The beginning of this picture is a lot of fun: The first thing you see is the production company’s logo, the ludicrously named “Super Class Productions,” followed by the weirdly misspelled title, which comes jolting out at you accompanied by a melodramatic burst of music. All of this is followed by a wonderfully kinetic opening complete with severed heads, flying babies, and huge multicolored explosions. Unfortunately, after the outrageous opening, the film settles down into the comfortable clichés of the Chinese period fantasy, ultimately amounting to no more than an average entry in the genre. Luckily, Deadful Melody has two of Hong Kong’s brightest stars on hand to add little pizzazz — namely martial arts ace Yuen Biao (Project “A”) as an imperial guardsman who battles rival martial artists for the possession of a magic lute; and the charismatic Bridget Lin (Swordsman II) as a fearsome woman whose past is connected to Biao’s own. Both performers are so winning that they keep this otherwise middling film watchable.
This article appears in March 25 • 1994 (Cover).