Duel with the Devils Film Review

Dubbed

The Devils of the title being the Japanese. A recurring punching bag in Hong Kong and in this case Taiwanese films. Most viewers will likely come to this film for Angela Mao, but the main protagonist is Dorian Tan Tao-liang or as he was nicknamed Flash Legs or Crazy Legs for his high kicking style. Angela makes a few action appearances, but 1977 and 1978 were busy years for her as she made some of her better films then - Broken Oath, The Lady Constables, Two Great Cavaliers and The Legendary Strike. In her few scenes, she is terrific, clobbering Japanese swordsmen but the film belongs to Tao-liang who gives a great physical performance. He was born and trained in Korea but of Chinese ancestry. He won a few tournaments in martial arts, became a teacher (John Liu and Yuen Biao studied under him at some point), moved to Taiwan and got into film.

It is kind of hard to figure out what the setting is for the film. The Japanese seem to have occupied part of China and there are trains but seemingly no guns as all the Japanese bad guys have swords. While Tao-liang is away from home, four dissolute Japanese soldiers kill his father and son and kidnap his wife, the lovely Doris Lung (in a non-action role). He doesn't know which Japanese soldiers they are, so he just kills all that he meets. He arrives in a city which the Japanese are running and becomes friends with the very large and not all that smart Cheng Fu-hung. The two of them just start beating up and killing Japanese soldiers, occasionally assisted by the daughter of the Chinese top cop. Angela in various fashionable caps dressed like a man. He also meets a sweet girl who looks just like his wife, played not surprisingly by Doris Lung.

There is a fight every few minutes, but the big set piece is a take on Bruce Lee's unfinished Game of Death. The Japanese who are rotters to the last second force him to go up a Pagoda, with a challenger on every level. First oddly, a Gwielo fencer, then two giant men who he defeats by tying their small ponytails together, a man with a whip and blades follows, a samurai master against his yo-yo and then the main villain. All solid choreographed fights. The dubbing was crap and the video fairly dark, but still you get your monies worth though of course more of Angela Mao would have been nice.