The Snake, The Tiger, The Crane

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Part of the Martial Arts: 50 Movie Pack. If you like 70's/early 80's martial arts, it's a deal. If you don't, it's a whole lot of affordable nothing. This is also a public domain film.

Summary

A classic historical play involving royalty and bandit kings. Bandits sack the city, so the royal family and retainers kill themselves leaving only the third princess alive. Vowing to seek revenge, the third princess embarks on an generally frustrating quest to kill the bandit king. Decent action and a wealth of camp tragedy make this one of the more interesting films of the genre.

Details and Notes

There's one wonderfully bizarre scene where the bandit king is eating dinner with some random girl, a prostitute or concubine I guess. They're flirting and he asks her to play something. She gets out a couple bars when he screams, What's that tune called? His henchman then starts yelling at her, Lady, you better smile at him! Go on smile! Smile! Smile! She looks really confused and tries to smile awkwardly while the guy keeps berating her Make him happy! Go on!. This goes on for nearly about 20 seconds when the bandit king says: You're ridiculous! and the henchman repeat it, yelling. You're stupid! He then yells Your stupid a half dozen times more and then orders the girl to be taken out and killed. Did I miss something?

It would have been nice if they'd had an actual poet translate the poetry in the movie (and better actors to recite it). As is, it's a little comical. Maybe the original was comical too.

Spoilers ahead.

Lost in translation notes aside, this tale behind this film is a series of tragic events. The princess' quest succeeds, but only through an accidental external event and at the cost of everything (plus a Team Up on the Final Boss event). By the end of the film, everyone she knows and everyone who tried to help her is dead. She was forced to play a fool... to stay in hiding? It's so hard to bridge the culture and time, but I imagine that this one played to much shaking of heads at the cost of it all.