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The Bells of Death
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Eureka Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (5th June 2025). |
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The Film
 When young woodsman Wei (The Victim's Chang Yi) comes home to discover that his parents and his younger brother have been brutally murdered and his sister (Golden Swallow's Chiu Sam-Yin), he recognizes that the mortal wounds were caused by the weapons of a Quikun bow, Xiulun axe, and sword of a trio of bandits who has accosted him earlier in the day. Burying his family and burning down their farm, Wei takes to the roads with revenge on his mind and only his mother's bell bracelet as a keepsake. Witnessing a "chivalrous swordsman" (The Enchanting Shadow's Yang Chi-Ching) decimate the villainous "Eight Heroes of Yanzhou", Wei chases the man down and begs him to take him on as his pupil. Five years later, Wei goes in search of the men, rescuing Hsiang Hsiang (The Magnificent Trio's Chin Ping) who has supposedly been sold into prostitution to Tao Kung Chuan (Come Drink with Me's Lee Wan-Chung) but was actually murdered by his men. In attacking the Tao Mansion on his own, Wei simultaneously avenges Hsiang's father and learns the identity of one of the killers Yang Kang (The Mighty Peking Man's Ku Feng) and pursues him to find the other two swordsman Ying (The Monkey Goes West's Tien Shun) and bowman Tso (Drunken Master's Lam Kau), infiltrating Tso's gang to take him on and rescue his sister. The Bells of Death from Yueh Feng (Rape of the Sword) is a particularly conventional Shaw Brothers film in terms of its Spaghetti Western-esque revenge plot, a female character who only survives because she is a love interest and another female character who exists to sacrifice herself at a crucial moment, and the journey element to the plot that ends in the major villain's lair. What sets the film apart is the sprightly pacing, fight set-pieces – including a twilit bamboo forest encounter that seems like it came out of a Japanese horror film if not for the familiar Shaw sound stage forest and a battle in which the swordsmen agree that the must keep the candles on the ends of their blades from hitting the floor or going out between slashes – and some of the gorier deaths in a sixties Shaw martial arts film. The pacing is also its weakness in that the film skips directly from Wei asking his sifu to teach him martial arts to achieve vengeance to Wei starting his journey like a chunk of the film showing his training and the developing of his abilities and special skills are missing. We only learn that five years has passed since the inciting incident in the dialogue three-quarters of the way through the film, with only the difficulty the killers have remembering the source of the titular "bells of death" suggesting that any amount of time has elapsed. None of the cast really shine through even on the basis of our familiarity with their presences elswhere like Ku Feng and Wu Ma while the effectiveness of the fight scenes is more dependent on editing and frenetic handheld camerawork than choreography and the scope photography is otherwise as undistinguished as the library scoring. The Bells of Death is not without entertaining elements but it just "Another Shaw Film" (as the end card states) programmer. 
Video
Although dubbed in English for export, The Bells of Death was not released in the U.S. or U.K. theatrically – although MGM did distribute it in some South American territories (presumably in English with Spanish subtitles) – turning up stateside in a World Northal television package and then on VHS in the nineties from Southgate Entertainment while Celestial Pictures' anamorphic remaster turned up in Hong Kong as a PAL-to-NTSC converted DVD and the stateside from Image Entertainment was properly converted. The film made its Blu-ray debut in the U.S. as part of their under-the-radar Shaw Brothers Classics Vol. 1 followed by a French Blu-ray which ported over the Shout! Commentary but was otherwise not English-friendly and encoded in 1080i. Eureka's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from one of the same master which is one of Celestial's lesser HD remasters – presumably it was done early on and sat around until someone realized the film's significance in Shaw's wuxia history (see the extras) – with an image that looks superficially good in terms of its largely muted color scheme with saturated reds and nocturnal blues spiking the image but there is little fine detail even in the few scenes where the camera is actually locked down (there is a lot of hand-held camerawork during the fights and spaghetti western panning and zooming following horsemen and lone travelers along the landscape) while scenes dominated by shadowed areas can seem flat in some shots. 
Audio
Mandarin and English LCPM 2.0 mono tracks are provided, with the latter sometimes poorly acted and the sound design sound less distinct than the on the Mandarin track (the foley track more important here for the sense of encroaching dread of the bells). The optional English subtitles have at least one spelling error but offer up somewhat different translation than the earlier DVD.Zhan 
Extras
The film is accompanied by two commentaries. The first is an audio commentary by East Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng, NY Asian Film Festival who reveals that the film is an important one in the history Shaw Brothers wuxia cinema despite only playing for a week, coming just after the successes of King Hu's Come Drink with Me and Chang Cheh's The One Armed Swordsman as the studio decided to initiate its program of swordplay films, this one helmed by Yueh Feng who had been working across genres in Mainland China and Hong Kong since the thirties but had taken a break before this film, mounting it in contrast to Chang Cheh's machismo films, emphasizing psychological tension and horror in what Djeng describes as a remake of the Hollywood western Nevada Smith through the influences of the spaghetti western and Japanese samurai films, especially those of Akira Kurosawa including one shot directly swiped from Rashomon. He also discusses the cast, noting usual villain Chang Yi as the hero and Chin Ping in a love interest role despite already being established as a swords woman in other wuxia films. What this reviewer saw as shortcomings, Djeng sees as innovative touches including skipping over the training montage, emphasizing the passage of time in visual terms including the hero's change in demeanor and mannerisms from woodsman to ronin-like figure. He also notes that although no choreographer is credited, Sammo Hung does briefly appear onscreen and had his first action director credits the same year. The second audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema has some overlap with the Djeng track although they suggest that the Nevada Smith connection is more coincidental in that there are only so many revenge plots – noting the basic similarity with the plot of Star Wars and that the Kurosawa and sphagetti western influences are stronger. They also suggest that Yueh Feng's break before this was actually a "breakdown" and that he deliberately sought to deviate from conventions with the film as more of a horror or psychological thriller, noting his visual style including the photography, editing, and the way he distinguishes the looks of the villains (and they also find the lack of a training montage "refreshing").  Also included is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (18:54), an interview with Wayne Wong, editor of Martial Arts Studies who provides some more detail on Yueh Feng's earlier credits including his dramatic storytelling and visual flair across genres with the film at hand best representing his ability to adapt his style to different genres. He too notes that the revenge plot is pretty basic while discussing the bells motif and the horror elements, global influences in the Nevada Smith film and the spaghetti western genre – point out the use of Morricone-esque horns and male chorus in the original score – and visual borrowings for Sergio Leone. 
Packaging
The limited edition of first pressing of two thousand copies comes with an O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) and a collector's booklet featuring new writing by East Asian cinema expert Camille Zaurin focusing primarily on Yueh Feng as Shaw's "unsung hero" with an overview of his career and how his wuxia films broke the conventions of his colleagues at the studio.
Overall
The Bells of Death is not without entertaining elements but it just "Another Shaw Film" (as the end card states) programmer for this reviewer, although the more seasoned wuxia viewers may share the opinions of the extras contributors about its significance in Shaw's genre history.
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