The last sound evil-doers will hear... the funeral bells for villains!
The Bells of Death is a 1968 Martial Arts Movie from Shaw Brothers, starring Chang Yi.
Wei-fu (Yi) is a simple woodcutter living a quaint, normal life, until a random encounter with a trio of sadistic marauders, led by Bandit Lord Tso, ends with Wei-fu's family being slaughtered by the bandits just for fun. Determined to avenge his family, Wei-fu decides to seek the tutelage of the greatest martial artist from the hills, keeping with him his dead mother's silver bells, to remind him of his vengeance.
Five years later, Wei-fu is now a skilled swordsman and ruthless killing machine, who strikes fear in the heart of bandits and evil-doers. Carrying the same silver bells he kept from his mother five years ago, the sound of bells will be an omen of death to villains, fated to fall by Wei-fu's sword, for the silver bells of death are the last thing evil-doers will hear before their deaths!
Tropes featured in The Bells of Death include:
- Battle in the Rain: Subverted: the confrontation between Wei-fu and Ying Tien takes place in a dark alleyway, but just as both warriors are sizing up each other, it begins to rain. They instead decide to move their battle into a nearby abandoned temple.
- Bindle Stick: Wei-fu is depicted Walking the Earth carrying whatever meagre belongings he has on a sack hanging from a stick after losing his family. Some DVD covers of the movie actually has him travelling in this fashion
. - Calling Card: Wei-fu's silver bells. It's a reminder to bandits that they will die in a few minutes for being the villainous scum they are!
- Call to Agriculture: In the epilogue, after Wei-fu has killed bandit Lord Tso and all his followers, he decides to return to his old home — with his new girlfriend-turned-fiancee Hsiang-hsiang - hang his sword (which had the blood of 60-odd bandits on it) and spend the rest of his life as a farmer.
- The Dreaded: Wei-fu, who is nicknamed "The Bells of Death" after having killed dozens and dozens of evil-doers, including both of Lord Tso's followers Yang Chang and Ying Tien. His name strikes fear among villains, and hearing the sound of his silver bells is compared to hearing a funeral bell.
- Dutch Angle: Used occasionally in fight scenes, notably when Wei-fu battles the Terrible Trio of villains, with the camera tilting whenever Wei-fu gets knocked down in combat.
- Facial Horror: Some of the bandits killed by Wei-fu's sword gets their face carved like turkeys. Including the second of the Co-Dragons, Ying Tien.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The very premise of the film. The sound of Wei-fu's bells means some evil-doer will die by his sword within minutes, if not seconds.
- Hell Is That Noise: Invoked In-Universe. Bandits and evil-doers, moments before Wei-fu stalks and kils them, will hear the ringing from his silver bells, the same bells he kept from his dead mother.
- Hermit Guru: Wei-fu's Old Master, a retired vagabond warrior who spends his days wandering through the mountains. Days after Wei-fu lose his family, he witnessed said master single-handedly beating up a bunch of bandit mooks, at which point Wei-fu decides to seek the old warrior as his teacher.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Wei-fu's sister at the end of the film, taking an arrow fired by Tso meant for her brother.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This is how Yang Chang, one of the Co-Dragons, kill Wei-fu's little brother. Flipped over when in their penultimate confrontation, Wei-fu avenged his brother by impaling Yang Chang on a set of bamboo spikes.
- Karmic Death: For the villains...
- Yang Chang, who killed Wei-fu's brother by impalement, dies when Wei-fu back-flips him front-first into bamboo spikes.
- Ying Tien often gloats at the prospect of hacking innocent people apart with his heavy sword, only to have his face hacked up by Wei-fu's sword.
- Lord Tso, in the opening massacre, kills Wei-fu's mother via arrow through her head, and near the end kills Wei-fu's sister using the same weapon. Wei-fu managed to hijack his arrows, and put one of Tso's own arrows through himself in the final battle just as Tso is fleeing.
