The Fist That Kills
Director: Wong
tun-lam
Year: 1972
Rating: 6.0
Dubbed
Aka - Ninja Fist of Fire (there are no ninjas)
Aka - Fingers That Kill
This Taiwanese martial arts film was directed
by none other than Wong Tin-lam, one of the most legendary directors in Hong
Kong. He began directing in the early 1950's and then hit his peak with his
work at Cathay with a number of classic films - Wild, Wild Rose, The Greatest
Civil War on Earth, The Greatest Wedding on Earth, The Story of Three Loves
- but when Cathay shut down at the end of the 60s, he slowed down and went
back and forth between a few lesser known studios until his son was ready
to take over directing duties. That son was of course perhaps the most prolific
director of the past 40-years, Wong Jing. His so far 106 films as director
still falls short of his father's 143 films. At Cathay Wong Tin-lam was primarily
famous for his comic films though he dabbled a bit in martial arts films
- Mad, Mad, Mad Sword, Travel with a Sword - but earlier in his career he
had directed a load of Flying Swordsman, Beggar Su and even Wong Fei-hung
films. None of those to my knowledge are available. After his directing career
came to an end, he moved into acting and became quite popular for his character
roles in Milkyway films and others. I wasn't really prepared for how much
action there is in this and how inventive some of it feels. The action choreographer
is Lin Yu-chuan who seems to have stuck to Taiwanese films - but it is very
solid if not at the level that Shaw was at the time. Lots of trampoline and
wire work.
Lesser known than some of her other Taiwanese
female action stars such as Angela Mao, Polly Shang-kuan and Chia Lin, Chang
Chin-chin appeared in over 70 films, many of them action films. This is the
seventh that I have seen and she always impresses. I can't find any information
on her though, so no idea if she came out of an opera school like the other
three did. Here she is a roving swordswoman by the name of Chow San-fei which
seems to strike terror into the hearts of bad men when they hear it. The
film opens with her high up on a cliff who spots a bunch of dead men below.
Naturally, she jumps off the cliff to investigate. She is looking for the
young Prince (Chang Wu-ren) who is in line to the throne. He has just escaped
from the Dragon Fortress and everyone is looking for him.
She comes across five men from the Dragon
Fortress peacefully eating at an inn and takes a dislike to them. And kills
them all. One guy she sends to the top of a tree, another to the roof of
the inn. In other action, the lovely daughter (Tso Yen-yung) is attacked
by a group from the Fortress and is saved by the heroics of Fu (Lu Ping)
who then is offered the hand of the daughter by her father (Wei Su). Wow.
That was a quick romance. Shi (Chiang Ming) shows up and takes an instant
dislike to Fu - Fu you. The Prince becomes like a yo-yo between Dragon Fortress
and the good guys who want to take him to the throne. Loads of action - mainly
of the sword fighting variety - with Chang Chin-chin in the middle of it.
There is one terrific scene when she is surrounded by about 20-men all twirling
torches and doing somersaults around her.