Black and White Umbrellas (1971)

Mary Poppins Kung Fu Fight with a Vengeance!

Black and White Umbrellas is about two rival clans who have had deep enmity between them for years. The premise is pretty simply, one clan dresses in white and carries white umbrellas, the other wears black and carries black umbrellas.

Basic story elements follow-do not read if you are super spoiler sensitive--I like to know a little about the story of these movies before I commit to watching one, thus the sharing of these elements---

After a climatic and deadly battle between the leaders of the clans, peace held for many years until the son of one of the leaders returned for a bloody vengeance. Killing, raping, and dis-arming people until he took over the local fort, there wasn’t much evil he wouldn’t do and he did it all with great glee.

In walks the pacifist hero who had been given instructions by his dying father to stop the hatred and killing. This does not work out well when dealing with a homicidal maniac and the hero ended up at the bottom of a cliff badly wounded. Two women passing by carried him off to safety (apparently women were much stronger in days of yore), while a Mysterious Woman in White showed up to tend to him. The story at this point is largely hers. She spies on the Black Umbrella Man and his minions, fights with them and gives the White Umbrella Man time to heal.

Eventually, White Umbrella Man heals, decides Black Umbrella Man has to go no matter what dear old departed daddy ordered and he and the Mysterious Woman in White work together.

When watching these old kung fu movies I grade on a different scale. They were shot on the cheap for a specific audience 40-60 years ago. This movie had been cut and re-cut to fit different formats and the subtitles were often cut off at both ends.

The Mysterious Woman in White is expressive and handles her fights well, as does the The Black Umbrella Man. The White Umbrella man's acting is a little stiff though his fighting skills make up for it.

There must be a Buckets of Blood service that supplies these movies and Umbrellas went through it's share. The affinity for shooting in dark places escapes me, fortunately, the FL's fights were often in the light. Taiwanese kung fu movies are usually less well made than the Hong Kong Shaw Brothers made movies, but the Taiwanese movies do often shoot in beautiful outdoor settings. Umbrellas used a waterfall, forest, cave inn (please let that be the name of the place) and mountains as settings for fights and nefarious doings. And of course, the ubiquitous gravel quarry so that the trampoline and wire work can be done, which was fun, especially with the weapons loaded umbrellas scenes.

Umbrellas takes advantage of all sorts of creative weapons and plenty of fights to showcase them. This movie is saved for me because the FL gets a lot of sword time and doesn't back down from a fight even when she's outnumbered.

Not a movie for everyone, only those who get a kick out of old kung fu movies.

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