As her filmography neared the 100-movie mark, actress Brigitte Lin leapt into a flurry of
wuxia pictures with a new wave of stunning performances. Among the most loved is her role as a powerful, whip-cracking assassin in
The Bride with White Hair, a hugely ambitious 1993 romantic fantasy from director Ronny Yu.
Paired with the late, great Leslie Cheung onscreen, Lin plays an evil cult’s assassin – a woman who was first raised by wolves, then adopted and left unnamed by leader Chi Wu-shuang (Francis Ng and Elaine Lui, joined at the back). After a battle early in the picture, she comes across moody swordsman Cho Yi-hang (Cheung) and they help deliver the baby of a fleeing couple. When the mystery lady makes a quick exit, Cho follows her to a hideout and in a brief encounter attraction starts to grow.
Cho is an ace martial artist – he can make do with blades of grass to strike down foes when a sword isn’t handy – and he has been groomed since childhood to one day head the Wu Tang Clan, one of eight sects of Chung Yuan. When cult head Chi rises up and wants to wipe out the Chung Yuan sects, their leaders pick Wu Tang fighters to lead an offensive with Cho taking charge.
Once the confrontation with Chi’s forces takes place, Cho encounters the “wolf girl” again and sees her get struck with a sword. Cho seizes her and whisks her off to safety in the hideaway, where this time romance blooms and Cho gives her a name: Lien Ni-chang. Once recovered, the love-struck Lien heads back to her cult and announces her plan to leave – a process that involves surviving intense pain. But after she manages to get out and dons a red wedding dress, Lien discovers something awful has driven a wedge between her and Cho.
Based on a 1950s
wuxia novel by Liang Yusheng and the third big-screen adaptation of that work,
The Bride with White Hair pushed for extremes and new sensations. Shooting almost entirely in an enormous purpose-built studio (the film’s only location work was in a forest) and barely admitting daylight into the picture, Yu created an otherworldly spectacle like none before. Production design is exquisite, from the evil cult’s lair that hosts frenzied exotic dance and ritual to the waterfall hideout Lien and Cho get intimate in, while the award-winning cinematography provides wondrous imagery. Philip Kwok’s action choreography saw Lin and Cheung take up some of their wildest turns with wirework and weaponry. And the plot, with shades of
Romeo and Juliet, offers a deeply romantic saga that is bookended with scenes of all-consuming yearning.
Top-billed Leslie Cheung gives a superb performance as a sentimental swordsman distracted from his clan’s calling. But it’s Lin who holds the most dramatic presence, whether blinding and slicing people with her whip or exploding into a rage so fiery her hair turns white. Moviegoers left dazzled and hoping for more were in luck: the follow-up effort
The Bride with White Hair 2 hit screens just four months later.
Ronny Yu
Ronny Yu Yan-tai was born in Hong Kong in 1950. After graduating from Ohio University, he worked as a production assistant for ABC Evening News in Washington, DC, before returning to Hong Kong and joining the film industry. Having started out as a production manager for films like Jumping Ash (1976) and then a producer (The Extras, 1978), he became a writer-director with The Servant (1979). His filmography includes Hong Kong hits such as The Bride with White Hair (1993) and Fearless (2006) as well as the US productions Bride of Chucky (1998) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003).