Instrument of Murder: The Movie
Deadful Melody is a 1994 Wuxia film starring Brigitte Lin and Yuen Biao, based on the Ni Kuang novel of the same name. Released in the peak of the 90s wuxia craze, after the Swordsman movies, Butterfly and Sword and The Bride With White Hair, it is Brigitte Lin's very last wuxia film, ever since her first note a decade prior.
Snow (Brigitte) is a wandering warrior carrying a magical lyre, a dangerous, forbidden weapon which is a family heirloom, whose powers can destroy entire armies and every sect in the martial arts world wants to get their hands on it. After losing her family as a child, during an ambush for the lyre, Snow is in hiding to prevent the instrument from falling into the wrong hands. But when a run-in with an over-ambitious Inspector, Lui (Yuen) of the Tianhu Escort Agency reveals the enemies of her past are seeking the magical lyre, Snow and Lui had to team up in an epic final battle while learning a surprising revelation regarding both their pasts.
This film contains the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Snow, fittingly enough being played by 90s wuxia-queen Brigitte Lin.
- Actor Allusion: Brigitte Lin’s Snow is yet another the androgynous, vengeful figures seeking to avenge her past, much like Asia the Invincible.
- Almost Dead Guy: In the opening flashback, Snow’s father, a senior of the martial arts sect and guardian of the magical lyre, receives news of the villains on their way to steal the lyre from his sworn younger brother, who arrives while sustaining multiple injuries and impaled by blades from Master Ghost and the Witch. He managed to blurt out the message before he succumbs, a few seconds before Master Ghost and his minions catches up.
- Amazon Brigade: Besides Ching-fa "The Witch", Master Ghost’s army includes half a dozen female acolytes who are his personal guards. Against Snow and her lyre, though, they last for roughly 4 seconds.
- Attack Backfire: Master Ghost eventually got his hands on the powerful magic lyre Snow is holding, and decides to use it against Snow. But without the proper knowledge of how to use it, he ends up causing a massive explosion that propels him backwards several feet and killing four of his minions nearby.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Master Ghost, Master Fire, Ching-fa "The Witch".
- Blood from the Mouth: Happens to several characters killed by Snow, due to the energy blasts from the magical lyre causing their bodies to overflow with qi and crushing their insides. Ching-fa "The Witch" throws up a rather huge spray of blood from her mouth when Snow takes her down in the finale.
- But Now I Must Go: Despite finally reuniting after decades, at the end of the movie siblings Snow and Lui still have to say goodbye to each other, due to Snow being the guardian of the lyre and must never allow anyone close to her to be put in harm's way by enemies who wants the lyre for themselves.
- Dark Action Girl: Ching-fa, who earns herself the nickname "the Witch". She’s notably one of the few main antagonists which is female, and Snow’s sworn nemesis because she killed Snow’s mother decades ago.
- Gratuitous Ninja: Master Ghost’s legion of personal guardians resembles ninjas, what with their face-obscuring masks, all-black clothing, ability to leap great distances In a Single Bound and appearing only at night for stealth reasons.
- Instrument of Murder: The magical lyre of death, which can cause massive qi explosions, overload its victims with insane amounts of qi energy and remove heads, arms and limbs. The sheer existance of the instrument can destroy the world of martial arts, and Snow’s parents – its guardians – considers it a forbidden weapon that must be kept sealed, and never be used. It’s final and most powerful attack, the "Heavenly Dragon Eight Notes", can utterly wipe out an army in under a minute, as Snow demonstrates in the climax by unleashing the lyre’s full power.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Ching-fa "The Witch" explodes in mid-sentence...
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Lui, the younger brother of Snow, resembling the archetypical Wuxia hero.
- Long-Lost Relative: While Snow assumes her brother Lui has died with her parents during her family’s massacre, Lui is too young to remember he even had a family. Hence Lui is surprised to find out the dreaded wielder of the magic lyre turns out to be his long-lost elder sister.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Victims hit by qi energy blasts from the magical lyre suffers this fate. Taken up to eleven when Snow finally unleashes the full power of the lyre in the presence of Master Ghost’s army, where over a hundred faceless mooks charges forward towards Snow… only to gets hit repeatedly by wave after wave after wave of qi explosions the size of nukes, turning the entire courtyard into a field of dismembered limbs and body parts.
- A Minor Kidroduction: In the opening scene depicting the theft of the magical lyre from Snow and Lui’s parents, where both Snow and Lui are still kids and witnessed their parents being murdered. Snow escapes with the lyre, and after a Time Skip she’s now an adult played by Brigitte Lin with a deadly magical instrument.
- Off with His Head!: Master Tung Fong-pak’s fate, after Snow pulls the strings of the magic lyre back and releases it from a distance away. Being made of Razor Floss, it catches him in the throat, and Snow later removes his head from his prone body effortlessly.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Played with, Snow’s real name is Huang Xue-mei, but everyone else – including her long-lost brother Lui – calls her Snow. Justified in the latter case, Lui barely remembers her since they were separated while he’s still a toddler.
- Purple Is Powerful: Snow spends the first half of the movie in purple robes, and kills plenty (including Master Tung Fong-pak) while in this attire. She does switch to a White Shirt of Death for the climax however.
- Separated at Birth: Snow and Lui, the latter whom Snow assumes have died when her parents. They are in equal parts shocked and surprised when they reunite as adults.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: The film opens with Snow playing her lyre while alone in a secluded lake in the middle of nowhere, befitting her status as a wandering hero, then flashes back to when she was a child living with her brother. It quickly flashes forward to her as an adult after her parents’ deaths.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As seen in her flashback, Snow used to be a bubbly, cuddly, innocent child until witnessing her parents’ demise and assuming her entire family, including her brother, has died. As an adult she is a ruthless killing machine who doesn’t bat an eye after killing hundreds.
- Wuxia
- Wire Fu
- You Are Already Dead: In the climax, Snow defeats Ching-fa "The Witch" by stunning her with an overload of qi from the magical lyre. The Witch simply gloats that it will take more than that to kill her, did an Evil Laugh and lunges at Snow… before suddenly exploding into a hundred giblets.
- You Have Failed Me: After Snow killed one of Master Ghost’s two acolytes, the other returns back to report of their failure to retrieve the magical lyre from Snow. Master Ghost promptly crushes his insides in a rage.
- You Killed My Father: Snow’s vengeance towards the villains, to avenge her family’s massacre, particularly because Master Ghost killed her father while The Witch killed her mother, and causing her to be separated with her younger brother in the process. Her younger brother didn’t die though, even if it takes her until adulthood to find out.
- Zerg Rush: In the final confrontation, Master Ghost’s entire army of 100-odd faceless mooks attempts to attack Snow all at once, who is armed with the powerful magical lyre, in an attempt to overwhelm her. They are no match for the lyre’s powers, who in under a minute turns them into an entire pile of dismembered body parts.
