Burning Paradise

China in the eighteenth century. The Manchu administration is hunting Shaolin monks. Fong Sai-yuk is caught and taken to a place called the Red Lotus Temple. It is a prison built underground and full of traps, run by a former Shaolin monk called Elder Kung. The man has abandoned his own side and designs mechanisms for killing prisoners. Fong looks for a way out from inside. Ringo Lam directs. Tsui Hark is among the producers. Lam is better known for crime films and this is his only period martial arts picture; the result is entirely unlike the usual tone of the genre. What distinguishes it is its darkness. The fights carry no heroism; the violence is merciless, the space is claustrophobic and the narrative offers no hope. It stands against the colourful, fast martial arts films of the same years. Elder Kung is not the genre's usual villain; he is built as a man who lost his faith and is trying to bring the consequences of that out into the world. The design of the temple is the strongest thing in it: mechanical traps, falling walls and underground passages. It attracted little interest on release; the tone was said not to match what the genre led people to expect. It was reassessed in later years. Who it is for: viewers who like Hong Kong genre cinema and dark martial arts films. Who it is not for: the violence is severe, the narrative is hopeless, and the tone is unexpected for a viewer wanting a classic kung fu film.