''The Fate of Lee Khan'' (Chinese: 迎春閣之風波) is a 1973

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

wuxia ( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted ...

'' film, directed by King Hu.

Plot

During the waning years of the

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...

, Mongol general Lee Khan and his sister Wan’er travel to the desolate Spring Inn in

Shaanxi province Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), ...

to obtain a map of the tactical plans of the rebel forces. Aided by Wan Jen-Mi, innkeeper of the Spring Inn, a group of undercover resistance fighters seek to recover the map to save the rebellion.

Cast

Cast adapted from the 2019 Masters of Cinema blu-ray.

Analysis

The film is one of the Chinese action films that helped encourage that there be more female action roles. The director King Hu used methods of framing to show action scenes in detail. Close to the end of the film, the director used cutting patterns and edge framing to show how similar all of the fighters' moves are. Hu also filmed ''The Fate of Lee Khan'' back to back with '' The Valiant Ones''.

Release

''The Fate of Lee Khan'' was distributed in Hong Kong on December 6, 1973.

Reception

From contemporary reviews,

Tony Rayns Antony Rayns (born 1948) is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. He wrote for the underground publication ''Cinema Rising'' (its name inspired by Kenneth Anger's '' Scorpio Rising'') before contributing to ...

reviewed ''The Fate of Lee Khan'' in ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' finding the film "always strikingly beautiful" and that its "bald narrative outline risks suggesting that ''Lee Khan'' would sit more comfortably within the Chinese martial arts genre than in fact it does. Its vividly stylised clashes" were "far from being the film's ''raison d'etre'' as they are from being mere set-pieces.". Rayns concluded that the film was a "remarkable , and not just by the standards of Hong Kong cinema. One can only hope that its appearance here (mercifully subtitled, not dubbed) may herald more of King Hu's work." Verina Glessner of the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...

'' stated that director King Hu "comes closest of all currently active Chinese directors to fitting our notion of an art film director" noting that he "isn't averse to check-mating audience expectations as much as his characters' moves." Glessner also noted the script by King Hu and Wang Chung that "like the direction and the gallery of performances, shows a rare sharpness and sophistication." From retrospective reviews, Michael Brooke wrote in ''Sight & Sound'' once the film is set up it was as "taut as any

Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

or Clouzot suspense. Violent erupts out of nowhere and ends almost as quickly as it began- at least, until the final pitched battle which is also the film's only really prolonged exterior scene."

Glenn Kenny Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for '' The New York Times'' and ''RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' made the film his "New York Times Critic's Pic" and stated that the film " falls into a sweet lather, rinse, repeat mode of scenes, alternating character intrigue and fighting."

References

External links

''The Fate of Lee Khan''
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fate of Lee Khan Kung fu films Mandarin-language films 1973 films Hong Kong martial arts films Films directed by King Hu Golden Harvest films 1970s Hong Kong films