How many Shaw Brothers stars in the movie? Yes.
The Water Margin, also known as Seven Blows of the Dragon is a 1972 Shaw Brothers martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh, based on the 14th-century Song Dynasty novel The Water Margin. At its time of release, the film boasts nearly every leading actor from Shaw Brothers' stable of stars, including David Chiang, Ti Lung, Yueh Hua, Danny Lee, Chen Kuan-tai, Lily Li, Fan Mei-sheng, Ku Feng, and Japanese old-time badass Tetsuro Tanba.
Adapted from chapters 64 to 68 of the novel, the movie centers around Yen Ching the Wanderer (Chiang) being recruited by the Outlaws of Mount Liangshan to help them fight for a good cause. When Yen Ching's mentor, Lu Jun-yi (Tetsuro Tanba) is framed by his former friend turned rogue martial artist, Shi Wen-gong, both master and apprentice decides to join the outlaws and fight against the corrupt government.
In the sequel, All Men Are Brothers, also known as the Seven Soldiers of Kung Fu, the Song Dynasty is on the brink of it's downfall. A rogue governor, Fang La, has established a dictatorship and is leading his army to conquer the kingdom. Out of options, the Imperial Court offers the Outlaws of Mount Liangshan a pardon - defeat the invaders, and their criminal pasts will be expunged.
It is worth noting that the sequel suffered a delay of three years, being completed the same time as The Water Margin but had problems with censorship crackdown due to excessive levels of gore in the film. At it's time, it is the goriest movie ever churned out by Shaw Brothers, resulting in the censorship board readjusting the ratings for what is allowed to be shown in a movie. Considering the amount of gore and blood in the finished product, it's not hard to see why!
Notable characters:
- Ku Feng as the Welcome Rain, Song Jiang
- Tung Lin as Chao Kai, the Heavenly King
- David Chiang as Yen Ching, The Wanderer
- Ti Lung as Wu Song, the Tiger Killer (reprising his role from Delightful Forest)
- Yueh Hua as The Strategist, Lin Chung (reprising his role from Pursuit)
- Danny Lee as Silver Zephyr Chang Sun
- Lily Li as The Tigress, Hu San-niang
- Fan Mei-sheng as Black Tornado Li Kuei (Fan previously plays Flower Monk Lu in Pursuit)
- Chen Kuan-tai as Jiu Wen-long, the Nine Dragons (Chen will later reprise the same character in The Hero Tattoo With Nine Dragons)
Tropes Related to The Water Margin
- Action Girl: Hu San-niang is the sole female member of the outlaws and can take names with ease.
- Adaptation Distillation: While there are prior adaptations of The Water Margin made by Shaw Brothers, notably Delightful Forest and Pursuit, however the studios are still adapting a source material with over a hundred characters spanning multiple chapters into two movies, as such numerous details had to be cut from the finished film. Notably, the backstories of various characters, development of their brotherhood and relationships, and notably several prominent characters from the novel ends up being Demoted to Extra.
- Adapted Out:
- Gao Qiu, the novel's main villain, doesn't show up in either movie.
- Flower Monk Lu, who appears in Pursuit is absent as well. Which is jarring, because his best friend from that movie, Lin Chung, appears in BOTH The Water Margin and All Men Are Brothers, played by the same actor Yueh Hua. note
- Badass Crew: The group of 108 outlaws, who bands together and can take down armies.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Overlapping with Spiteful Suicide, after Shi Wen-gong is defeated and mortally wounded by Lu Jun-yi, he chose to finish himself off after declaring he will "Never be second to his sworn rival".
- Big Bad: Shi Wen-gong leads the campaign to hunt down the outlaws and partakes in framing his former friend, Lu Jun-yi, for the latter to be executed.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: When the legion of outlaws battles the government soldiers, and later Shi Wen-gong and his disciples.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the outlaws intervenes with the public execution of Lu Jun-yi and fights an entire army. And winning.
- Big Good: Song Jiang, leader of the heroes for both of the movies.
- Binge Montage: The movie's opening scene is a lengthy montage of the outlaws having a feast and getting drunk on wine in a banquet, after a successful raid prior to the film.
- The Drifter: Yen Qing spends much of his life drifting from city to city looking for adventures. His nickname is even "The Wanderer"... well, David Chiang was The Wandering Swordsman, that's a meta Actor Allusion.
- Dual Wielding: Wu Song and Hu San-niang both use twin swords when taking names.
- Elite Mooks: After dealing with the army sent by the corrupt government, the outlaws have to contend with Shi Wen-gong and his five best disciples, at which point Lu Jun-yi and five of the outlaws - Lin Chong, Li Kuei, Hu San-niang, Wu Song and Shi Xiu - engages their respective foes, one-on-one.
