Fast Fists
Director: Ting Shan-hsi
Year: 1973
Rating: 5.0
Dubbed
in English
I just had the need for a Jimmy Wang-yu bust up of dead bodies and blood.
Picked this at random. It was one of Wang-yu's Taiwanese films and those
tended to be of a lower quality than his Shaw films by a lot, but even from
his Hong Kong films post-Shaw. This also has Paul Chang-chung who had been
a Shaw star in the 1960s with fare like The Golden Buddha and Operation Lipstick,
but his contract with Shaw appears to have ended after 1968 and he was working
in Taiwan or as a free agent in Hong Kong. The other main player here is
Kuo Hsiao-chuang who was a Taiwanese Peking Opera performer as well as a
martial artist and according to one source, she was called the "Queen of
Martial Arts Films". By whom, I don't know since she only made a handful
of films - but she is impressive here.
It is a messy film and I would guess that this dubbed version had a few ugly
cuts made. There is a fair amount of fighting, but nearly all of it is of
the swing your arms wildly and hope to hit something. Wang-yu was never known
for his precise martial arts but this is clunky as hell. The plot is of more
interest than the action oddly enough. Wang-yu is the head of the Red Lanterns
who make a habit of plundering and raping people in small towns. But when
they are not doing that, they seem like nice enough folks, sitting around
the fire and joking with one another. During the latest romp and rape, Wang-yu
comes across Pi-chu (Kuo Hsiao-chuang) who is on her way to an opera performance
in a nearby town, but her carriage has broken down. Being the gentleman
he is when not plundering, he offers to take her and then sticks around for
her performance. He says to his friend "Did you see what a tight little butt
she had when she did those flips". Clearly, he has fallen in love.
But the cops recognize him and a big brawl breaks out with lots of broken
furniture. And then a knife like edit to him and Pi-chu having noodles together.
Nothing like noodles after a big bash. Three bowls. This takes place during
the period of the Warlords in the early part of the 20th century. There are
a bunch of different parties for Wang-yu to fight - the police headed by
Chang-chung (but he is really a good guy), the troops of the Warlord, two
gangs who both want Pi-chu to perform for them and have specialized in the
head-butt, the rebels and even his own men when they think he has gone gaga
for a woman. Nowhere near the body count I was hoping for.
