Bat Without Wings

Bat Without Wings (Wu Yi Bian Fu) (1980)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Chor Yuen

Starring: Derek Yee Tung-Sing, Ching Li, Wong Yung, Tang Ching, Au-Yeung Pui-San

From: Shaw Brothers

Wait until you hear about this film and its defining characteristic: 

When you stumble upon a trailer for a Shaw Brothers movie where the villain sometimes wears a mask that is 95% Gene Simmons' KISS Demon makeup... you watch the film as soon as you can. Thankfully so much of the studio's catalogue can be seen on platforms like Amazon Prime.

Once I started watching this film, the plot was more complex than I suspected; some would even call it convoluted. This wuxia film has the titular Bat Without Wings is the heel and he is purported to be killed in a battle, but only after he killed 26 other skilled fighters. The rest of the film is set 5 years later; apparently Gene Simmons returns and that means trouble. I might as well call him Gene Simmons as besides the makeup there's the fact that he is described as “lustful and horny”, which are two of the many terms you can use to describe Old Gene! Then again, Batty also sexually assaults women then kills them... anyhow, this return results in a young lady being killed and some fighters are after him. Like I said, things aren't as simple as they seem, and there are plenty of characters to be seen. You can't half pay attention to this one, folks.

The action is not revolutionary by any means and is sometimes shot at a distance where the focus is actually on something tangential (if that) in the foreground... but the action beats are not the reason why you check this out. It's to enjoy the loony story and also to admire the movie's appearance. The aesthetic is great as there are plenty of colors seen and it's typically a pretty movie to look at when you get to witness such lunacy as erotic carvings of women, lakes filled with acid and an ending that in a way could be described as an LOL finish. The atmosphere is also nice as fog is a recurrent theme in Bat Without Wings.

This otherworldly movie has its flaws yet it is more than just a prominent character with an out of place characteristic that was meant to chase a trend; I was for sure charmed by this loopy tale.