook is hiding behind a wooden panel, and Fu simply slices the panel vertically into half, bisecting his opponent vertically along the way. The panel obscures the gore however.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Peacock Scale from the first movie, a powerful weapon that can destroy armies and cause dozens of explosions, appears to be hidden in a guarded, underground vault in Peacock Hall, but it's actually hidden right on the mantelpiece of the hall itself, as a seemingly normal-looking, random wall ornament.
- Human Chess: One of the key action scenes from the first film, The Magic Blade, is on a giant chessboard spread across a courtyard. The pawns are low-tier mooks, Elite Mooks fill the role of bishops, and the Ghost Granny is one of the rooks.
- Human Ladder: Again from the first movie; the battle in the bamboo forest has Fu Hung-hsueh being ambushed from all around him by Elite Mooks standing on each other, attempting to prevent Fu from somersaulting his way out. Fu simply hacks apart those mooks from the bottom and slices apart those on the top as they fall.
- Improbable Weapon User: From The Magic Blade, Yen Nan-fei's Mook Lieutenant legion uses a variety of odd, unusual weapons, including a jade cane, a paintbrush with razor-sharp bristles, a metal Combat Hand Fan, and sheets of paper which can cut through flesh.
- In a Single Bound: Fu Hung-hsueh can leap great distances and land on rooftops from jumping at gound level, thanks to his martial arts training. But most Elite Mooks and Mook Lieutenant have this ability too.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: A Warrior's Tragedy, due to being released more than a decade after Pursuit of Vengeance, with Fu Hung-hsueh becoming a retired warrior who had long since left the world of martial arts. It's more of a character-driven drama with minimal action scenes, and Fu isn't depicted as the Blood Knight he was in the first two films.
- Latex Perfection: Latex masks are used extensively in the second movie, for characters faking their deaths.
- Light Is Not Good: The first movie's main villain, Ye Nan-fei, wears white with gold-trimmed robes throughout the entirety of his screentime. Subverted than he's a Noble Demon who plays fair, and displays plenty of Villainous Valour towards Fu Hung-hsueh.
- Multi-Melee Master: Ye-kai from Pursuit of Vengeance. While Fu Hung-hsueh solely relies on his tonfas and Lu Xiao-jia uses a thick staff, Ye-kai can be seen using swords, spears, chains and his fists during fight scenes.
- Naked People Are Funny: After the second film's final battle, with Fu Hung-hsueh, Lu Xiao-jia and Ye-kai putting their differences aside to successfully defeat Master Ma, Fu and Lu are still adament to have their Duel to the Death. Ye-kai instead suggest they invoke a Defeat by Modesty instead, where the duel ends if they remove each other's pants.
- Ultimately, their duel ends with Fu Hung-hsueh winning. Deciding to be a Graceful Loser, Lu Xiao-jia then strolls away cheerfully as the film literally ends with a freeze-frame on his naked ass.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: When Fu Hung-hsueh and Ye Nan-fei enters a tavern, Ye-kai tries motioning a random waiter, only for the waiter to fall lifelessly to the floor. One scene later it's revealed that every single occupant in the tavern are, in fact, corpses, propped on chairs and walls.
- One-Man Army: Fu Hung-hsueh throughout all the movies, where he repeatedly takes names using both his blades with ease. Especially the second film when he carves a bloody path through armies of baddies, filling up more than 80 bodybags in the second film alone.
- Paper Master: The first movie has an enemy scholar who throw sheets of paper at Fu, which embeds into solid ground.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Ye-kai in the second movie provides plenty of relief and tension throughout the film, especially during more tense moments.
- Retired Badass: Fu Hung-hsueh by the third film, A Warrior's Tragedy; having succeeded in his quest for revenge, with all his enemies dead and himself feeling Lonely at the Top, for most of the third film Fu is Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life.
- Shout-Out: Pursuit of Vengeance has a rather blatant reference to A Fistful of Dollars, when Fu Hung-hsueh stops a horse-cart carrying five coffins, and saying four of them are occupied. Cue four enemy assassins emerging from four of those coffins - and a short battle later, four of them returns to their coffins, slain by Fu.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Majority of Fu Hung-hsueh's battles against faceless mooks ends like these.
- Slashed Throat: Ye Nan-fei does this to himself at the end of The Magic Blade, preferring death over admitting he lost to Fu Hung-hsueh.
- Spin Attack: More often than not employed by Fu Hung-hsueh in the first two films, himself spinning in circles while twirling his blade.
- Spiteful Suicide: The Magic Blade ends with the final duel between Fu Hung-hsueh and Yen Nan-fei, culminating with Yen Nan-fei's defeat. Rather than submit to failure though...Yen: "You, defeat me? Never, because only I can defeat myself!" (kills himself)
- Sword Fight: Basically 99% of the action scenes in all the movies.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The second movie's heroes, Fu Hung-hsueh, Ye-kai and Lu Xiao-jia really, really, really doesn't want to be working as a team, with Fu invoking the I Work Alone trope via dialogue.
- Thirsty Desert: Most of the third movie, A Warrior's Tragedy, is set in the Mongolian desert.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Pursuit of Vengeance has a flashback where Fu remember how his father dies; A Warrior's Tragedy has Fu, now an elderly warrior, recalling a massacre from his past that he is unable to stop.
- Worthy Opponent: What Ye Nan-fei considers Fu Hung-hsueh to be after their first duel in The Magic Blade.
- You Killed My Father: The plot of the second movie, Pursuit of Vengeance, with Fu Hung-hsueh finally uncovering his father's killer from 20 years ago and confronting him.
