The Legendary Strike
Director: Wong Fung
Year: 1978
Rating: 7.5
Though there is not
a lot of action in this film, it has an intriguing plot that will keep the
viewer interested. It is full of conspiracies, betrayals, hidden identities
and a search for a sacred treasure. It has a fine ensemble cast with Angela
Mao, Carter Wong, Mars and Chu Kong among them.
A Ching Prince (Carter Wong) secretly sells a sacred pearl to a Japanese
emissary, but he has set forth a devious plan so that he can get the pearl
back. The emissary suspects evil doing and hides a fake pearl in his hair
and swallows the real one. On his way back, the Japanese is attacked by Mars
(Jackie Chan’s partner in Police Story I) and is killed. A fellow who claims
to be a Shaolin monk then sets upon Mars and in the ensuing fight Mars is
killed. All this has been watched by Chu Kong (Sydney in The Killer) and only
he is aware that the pearl has been swallowed by the emissary.
Chu steals the dead body of Mars and soon the Chings and a fellow Japanese
are in pursuit. Soon dead bodies and coffins are getting mixed up and no one
seems to know why they are all after Mar’s body. At one point – about 30-minutes
into the film Angela makes her appearance. One of the coffins is tracked
down and opened – only to have Angela in it - who then winks at her very
surprised spectators.
Angela it turns out is a Korean rebel and she soon teams up with Chu to
fight the Chings. This leads to some good fighting in the last thirty minutes
of the film. The fighting is particularly interesting because Angela and
Chu are more than evenly matched by Carter Wong and his henchmen. This
is a pretty good film for the most part – a little disappointing in terms
of fights – but a solid plot, some suspense and good performances from Angela
and Chu make this one of Angela’s better films.
Rating: 7.5
