Twilight of the Warriors (film, 2024) (Night's Black Agents)

 

How do you make a Shaw Brothers film without actually being a Shaw Brothers film?

You make this.

Highly recommended to all fans of action cinema. Seldom have I seen better fight sequences. The plot is vintage wuxia with a very modern overcoat but there was never anything wrong with the plot of those films. There are good guys. Bad guys. Conflict. You come in, sit down, get dazzled, and the ending comes with a crash. That's pretty much the entirety of Twilight, and it doesn't surprise me one bit that Johnnie To was once attached to this production. This is exactly the kind of thing he's good at.

I am still a little amazed that Sammo Hung plays Mr. Big, the main Triad villain. Sammo Hung! The wacky guy from Encounters of the Spooky Kind and the Jackie Chan films, the one with a hand in all the Mr. Vampire films. The top tier fight coordinator. Ye Gods. I did not even know that was him on screen. To still be doing this kind of thing in his 70s ... Louis Koo is a very charismatic Cyclone and German Cheung's AV kinda steals every scene he's in, though I think he's helped by that mask of his. It draws the eye. Philip Ng does well as King, the villain's villain - the fella biting that sword in half - but you've seen this character a thousand times before. He's there to betray and be hated. Not that this is a bad thing, far from it, and he's got that manic laugh down. All in all, not a bad actor in the bunch.

But the bit that caught my eye and lured me in was that the whole thing's set in Kowloon Walled City. 

The Walled City is what happens when nobody lays claim to a chunk of territory. Conceptually, it was bitcoin in architectural form, with all the madness and lack of governance that description implies. As nobody was in charge, practically speaking, everybody had a hand in it, and that includes criminal syndicates. It was called the City of Darkness and, while the title's evocative, it probably had more to do with the actual lack of light than any metaphysical or moral aspect.

South China Morning Post

Oddly it reminds me not a little of Corbusier and concepts based on his theories of design, like London's Barbican. Not because of its architecture but because it exemplifies one of his basic principles: you should have everything you need for work, housing and recreation within walking distance. That definitely applies here. You could spend your entire life inside the Walled City and never have a reason to set foot outside. 

The Walled City sees some play in games like Shadowrun: Hong Kong or Call of Duty but it doesn't often appear in tabletop, which is a shame. It's often a background for a fight scene. 

Let's play with that concept.

Of all the settings I could use, Night's Black Agents seems the most appropriate. A Thrilling Trace, let's say:

Trace missions are similar to Hunts, but with an object instead of a person. 

Key differences: Trace missions tend to reach a lot further back in time. 

The target of a Hunt is unlikely to have remained hidden for more than, say, 30 or 40 years (for that “former Cold Warrior who knows too much about the vampire program and retired to a garlic farm in the wilds of Montana” or “archaeology student who opened the wrong tomb and is now a tour guide in the Vatican so he can stay on holy ground as much as possible”). The object in a Trace operation might be decades or even centuries old.

So, start with the object. How portable is it? How fragile? How valuable? How rare? 

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail but I will describe this McGuffin as one-man portable, moderately fragile (as in you can drop it and it won't break, but it doesn't require Sauron's One Ring circumstances to destroy it) and unique. 

I will also say that it was located in the Walled City from the late 1940s, when refugees first established the squatter's town that came to be Kowloon Walled City, till the Walled City's demolition in 1994. That it was damaged but not destroyed in the 1950s fire, that it first came to Edom's attention during the police raids in the 1970s, and that it is known to have been one of the last things to be taken out before demolition. 

I will further posit that the players, and possibly the characters, can still access Kowloon Walled City in the modern day despite the demolition. Whether through dream, virtual reality, time travel, or having the players temporarily play characters who happened to be there at the time.

There was a Jackie Chan film, Crime Story, that used the Walled City in several scenes while it was deserted in 1993, before final demolition in 1994. That can be the last time anyone saw the McGuffin in Kowloon; some of the film crew saw it. 

Kowloon Ghosts

The characters are tasked with Tracing a vampire McGuffin that is known to have been in China and removed to Hong Kong sometime between 1945 and 1946. 

The relocation happened as a result of the Manchurian Invasion by the Soviets.  Military Science, Research, Occult Studies establishes this first link in the chain. Possible Interrogation or Interview opportunity: Professor Chernenko, a military history expert who once interviewed a Soviet soldier who saw the McGuffin first-hand. The Professor is currently working at the University of Milan.

