The Proud Youth is a 1978 wuxia film produced by Shaw Brothers, starring Wong Yue, Michael Chan, Shih Szu and Ling Yun.
A very, very loose adaptation of the novel ''The Smiling, Proud Wanderer
by Jin Yong, the film revolves around an exiled swordsman, Song Nan-gong, coming across a once-forgotten forbidden martial art skill, and returning to gain his revenge. Along the way, he needs to contend with a vicious mercenary swordsman, Hao Jie-ying (Michael) hired by the main villain of the picture, who is on a killing spree.
See also the 90s' swordplay film, Swordsman also based on the same novel.
The Proud Tropes:
- Adaptation Name Change: Whoo boy. There's NOT a single character from the novel who, in this remake, gets to keep their names.
- The protagonist went from Ling-hu Chong (令狐沖) to Nan-gong Song.
- The hero's primary enemy which he opposed for most of the film, Tian Bo-guang (田伯光) is now Hao Jieying.
- The Love Interest, Ren Ying-ying (任盈盈) had her name changed to Bai Yingying.
- The Leader of the Huashan Sect and Hidden Villain Master Yue Bu-chun (岳不群) is now Master Luo Chao-jun.
- The Retired Badass old guardian who assists Ling-hu Chong / Song Nan-gong, Xiang Wen-tian (向問天) is now Guardian Shi.
- Arch-Enemy: Song Nan-gong the wandering hero against Hao Jie-ying the ruthless mercenary swordsman. Most of the film have the two of them dueling each other constantly.
- Bifurcated Weapon: The villain Hao Jie-ying uses twin curved swords, which can be connected from their hilts to form a two-sided BFS. It's his most powerful attack as depicted in the film.
- Chekhov's Skill: Pretty much ALL the skills in the "99 Sword Styles of Chong-yang" Song Nan-gong had learnt during his exile in the Huashan mountains ends up helping him later on in the film. Notably in his two final, penultimate battles — against Hao Jie-ying and Master Luo Chao-jun.
- Contrived Coincidence: Song Nan-gong's exile to the distant mountains of Huashan had him immediately finding out the secret caverns where the leaders of the Chong-yang Clan, assumed to be dead decades ago, had escaped, where in his dying breath, he then have the secrets of his ancient martial arts skills inscribed on the walls of the hidden cavern hoping it can be found someday. This allows Song Nan-gong to improve his martial powers by stumbling across this long-lost art ... precisely when he needs it!
- Deadly Disc: The Guardian, Shi, uses a razor-sharp disc mounted on a stick as his weapon.
- Dead Man Writing: The ancient skill of the Chong-yang clan, written on the walls of a hidden cavern in the Huashan Mountains by their leaders before they succumbed to their mortal wounds decades ago.
- Devour the Dragon: Master Luo eliminates his dragon, Hao Jie-ying, who up until that point is portrayed as the main villain of the picture, revealing himself to be the actual villain.
- Hidden Villain: For most of the movie, the plot revolves around the duels between the hero Song Nan-gong against the ruthless mercenary swordsman, Hao Jie-ying, with the latter going on a seemingly endless crime and killing spree. But ultimately, Song turns out to be just a mercenary swordsman, hired by Master Luo Chao-jun to ignite a war in the clans so that he can usurp leadership position, a twist that isn't revealed until late into the film.
- In a Single Bound: Just like every good wuxia. The hero Song Nan-gong and the villain Hao Jie-ying does this all the time, notably with their final battle in a valley have them leaping vertically into the air... from ground level to the top of the mountain!
- In Name Only: The movie is based on Jin Yong's novel, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, but the character names, themes, and setting are completely different compared to it's source material.
- Interesting Situation Duel: Quite a few of these pops up in the film, notably Song Nan-gong's opening fight near a waterfall and a duel where Hao Jie-ying and a challenger fights each other while both of them are seated on tree stumps, trying to knock each other off with their swords.
- Groin Attack: Plus Impaled with Extreme Prejudice. The final battle where Song Nan-gong duels Master Luo, one-on-one, ends with Song impaling Master Luo through the testicles. The battle actually concludes with a freeze-frame of the latter having his crotch stuck upright on a sword's tip.
- Kick the Dog: After Song Nan-gong hands the villain Hao Jie-ying his first defeat, in front of a massive crowd of the clan's higher-ups, Hao then spills the truth about Master Luo being the true mastermind behind all the murders in the clans... only for Master Luo to kill Hao instantly.
- Nothing but Skulls: The underground caverns of Mouth Huashan is full of skulls, and skeletons dangling all over the place. As Song Nan-gong later found out after stumbling into the caverns by accident, it seems like there was once a great war in the mountains, with the leaders of the Chong-yang clans being the last survivors before the entire area becomes forgotten in time.
- Slashed Throat: Song Nan-gong executes a few enemies using this method. While keeping his sword sheathed for most of his fights, he will suddenly slip out the blade, mostly when near his enemies' jugulars.
- Spin to Deflect Stuff: When Hao Jie-ying have his swords connected at the hilt to form a two-sided weapon, he can deflect any attacks by spinning the weapon rapidly.
- Sword Fight: Yes, this being a wuxia.
- Training Montage: Song Nan-gong training himself in the skills of the "99 Sword Styles of Chong-Yang" in the underground chamber full of skeletons.
- Walk on Water: Thanks to his inner chi, Song Nan-gong post-training from the caverns of Mount Huashan can skip on water surfaces without sinking. Which comes in handy when he's battling the true main villain, Master Luo, near a pool.
- Wuxia
