“Knight Errant” Poster
Contrary to what the title would suggest, Knight Errant isn’t a period wu xia swordplay flick, but rather a contemporary basher – and weirdly, it shares its Chinese title not only with a Chor Yuen wu xia, but also John Woo’s groundbreaking A Better Tomorrow!
On the back of their well-received DVD release of Master of the Flying Guillotine back in 2002, Pathfinder returned to the Wang Yu/First Films well one more time with their DVD of Knight Errant, which I assume didn’t do that well as they didn’t release anymore (Japan released several more titles, so they are out there and I keep hoping we see a blu-ray release one day). Which is a pity, and given its obscurity Knight Errant deserves to be re-discovered, not least because it is as barking mad as the more famous Master of the Flying Gullotine!
So in 1937, DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION!!! (don’t look at me, that’s how the intertitle puts it), a Chinese POW liberates a kindly Japanese soldier just prior to his execution for treachery. Disgraced, the senior Japanese general (Tsai Hung) commits hara-kiri, leaving behind his wife and three sons. She commits suicide herself, leaving the boys to be raised by their grandmother. Granny, built like a brick outhouse, trains them in the ways of karate to avenge their father’s death. Which judging from the time-frame takes 36 years! They’re lucky their target didn’t die of old age first!
Said target is living peacefully with his 3 kids in Taiwan. Only one of those kids is Jimmy Wang Yu, a taxi driver with a penchant for getting into fights at the drop of a hat – to be fair, those fights are often ner-do-wells such as thieves and rapists, but because it seems Taiwan lacks an NHS, he has to pay for their hospital bills. Which puts a damper on his plans to raise enough money to restore the blindness of his sister.
Meanwhile the Karate Kids (Yasuaki Kurata, Lung Fei and Shan Mao, all 35 going on 50) turn up in Taiwan ready to take vengeance on Wang Yu’s dad, and this is where things get bonkers. Their contact advises that since Taiwan still has the death penalty for murder, they are betting off staging an accident to kill him. Which renders the whole 36 years of painful training rather redundant. But you can’t make an omlette without breaking some eggs.
Staging the accident proving harder than you’d think, with Wang Yu’s father being rescued by his prospective son-in-law (Eddie Ko)…BUT then his blind daughter and precious son (the one not played by Wang Yu) wander into the pathway of the villains. Wang Yu makes short work of them, but must deal with Granny…which all I can say is not as one-sided as it sounds!
Long overlooked, Knight Errant is definitely the film to see Wang Yu at his best. He often looked faintly wooden in period wu xia, and even in his own directed gems like Master of the Flying Gullotine barely seemed awake as a actor, and mobile as a fighter. So seeing him rough-and-tumble over the place, and display an amusing cockiness, showcases his strengths as an on-screen brawler and as portraying rebellious but filial youths. And with a great assortment of physical opponents (not to mention Granny!), this film deserves a look!
Ian Whittle’s Rating: 8/10
