Wine and Wuxia: Heaven and Hell (1980)
A trio of wines for a triptych of connected stories made during the Shaw Bros most experimental era.
This is not going to be a wuxia for everyone, but it is unique AF, both within director Chang Cheh's filmography1 and also, frankly, within the total of the Shaw Bros catalogue. HEAVEN AND HELL isn't bloody and batshit, it isn't wild and weird, it isn't straightforward and simple. It's...something else.
"What wrong did you do in life?"
"Oh nothing much, I raped a girl."
Made for a Chinese New Year release, the film features nearly every major Shaw Bros martial arts star in a story that blends everything-and-the-kitchen-sink in terms of what HK audiences loved. Part wuxia, part West Side Story musical, part supernatural horror parable, this film does not fit neatly into any bucket. It's a fair challenge to write about, even though I absolutely adore it.
We begin with a romance in Heaven, between two lovers played by David Chiang Da-Wei and Maggie Li Lin-Lin. But this is no Christian Heaven; this is a place that deifies heirarchy and distrusts anything outside of pitch perfect, blind obedience. It is not a place for enlightenment, or revelry, or even self-rigteous satisfaction, but merely rules and decorum. Chosen elites hold sway and all others must offer utter subservience or else suffer endless lashes and other such abuses. Romance is verboten, or seemingly any happiness that the cold elites can see.
Our heroic couple are forced to literally fight for thier love, though one of the heavenly guards (played by Li Yee Ming) feels sympathy for their plight, allows them to escape to the mortal plane (to be reincarnated there.) But this guard is then also condemed for showing such mercy, and is also cast down to Earth, to live life as a mortal taxi cab driver (so…to take orders from others his whole life there, too!)
HEAVEN WINE PAIRING
Anything crisp and acidic to match Heaven’s austerity, ideally a white, and ideally with a touch of sweetness to match the lovers and the wuxia action.
I chose the Santo Assyrtiko, Santorini, Greece. High acidity, salinity, but with a peach and honeyed aftertaste and the slightest hint of residual sugar (1.7 g/ltr) to offset that pure minerality, put a touch more fruit into that stonefruit on the finish.
On Earth, the movie suddenly shifts into a theatrical stage musical, with theater sets and lighting, and almost no spoken dialogue, only singing. We follow a new young couple in love, and while the movie never explicitly states that these are the incarnated lovers from Heaven (but now played by Alexander Fu Sheng and and his real life wife, Jenny Tseng) I personally like to believe that they are.
This Earth-bound, fully mortal couple must fend off the advances of an amorous gang boss (the ever bug-eyed Chiang Tao) in order to be together. Jets vs. Sharks gang dance-battles ensue, culminating in our erstwhile Heavenly guard cum Taxi driver entering the fray, rescuing the couple (yet again?) and telling them to escape into a happy future while he takes the blame and a fatal blow.
EARTH WINE PAIRING
This sequence plays like a minimalist MGM musical, and as such deserves some rose-all-day!
Lightly mineral, lightly fruity, crisp but not too crisp, the balance between white and red wine extremes, rose often offers aromatic complexity while avoiding intensity.
Personally, I chose the Bojador Rose, from Alentejo, Portugal. A blend of Arrogonez (the Portugese name for Tempranillo), and Port grapes Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira, this is a lovely, earthy, spice-driven rose with darker fruit flavors than typical strawberries and cream. Here we get something a little more grounded, a little more tart and layered, but still for all of that a classic rose at its core.
We then shift form Earthound to Hellbound. Our Heavenly guard enters the underworld, which proves to be something stranger than a place of sensible punishment: the treatment of souls is shown to be arbitrary, fickle. Those in charge break their own rules and seem to care little for anything resembling justice or just dues. What is going on here?
After a series of horrific escapades, our hero meets the "Buddha of Mercy" who allows him to recruit worthy souls unfairly sent to Hell in order to discover the truth, and here Chang Cheh's Venoms finally come to the party. I won't say more beyond: the movie then becomes a quest to "right" Hell and hopefully find a different fate for our heroes than Hell itself, even if rightened.
HELL WINE PAIRING
It’s finally time for a red! Something smokey, peppery, gamey. A decent-bodied Syrah or Carmenere or Pinotage. Perhaps a Malbec or Tempranillo if kissed with oak and age.
I chose a Syrah from Santa Barbara - 2020 Jaffurs Syrah, Larner Vineyard. Jaffurs single vineyard Syrahs are wonderfully meaty and robust for the cooler climate of Santa Barbara, yet still maintains the telltale acidity and salinity of the terroir. Larner in particular gives flavors of game, black olives, licorice, and smoke.
To say that HEAVEN AND HELL is unexpected is an understatment. I don't know what compelled Chang Cheh or Shaw Bros. to pursue such an odd film, save for the fact that rival Golden Harvest was on the ascendent by this point in time, and the old-school Shaw style wasn't drawing audiences like it used to. Still, pivoting to even OLDER school theatrical styles seems the wrong pivot. But fuck'n-A do I dig this movie today.
It has its issues: I'd like to read the movie as having a "humanist" message and core, but I can't quite make that take work. Heaven isn't necessarily shown to be a problematic place - all our characters find it tragic they have to leave Heaven and descend to Earth. And Hell requires a literal Deus ex Machina in the form of the Buddha to correct any wrong, PLUS the judged souls are still sorted in very explicit "righteous" and "corrupt" buckets by the end. It's a film that FEELS complex and gray but remains frustratingly black and white upon the lightest inspection.
Nevertheless, this is a wild experience of a film in terms of execution and aesthetic. It combines a few too many things in a few too many unexpected ways, and is a watch you're unlikely to forget, even if portions of the movie will likely challenge your sense of structure, characterization, and/or patience.
This is the director who single-handedly ushered in the brotherhood-centric wuxia of the 1970’s and 80’s with 1968’s ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN. He went on to direct a number of stone cold classics such as BRAVE ARCHER, FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, and 5 ELEMENT NINJAS. He directed an insane 94 movies in all! Sadly, his dream was to direct 100 in his lifetime, but he had trouble financing films by the late 1980’s and passed away shortly after.
I love Bojador's reds - will have to try their rosé too!