- In a Single Bound: Most of the outlaws can travel great distances just by leaping, especially so for protagonist Yen Ching. Since he's played by the small and nimble David Chiang, having him leap all over the damn place in battle scenes feels a lot more realistic and believable.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: After successfully rescuing Lu Jun-yi from the execution and capturing both Lu's adulterous wife, Lady Chia and unfaithful stewart Li Gu, Yen Ching delivers a fatal stab through Lady Chia's guts to punish her for trying to get her husband framed and killed.
- Lightning Bruiser: Yen Qing may be diminuitive and rather short, but he's also capable of great feats of strength, such as throwing Li Kuei who is roughly five times his size like a ragdoll in their wrestling scene.
- Stock Wushu Weapons: These shows up as the preferred weapons of the heroic outlaws, including the jian, gun, qiang, bu, yue, and several others.
- Tattooed Crook: Downplayed, Jiu Wen-long has the tattoo of nine dragons emblazoned on his chest, abs and back, and he's one of the good guys, but he's still branded as an "outlaw" for being a fugitive.
- The Vamp: Lady Chia, wife of Lu Jun-yi, a seductress who had an affair with a wealthy, powerful corrupt official, having grown tired of her husband's righteous ways, and plots to have Lu Jun-yi publicly humiliated and murdered, which the heroic outlaws have to prevent at all costs.
Tropes Related to All Men Are Brothers
- Actionized Sequel: There is more action in the first ten minutes of All Men Are Brothers than there is in the entire running time of its predecessor, The Water Margin. But consequently, that means a LOT of the outlaws and heroes are going to bite it.
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: What finally took down Jiu Wen-long, the Nine Dragon. He managed to kill off the last of his opponent, before letting out a smirk and dying.
- An Arm and a Leg: Wu Song lose an arm in the final battle of the movie, which ends up contributing to his injuries becoming fatal and his subsequent death before the credits.
- Anyone Can Die: With the exception of Song Jiang the Big Good, every single member of the outlaw gave up their lives in the effort to defeat the invaders, with Wu Song and Yen Ching being the last two to succumb side-by-side.
- Battle Couple: Silver Zephyr Chang Sun and Tigress Hu San-niang are the only two members of the outlaws confirmed to be romantically involved with each other in both movies, and by this sequel they spends multiple scenes killing faceless mooks together.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to The Water Margin.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: This time, it's the naval battle near the invaders' fort between the invaders' armada and the outlaws' army.
- Blood Knight: Lee Kuei revels in slaughter and takes sheer delight in chopping up faceless mooks, to the extent that Yen Ching and Chang Sun have to literally drag him away from battle scenes.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: Delivered all over the place in the second movie. Three outlaws have died in the first fifteen minutes of the movie, and as the film goes on there is one named character dying per 8 minutes.
- Death by Adaptation: Wu Song, Yan Qing, Li Kuei, Hu San-niang and several characters from the novel certainly did NOT die in battle, unlike as depicted in this film.
- Death by Cameo: Michael Chan as one of the outlaws appropriately named "Twin Spears", who battles a platoon of enemy soldiers in the first five minutes of the film before he dies.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Some characters who dies in the film's battle scenes such as Wu Song, Li Kuei and San-niang also died in the source material, but in different ways.
- Dying Smirk: Wu Song, Yen Ching, Li Kuei. The last one is because he at least managed to kill more than 50 mooks in his final scene, before he succumbs.
- Gorn: All over the place in this film, with loads and loads of dismembered body parts, bloodied overkills, over-the-top gore and High-Pressure Blood. Mostly thanks to Li Kuei chopping up mooks with his heavy axes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The elder Ruan brother, Ruan Xiao-wu, had to infiltrate the invader's fortress from underwater, and hoist a gate open to allow the outlaws to launch their sneak attack. Unfortunately he ends up being spotted by enemy archers, and he promptly use his body to hold the gate in position as he gets skewered by dozens of arrows.
- Last Stand: For several characters, including Shih Jin and Li Kuei, who fought back against hordes and hordes of invaders to allow the rest of the outlaws to escape.
- Off with His Head!: Li Kuei, after killing maybe twenty enemies, gleefully hacks off the last mook's head while gloating.
- One-Man Army: The outlaws can take on hordes and hordes of faceless mooks and win, claiming a massive kill-tally throughout their screentime. Especially evident for Li Kuei, Yen Ching and Shih Jun.
- Sequel Escalation: Granted, The Water Margin has it's fair share of action, but All Men Are Brothers multiplies the big fight scenes to the point where there's one action scene every fifteen minutes.
- Together in Death:
- An example between lovers with Chang Sun and Hu San-niang.
- A True Companions example between Bash Brothers Wu Song and Yen Ching.
- All three Ruan brothers dies within moments, and within vincinity of each other when they volunteered to infiltrate the underwater fort to open the floodgates for their allies to launch an ambush.
