Killer from Above
Director: Law Chi
Year:
1977
Rating: 6.0
In Mandarin with
subs
Sorry for the quality of the photos but
they came from the video.
This old school kung fu film from Taiwan
has a good mix of ex Shaw Brothers and Taiwanese people both in front of
and behind the camera. Nice to see a film with wires only used for jumping
but keeping the action clean, simple and fast. Behind the camera is director
Law Chi who directed over fifty films - many of them martial arts - outside
of the big studios and Chan Chuen choreographs the action. He along with
Lau Kar-wing were behind the action in a few Shaw films - King Boxer, The
Swift Knight, The Boxer from Shantung - before he left Shaw and worked on
a number of the Angela Mao films. In front of the camera there is Lo Lieh,
Carter Wong, Chang Yi, Wang Ping and Cliff Lok. There is nothing fancy here.
Not the action and not the sets - but the plot is actually a little more
interesting than the typical revenge film. Though of course revenge is in
there somewhere.
Right out of the shoot, Lo Lieh meets a
man on the street and tells him "Prepare yourself for the afterlife" and
follows up on that. Then to a fancy brothel where a man is surrounded by
a few beauties and kills him as well. This upsets the Martial Arts Council
and they give Carter the duty of finding this killer and bringing him to
justice. At this point, we assume Lo Lieh is the bad guy as he has been in
so many films and that Carter is the good guy as he has been in many films.
Nope. Quite the opposite. They put a 10,000 taels in gold reward to anyone
who brings him in. This gets the professional killers busy tracking him down.
All they know is that he wears a black straw hat and has a short sword. That
actually makes him fairly recognizable and the comic Mutt and Jeff relief
try and capture him but they are not too good at this and Lo Lieh easily
defeats them but lets him go. They are so grateful that they stick around
helping him for the rest of the film.
Next up is a tricky trap - a honey pot of
sorts. Wang Ping is set upon by a group of men and Lo Lieh rescues her and
takes her to a shelter - whereupon the same men show up and fight him - and
Wang stabs him in the back. They introduce themselves as Smiling Killer (Chang
Yi) and Widow Spider. But this is actually his plan - to be captured and
taken to the headquarters of Carter. Because his master is Carter's brother
and has disappeared but not before writing a message and sending it into
the river where by happenstance Lo Lieh finds it. It tells of some conspiracy
to kill all the martial arts masters. Cliff Lok shows up to rescue
him but again he has to allow himself to be captured. So, a little more complicated
than normal. Lots of betrayals, traps and a ton of fights. No time for any
romance or hanky-panky. Just the facts, Ma'am.