Why Ronny Yu’s The Postman Fights Back, starring Leung Kar-yan, is an unusual wuxia gem
Starring Leung Kar-yan and with a young Chow Yun-fat on the cast, 1982’s The Postman Fights Back is an intriguing mix of Western and wuxia
Here we discuss The Postman Fights Back with film historian Frank Djeng, who provided the commentary with Yu for the 88 Films Blu-ray release.
The Postman Fights Back is very different to most of the martial arts films of the early 1980s.
Yes, it is. It’s more of an “Eastern Western”. Usually, when Hong Kong filmmakers make martial arts films that are influenced by Westerns, they just put some elements from the genre inside what they usually do. But here, Yu goes a bit deeper – it’s as if he is actually making a proper Western.
The courier, the main character, is like a Pony Express rider, so the Western idea is there right from the start. There’s also the theme of new technology coming in and changing the way of life. The courier in Postman Fights Back is going to lose his job as the new railway is coming. Showing the effect of the railroads on frontier life was common in American Westerns.
There is a mining scene, and Fan Mei-sheng’s character uses dynamite as a weapon, which is something you don’t see in a typical wuxia.