The 1950s fire damaged but not destroyed the McGuffin. Research, Occult Studies, Criminology discovers that the McGuffin changed hands from the mystic society that brought it to Kowloon to one of the criminal syndicates that controlled the Walled City. The Wo Shing Wo took it and would keep it for the next few decades. Whether the triad understood what it was or what it could do is open to question. Possible Interrogation or Interview opportunity: Kirkland, a student of the Tao and a self-proclaimed inheritor of the mysteries practiced by the original holders of the McGuffin. Kirkland is currently in San Francisco, operating a herbalist's shop.

Edom first became aware of the McGuffin during the 1970s raids. Research, Occult Studies, Tradecraft discover the intricacies of failed Edom recovery mission Operation PERIDOT and as a bonus may discover what really murdered Hong Kong Police staff sergeant Bernard Wei during that operation. Potential Interrogation or Interview opportunity: Lucy Wei, Bernard's daughter, currently living in London. 

The McGuffin was last seen during the filming of Jackie Chan vehicle Crime Story in 1993. Some of the climactic scenes, including an explosive setpiece, were filmed in Kowloon Walled City. Research, Occult Studies, High Society, Photography discovers what happened next, or finds photographic proof of its existence and location at the time of filming. Possible Interrogation or Interview option: Andy Wong, one of the stunt actors, still hard at work in the Hong Kong film industry.

OPFOR: codename TIGER, a Jin-Gui who's seen it all through dead, black eyes. TIGER can send visions of Kowloon Walled City's past through its Send Dreams ability. TIGER uses its Illusion ability to masquerade as a family restaurant owner in Hong Kong (with zombies as the 'family'); the barbecue pork buns are to die for.

Current owner possibilities include: 

• Blackie Ko, one of the cast of Crime Story, now deceased. Ko took it as a souvenir. Ko died in 2003; presumably his estate has it?
• Edom's Pearl, who keeps it at a private estate in Mumbai.
• Professor Chernenko, who tracked it down and is studying it. Perhaps in a crumbling castle somewhere in Italy ...
• A Conspiracy Node which spirited it out of Hong Kong to Macao. A triad linked to Wo Shing Wo has nominal possession, but the Node has actual control over it and plans to use it in some nefarious deed or other.

That's it for this week! Enjoy.

Human Lanterns (film, Shaw Brothers)

 

Human Lanterns trailer

Two warring noble houses, each alike in dignity, find themselves played for suckers by a third party. The third party has a deep grudge against one of the nobles, and that noble, not realizing the depth of the third party's enmity, asks the third party to make him some fantastic lanterns so the noble can win a competition. 

The third party obliges ...

I've seen some peculiar films in my time but, brother, this one's a doozy. You think you know what's coming. Then you see what's coming. All of it. 

It's mostly shot in-studio on a handful of sets, and that allows the filmmakers to really lavish detail on their setpieces. The villain's lair is a horror-show. The main actors are some of the best, both in martial arts prowess and as actors. The villain's costume, which seems a little comical at first glance, works remarkably well and there are more than a few moments when that grinning death's head provokes an involuntary shudder. 

Definitely one to watch, on a cold Halloween night ...

But let's talk gamification. 

First, that lantern festival. Fantasy settings seldom have festivals, or parties of any kind, unless it's a celebration of the Hero's Victory or 'Christmas, but with Orcs.' Which is a shame, because festivals are a good excuse for inciting incidents and character development. The film doesn't go into a lot of detail about its festival, probably because the Shaw Brothers assumes most of the audience knew all about it. Given that it's a 2,000-year-old tradition drawing on a mix of folkloric and historic sources, there are all sorts of ingredients to choose from. 

I quite like the tradition of the lantern riddle:  "The lantern riddles are done by a host blocking one side of the lantern and pasting riddles on the remaining three sides of the lanterns. Participants will guess the blocked side by solving the riddles, which is called "breaking/solving lantern riddles"." If you guess correctly you get a small prize, but the bigger prize is prestige. 

In games like Dungeons and Dragons where riddle-tests are popular, you could easily sneak one of these into a festival and have the 'reward' be transportation to a small dungeon area, where the characters then have to find their way out again. Along the way they complete a minor quest of the riddle-makers choosing. 