- Kick the Dog: After asking Wei-fu for directions, Bandit Lord Tso decide to fire arrows at Wei-fu just for the sake of being a dick. In the same scene merely a minute later, Tso actually asks his Co-Dragons where he should put an arrow into Wei-fu's mother, before deciding to arrow the old woman at the back of her head.
- Murder by Mistake: Ying Tien, the second of the Co-Dragons, decide to strike after Wei-fu has killed Yang Chang. But as they have not met for five years, Ying Tien kills the wrong swordsman, and incorrectly boasts to his subordinates that he just killed the "Bells of Death".
- Never Found the Body: In the opening scene, Wei-fu returns home to find his mother and younger brother dead, and his sister is nowhere to be found, which he assumes her to be dead too. In the final scene, it's revealed that Wei-fu's sister is actually still alive, having spent five years as the bandits' concubine and mistress.
- Nice Girl: Hsiang-hsiang, the Hooker with a Heart of Gold and serving girl who is the nicest character to the story, offering her sympathies to Wei-fu after learning of how he lose his family. Of course they end up together by the end of the film.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Right at the beginning of the film, Wei-fu gives directions to Bandit Lord Tso and his minions on how to locate the nearest stream. His reward is having the bandits pass by his home, where they kill his mother, younger brother, and abduct his sister.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Wei-fu, upon being taken into the bandits' lair at the end of the film, is surprised to see that Bandit Lord Tso has prepared a feast for him, complete with concubines, and offers Wei-fu a We Can Rule Together deal.
- Off with His Head!: In the tavern battle, Wei-fu relieves an Elite Mook bandit of his head via sword.
- Orbital Shot: Used in the final battle, when hordes and hordes of bandit mooks forms a circle around Wei-fu while trying to rush him down.
- Petal Power: A live-action example: When a group of bandits tries to harass Wei-fu, unaware that this simple-looking vagabond is actually a trained expert martial artist, Wei-fu responds by using his qi to absorb handfuls of dead leaves on the floor and hurl them at his opponents. Most of the leaves ends up sticking to the bandits' faces with enough force to rip off their skins.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: For the bandits' leader, Lord Tso, whose attire the whole movie consists of black shirts and trousers, and red robes. None of the lesser bandits or his Co-Dragons are depicted wearing red at any point of the film.
- Revenge: The film's central theme revolves around this.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The entire plot of the movie; how Wei-fu, a simple woodcutter, lose his entire family to a bandit assault, where he then seeks the guidance of martial arts masters to train himself into a vengeance-fueled killing machine and avenge his family.
- Sound-Only Death: Wei-fu's kid brother early in the film. Thankfully.
- Sword Fight: Wei-fu against Tso Ching-lung and his lesser mooks. The Co-Dragons subverts this by using different weapons other than swords though.
- Terrible Trio: The cruel and sadistic bandit lord, Tso Ching Lung, and his two Co-Dragons, Ying Tien and Yang Chang, who regularly terrorizes innocent townfolks and massacres villagers For the Evulz, including killing Chang Wei-fu's entire family and abducting his sister in the opening prologue.
- Took a Level in Badass: Wei-fu, after spending five years with the hermit warrior, complete with an extensive Training Montage scene, went from a simple woodcutter to a swordsman, fighter and eventual killing machine.
- Tragic Keepsake: The titular bells used to belong to Wei-fu's mother. Now it's a memento and reminder for him to avenge his family's deaths at all costs.
- Training Montage: Wei-fu training with the hermit warrior to become a skilled swordsman and fighter.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Sadly, when Wei-fu and his long-lost sister reunite with each other (see one trope below) for the first time in five years, they are forced to pretend they don't know each other, to prevent blowing their covers right in front of Lord Tso and his bandit legions.
- Wham Shot: At the bandits' banquet, when Wei-fu - and the audience - realizes Lord Tso's personal concubines turns out to be his sister whom he thought had died in the family raid five years ago.
- Would Hurt a Child: Yang Chang, who actually "volunteers" to go for the kill when he noticed a little boy - Wei-fu's kid brother - hiding from him. He is in fact gleeful at the prospect of impaling a child!
- Wire Fu: Of course.
- Wuxia: A tale of revenge as old as time.
