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“Killer Constable” * (1980, Arrow Video) A fortune in gold has been stolen from the Forbidden City, and the Dowager Empress knows who should retrieve it: court constable Leng Tian-Ying (Chen Kuan-tai), known by the title sobriquet for his murder-first-ask-questions-later approach to police work. Leng finds and brutally dispatches some of the culprits, but also discovers that a) his violent strategy isn’t favored by his downtrodden constituents (as an assistant constable learns the hard way), and b) he may be working for the real criminals. Grim, hard-bitten period swordplay action from the Shaw Brothers Studios and director Kuei Chih-hung, who divided his career between critiques of Hong Kong social and political inequalities and bizarre horror and exploitation titles (like the hard-to-believe “Boxer’s Omen”). “Constable” is firmly in the former camp, eschewing the flash and spectacle of wuxia films in favor of an almost noir-ish examination of reaping what one sows through scene after scene of merciless, unheroic violence, often photographed in darkness or ugly settings (lots of mud). The end result may be a downer for Shaw Bros fans hoping for pure swordplay, but may prove compelling for both casual viewers and serious Shaw scholars, who may also note, with no amusement, how Leng’s take-no-prisoners aesthetic is embraced by our current administration (see Representative Victoria Sparz’s recent comments on due process). Arrow’s Blu-ray, part of its colossal “ShawScope Vol. 3” collection, features a 2K remaster with Mandarin and English audio tracks, and three separate commentary tracks by historians/critics Tony Rayns, Frank Djeng, and Brian Bankston, as well as scenes from a South Korean version of the film (which is featured in its entirety on a bonus disc), alternate titles, and Chinese and English-language trailers.
