The Lost Kung Fu Secrets Film Review

This low budget Taiwanese martial arts film has a number of big names in the cast, but a plodding plot and dreadfully dull dubbing really hurt it. It almost feels sad to see these actors in this film so few years from their glory days, but you have to make a living. Hsu Feng, a favorite of King Hu, gets into a lot of action which is great to see and then there are the exiles from the Shaw Brothers - David Chiang, Wang Hsieh and seductress Hu Chin. And finally there is Paul Chun Pui who became a popular character actor in tons of films in the 1980s and 90s. He is also the real life brother of Chiang and they have a duel to the death in the film.

So that is all good and there is one action set piece after another. They are fun but the choreography isn't very inventive and just feels predictable and formalized. Slower than we are used to and feels too practiced. A beat or two off with guys avoiding blows with jumps or tumbles before the blow. And clearly missing at times. It is quantity vs quality. But for me, a pleasure seeing Chiang and Hsu Feng squarely in the middle of everything. I have come across a few other non-King Hu films in which she has a flower vase role.

A Christian sect led by Paul Chun Pui is trying to take over China, but the Imperial army led by Wang Hsieh is getting the upper hand. Wang's bodyguard Chiang warns him that his second-in-command Tsai Hung is a traitor, but Wang refuses to believe this. Instead, he walks into a trap with his wife and daughter (Hsu Feng). Tsai attacks them, but Wang is able to escape along with Chiang and Hsu (the mother kills herself in order not to slow them down). Chiang and Hsu go off in one direction and the rest of the film is them trying to escape one trap after another. Some are fun such as the female assassin group headed by Hu Chin armed with metal frisbees or the final fight between Chiang and a spiked armored Tsai while Hsu Feng dodges fireballs and kills her attackers. But overall, the lack of imagination and a low budget makes this at best middling. Directed by Law Chi.