Beach of the War Gods (1973) A Seven Samurai retelling with epic intensions (Review)

Beach of the War Gods is an accumulation of a career, but before we get there it can never be overstated just how much of a star Jimmy Wang Yu was for Shaw Brothers in the late ’60s going into the early ’70s. With his boyish good looks and his athletic physique he offered both the brash masculinity to capture the 1960s male audience, and the smouldering intensity for the ladies of the era (who, at the time, made up a larger percentage of the cinema going public). His portrayal of Fang Kang in the seminal Chang Cheh movie The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), catapulted Wang Yu to stardom.

This success would continue, growing with each film, until Wang Yu’s last Shaw Brothers film (having joined the studio in 1963), the genre defining The Chinese Boxer (1970) – a film that would set the template for Kung Fu movies even to this day, and put Wang Yu’s star power into the stratosphere. Knowing that his potential for earning money lay outside of the Shaw Brothers system (who were notorious for paying their stars as little as possible), Wang Yu tried to break his exclusivity deal and quickly found himself slapped with a lawsuit – no longer able to make films in Hong Kong.

At the time of his departure there were no other stars that could touch the drawing power of Wang Yu, but in the few short years following his exile, Shaw Brothers had new stars waiting in the wings of their talent factory. Actors like Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and Gordon Liu would rise to the top before the end of the ’70s, and in 1971 an outside actor appeared whose unprecedented force would take the Hong Kong cinema world by storm. The arrival of Bruce Lee would bring the eyes of the world onto the “Hollywood of the East”, and thus change the landscape forever.

A Seven Samurai retelling with a heavy anti-Japanese sentiment (something that continues to this day, just look at the Ip Man series as an example), Wang Yu would lead a group of (5) martial arts experts, supported by a rag tag band of villagers, to defend their homes against an invading force of Japanese samurai. Beach of the War Gods is very much a film of two halves, the first setting up story, characters and motivations – with the occasional interjection of fanciful fisticuffs – and it’s all handled with the expertise of someone with the experience of being East Asia’s biggest star. The familiar story beats, sets and expansive Taiwanese locations are used well, and even though it does meanders at times, at around the 50 minute mark the action’s ramped up to another level.

Bereft of the smooth action choreography of Lau Kar Leung, Wang Yu and his action directors (Kwan Hung and Siu Bo), fashion a far more chaotic and ugly version of war than many similar films. Instead of Wang Yu being the focus, having his heroic actions slay swathes of enemies, and he alone saving the day as his victims wait their turn to have their lives ended, there are wide shots showing multiple fights happening in a disorderly mass with no single focal point taking centre stage. Wang Yu has all the actors, including the stars, stand toe-to-toe with the extras as the camera pans across the bloody battle, and each star would periodically have a moment, but these would be fleeting as events hurtle towards a fatal conclusion.

It’s these moments that really set Beach of the War Gods apart from many of its contemporaries, especially as Wang Yu wanted the freedom to earn his own wealth, and was searching for a way to expand the canvas upon which the East Asian action film genre could paint. His years between leaving Shaw Brothers and releasing Beach of the War Gods had been filled with a plethora of films (twenty four in fact), but each one was building to this point. No longer supported by the safety net of Shaw Brothers, Wang Yu proved once again that he was a master of his trade, and that his star power was earned.

Eureka Entertainment have once again pieced together an assortment of riches for this disc, with a 1080p HD presentation that’s supported by interviews with prominent Hong Kong cinema experts like Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, coupled with an Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng.

Beach of the War Gods far outclasses what it looks like on paper, adding a grandeur and an almost King Hu-esque feel to proceedings. Although it lacks the sheen of many a Shaw Brothers production, it radiates the excellence and the wonder of some of the very best the genre has to offer.

Ben’s Archive: Beach of the War Gods (1973)