Ravenloft's I'Cath setting would work well with a scenario seed like this one. The characters encounter the riddle-lantern as part of a festival in the dreaming world, and are pushed out of the dreaming world into the waking one with this quest: find a way to bring the riddle-maker's family out of I'Cath. There are some riddle lanterns in the waking world that will bring characters back to the dreaming one, but who knows who (or what) made those lanterns ...

Or in Swords of the Serpentine there could be a lantern festival organized either by a cult or some foreign faction, which is suddenly adopted as a fashionable craze by the aristocracy. Everyone flocks to the lantern makers for their latest creations, each noble house trying to outdo the other. The finest, most fantastical lanterns are prized possessions. But in a sorcerous twist, some of the best lanterns are Tainted ...

Next, the lantern maker. 

In the film it's heavily implied than the lanterns have some peculiar quality all their own, as a consequence of the method of their creation. Even knowing what they are, the hero calls them beautiful. Their luminous seductive image is the last thing he thinks of, when everything else is done.

The film doesn't answer the question, 'what happened to the lanterns?' It's set in nebulous before-times which, for the purpose of this discussion, I'm going to assume is 1800s-ish. Heavy on the ish, and probably closer to 1800 than 1850.

So in a Bookhounds game those lanterns are, perhaps, 80 years old.

Not that long at all, really. 

Antiquities with Bite

A customer of particular importance to the shop has gone Chinoiserie-mad. 

It all started with a glimpse of some antique lanterns in a Limehouse dealer's storefront. The customer, Martyn Bower, swears blind that they felt the power oozing off those lanterns, and they must have them. Except they couldn't persuade the shopkeeper to accept Martyn's bona fides and, wouldn't you know it, Martyn just didn't have the cash on them at the time. Won't the Hound do Martyn a favor and come with Martyn to the store, to help them convince the shopkeeper that Martyn's credit is good? 

Either the Hound does or does not do this. If they do, then Martyn cannot remember exactly where the shop is and they spend the rest of the day looking all over Limehouse for it. 

Disconsolate, Martyn spends the next few weeks moaning and kvetching about how those lanterns were almost theirs. Martyn seeks out anything to do with lantern making, which at least means the Hounds can pick up a few bob catering to Martyn's new craze. 

Then Martyn drops out of sight for a month or two, which at least means the Hounds don't have to listen to Martyn's whines.

When Martyn pops up again, they are looking for a particular book: The Daedalus Mysteries of Light and Art, 1743, English translation of a supposed Chinese original, author unknown, translator Dawes Hapson. Allegedly the original is a text from Shanghai but, as the only person who ever knew for certain is Hapson and he's long gone, tracing that legend is near-on impossible. 

Martyn says they got the lead on Hapson's work from his inquiries in Limehouse.

Option One:  Cult Activity. The text is real and moderately well-known to members of the Hsieh-Tzu Fan. In fact, it was one of the cult who first interested Martyn in all this: it was in the cultist's shop that Martyn saw the peculiar, bewitching lanterns. Now the cult is trying to ensnare Martyn by having Martyn create some lanterns of his own, but to do that they need to make sure that Martyn gets what he wants ... in as unsuspicious a manner as possible. Enter the Hounds.

Option Two: Dreamlands Adjacent. Martyn didn't see those lanterns in a shop in the waking world. Martyn saw them in the Dream and awoke so befuddled that he confused the Dreaming shop he saw them in with one he remembered in Limehouse. Ever since he's been trying to retrace his steps and, in so doing, treads a ritual path through London. He's on the verge of creating an Oernic Gate entirely by accident, and the Daedalus Mysteries are the final piece of the puzzle. If he gets that and makes the lanterns he's craving, London (or at least that bit of it containing the Hounds' shop) could be plunged into waking nightmare.

Option Three: Devilish Inspiration. Martyn has always been devil-obsessed. His feverish imagination has taken him a step too far. Now things are noticing him and ensnaring him in their machinations. The Daedalus Mysteries aren't about lantern making; that's just a cover. It's actually a text written by the astrologer-priests of Daoloth, who used lantern making as a metaphor - bending light itself to their own ends. The idea being to create the tiniest piece of Daoloth in this world, the most microscopic portion, which could then be used to illuminate a kind of lantern-oracle. One of the descendants of those astrologer-priests is using Martyn as a catspaw, to bring this about. Once the lantern is made, assuming Martyn survives the process, the astrologer-priest's descendant intends to take that lantern and use it in their own rituals.

That's it for this week. Enjoy!