Chambara are the more swordfighty-swashbuckley-action-oriented subgenre of Japanese jidaigeki period dramas -- stuff like the Zatoichi, Lady Snowblood, Abarenbo Shogun and Lone Wolf & Cub series, Kurosawa samurai films, that sort of thing. My earliest exposure to all this stuff was childhood TV-watching in Hawai'i, and there wasn't as much Korean programming available then on broadcast TV, a little more Chinese stuff (mostly 70s Shaw Brothers martial-arts dubs late at night), but there was a Japanese station that ran a lot of period dramas during the day, and 70s anime and tokusatsu during kiddie-viewing hours -- my earliest anime memories are some of my earliest TV memories, period: shows like Ikkyu-san (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfwtTRj8mqk) and Candy Candy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXy-624IM20) probably explain why even relatively crude late-80s/early-90s anime/manga hold no terrors for me.
BWWH I couldn't help but fall in love with, it had two of my favorite leads (Brigitte Lin, who I've girlcrushed over since Swordsman III, and the late Leslie Cheung, here with his good looks dirtied up a bit with a tasty layer of wu xia style grunge) in a duty vs. honor, enemies-as-lovers tragic supernatural plot, with absolutely lush visuals and a strikingly sensual love scene for early-90s HK wu xia. Cheung's character is the heir to a powerful martial clan, but he's uncomfortable with the pressures and politics of his position. Brigitte is a nameless orphan girl adopted by wolves who's been brought up to be the assassin for a hill-tribe cult (led by the evil fraternal Siamese twins -- the male twin is madly in lust with her, to his sibling's endless amusement -- she doesn't return the interest, of course.) They meet and fall hard for each other -- not quite at first sight, as Cheung's character has been haunted since childhood by his memories of an encounter with the wolf-girl -- and plan to do whatever is necessary to abdicate from their clans so they can have a peaceful life together...but of course things can't possibly work out that smoothly.
There's a sequel, but it doesn't have the same magic as the original -- the leads from the first film play only a small part in it and most of it is a more standard HK "plucky mismatched band go up to fight against impossible odds" sort of action plot compared to the epic romantic tragedy of the first film. It has some good moments and charming characters and it does bring a good final resolution to the story, but it's just not as magical as the first film.
This music video gives you a fairly non-spoilery idea of the visuals, including some fine Leslie Cheung hairporn:
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BWWH I couldn't help but fall in love with, it had two of my favorite leads (Brigitte Lin, who I've girlcrushed over since Swordsman III, and the late Leslie Cheung, here with his good looks dirtied up a bit with a tasty layer of wu xia style grunge) in a duty vs. honor, enemies-as-lovers tragic supernatural plot, with absolutely lush visuals and a strikingly sensual love scene for early-90s HK wu xia. Cheung's character is the heir to a powerful martial clan, but he's uncomfortable with the pressures and politics of his position. Brigitte is a nameless orphan girl adopted by wolves who's been brought up to be the assassin for a hill-tribe cult (led by the evil fraternal Siamese twins -- the male twin is madly in lust with her, to his sibling's endless amusement -- she doesn't return the interest, of course.) They meet and fall hard for each other -- not quite at first sight, as Cheung's character has been haunted since childhood by his memories of an encounter with the wolf-girl -- and plan to do whatever is necessary to abdicate from their clans so they can have a peaceful life together...but of course things can't possibly work out that smoothly.
There's a sequel, but it doesn't have the same magic as the original -- the leads from the first film play only a small part in it and most of it is a more standard HK "plucky mismatched band go up to fight against impossible odds" sort of action plot compared to the epic romantic tragedy of the first film. It has some good moments and charming characters and it does bring a good final resolution to the story, but it's just not as magical as the first film.
This music video gives you a fairly non-spoilery idea of the visuals, including some fine Leslie Cheung hairporn: