Devil's Treasure
Director: Jeng Cheung-who (a.k.a. Jeong Chang
Hwa and a few others)
Year: 1973
Part adventure film, part thriller, this Golden
Harvest production slowly evolves into a much better film than initially
anticipated as it ratchets up the tension and leaves the “so cool” factor
behind. Directed by Korean born Jeng Cheung-woo who was responsible for
such terrific action films as Broken Oath, The Skyhawk and King Boxer,
there is a fair amount of action here with a few future stars, but purists
might be annoyed to see dramatic actor O Chun Hung knock around Sammo Hung
and Ing-Sik Whang (also Korean) – not only individually but even when they
team up against him. Still, it’s always good to see Sammo early on in his
career and not only does he have a fairly large role with a couple fights
but was co-action choreographer as well. On the other hand, fans of Nora
Miao may be disappointed to see her strictly in a non-action faithful wife
and good mother role.
Wang Chun (O Chun Hung) establishes his tough
guy credentials early on in the film when a gang of punks tries to coerce
money out of him. He quickly knocks them about and sends them scuttling
away on all fours – and then swims across the harbor to Hong Kong! Why?
Just because he can. He is a professional diver and needs to pay off his
dead father’s debts – so when two slimy characters in sunglasses and smirks
show up and offer him what could well be a shady job he only hesitates
for a minute before accepting it. They have him dive down to a Japanese
ship sunk in WWII to find a box of gold bars and when they open it up all
I could think was $1,000 an ounce! It made me feel greedy. Of course, now
that the gang has the gold they want to get rid of Wang but he fully expects
this and turns the tables on them – but just as he does a gang of four
Japanese hoodlums show up to claim the gold and kill off everyone – Sammo
and Whang being two of them - though behind his droopy moustache Sammo
looks more like a used car salesman than a thug.
The resourceful Wang turns the tables on them
as well and before he knows it he has all the gold and sets off for home
and his waiting sweetheart, Yen Yen (Nora). Jump ahead six years and Wang
has wisely left the country for some unnamed land – perhaps Canada or Australia
– and married Yen Yen and procreated Shan Shan. Here he owns a vast farm
and is a model citizen, but not so wisely he didn’t change his name and
sure enough the Japanese gang shows up one day on his doorstep demanding
the gold unless he wants to see his wife and daughter killed. This touches
off a tense cross country chase as Wang and his family try to escape by
car, on foot and by rail in a land that is totally barren of any other
people. It makes for a decently entertaining brew of action and nerves
though it at times is a bit frustrating when Wang constantly leaves various
members of the gang alive when he has a chance to kill them. But then the
movie would have been a lot shorter.
The VCD is widescreen. The interior and night
scenes are almost impossible to see and there are a number of them. Probably
25% of the time the sub-titles are indecipherable.
My rating for this film: 6.5