Flying Swallow

                                                     
Director: Cheung Hang
Year: 1978
Rating: 2.0
Aka - Ninja Swords of Death (there are no ninjas)

Dubbed - Ocean Shores

Over the last few days, I have had a pretty good run of good old kung fu films even though I chose them somewhat randomly. Well, my luck ran out. This is dreadful. A real verifiable stinker. I don't know how much of it may be due to the Ocean Shores cut, but it is a mess. The director Cheung Hang only made four films, so it may just be incompetency. A shame because a film with Tien Peng and Chia Ling in it normally means a solid time and a lot of action ahead. They were two of the bigger Taiwanese martial arts stars. But Chia Ling doesn't even show up till the 75-minute mark and does nothing. There is a never-ending amount of talking with only the occasional action scene. And the dubbing will feel like someone is drilling into your head. I would have cashed out my chips early on, but I kept expecting Chia Ling to show up and have a good fight or two.



Tien Peng is a swordsman with something to prove. To be the best and get revenge for something that happened to him years before - that is never shown. On the road one man challenges him to a fight - I will kill you he warns the fellow - and he is right. Another time he sees a trafficker with four women and kills him freeing a particular woman he had met earlier . Three years later he goes into a brothel and there she is (Emily Chang). But he hasn't come to town to bed prostitutes. It is to challenge Dragon (Chiang Pin) to a duel. Dragon beat him up ten years previously. But there is another swordsman (Tien Ho) who wants in on the game. And then another swordsman shows up that we never saw earlier. These duels last about 30 seconds. A long wait for very little. There is a tournament of fighters that isn't bad - a showcase of the talent that was in Taiwan. One fighter asks Tien the night before that if he dies, will you take care of my son. Oh, maybe some Lone Wolf and Cub. Nope, the guy dies and Tien walks away. Well, you can't win them all. This was a snorefest.