The Delightful Forest (1972)

[Drunk Monk]

The great thing about Shaw Brothers films is that every once in a while, I find one I missed. This one has a dumb title, but it stars one of my top Shaw actors, the ever sophisticated Ti Lung, in the role of one of Wuxia's greatest heroes, Wu Song. Wu is one of the most outstanding from the epic Water Margin. TEF retells a chapter of WM, where Wu Song is jailed form a revenge killing and the released through intrigue and of course, betrayed. It's after he killed the tiger, so his reputation is set, and is the inspiration for one of the wackiest traditional forms, Wu Song breaks Manacles, which forces Ti Lung to fight in a cangue a lot, showing off his leg skills. Wu is also one of the great drunken boxers, so Ti shows off his drunken style. I've never thought of Ti as Wu. Ti is too classy and Wu is a drunken ruffian. It's a role better suited for Chan Kuan Tai or Fu Sheng. But this is a young Ti and he nailed it. Made me rethink his acting and the character of Wu. My fav move was when Ti disarms a swordsman by sticking the blade in the cangue, then proceeds to dispatch others using the dao stuck in his cangue. A delightful film.