Director:
Chen Hung-min
Year: 1978
Rating: 7.5
Dubbed.
I almost had to beg for mercy while watching this martial arts film. I needed
a rest. If you are in the mood for kung fu and practically nothing but kung
fu, this is the film for you. I didn't keep track but I doubt if more than
a few minutes went by without another fight breaking out. Like clockwork.
The thing is though that it was really quite well done. Every fight is differentiated
by style, weapons and set-up. A fair amount of imagination is applied to
the fights - two scenarios in particular stick out. One in which a fighter
has to pass these tests - initially having to get by a guard on a bridge
made entirely of upturned swords which gets him into a room with a large
golden Buddha and five young boys dressed in gold resting on it. Then they
spring into action with a collage of somersaults and shimming up walls. It
is great. Then later another big fight takes place in a field of hundreds
of paper umbrellas for no discernable reason but it looks very cool. There
is also a nonsensical hopping vampire scene that made even less sense than
much of the film. But who doesn't love hopping vampires.
I am surprised this isn't better regarded among Angela Mao's films - or at
least I rarely see it mentioned. She is not the main character but she gets
a lot of screen time and is involved in five or six - maybe even seven fights.
I lost count. All of them quite good. 1978 was a very good year for her -
though she was a few years past what most consider to be her classic films
- Hapkido, Lady Whirlwind, The Fate of Lee Khan, When Taekwondo Strikes -
but only a year after what I consider her best film, Broken Oath. All those
were made under the banner of Golden Harvest but it seems that after Broken
Oath she began working as a free agent in various Taiwanese films for different
production companies. The quality and budget generally went down but not
by much for this film.
This being dubbed perhaps they didn't bother with much of an introduction
to what the film was about - it just begins with action and keeps going but
eventually you can stitch it together. There are a group of rebels fomenting
trouble and the Emperor sends agents to investigate. First is the Double
Spear Fighter who is set upon and kills a bunch of attackers and you figure
this is the main hero until some unseen figure with a flute kills him. Ok,
so not him. Next is the fellow who fended off the children - he too shows
up, fights off killers and you figure he must be the hero of this film. Until
the guy with the flute shows up again and kills him - still unseen. Finally
another hero emerges - Ho Kun (Barry Chan) passes all these one on one tests
- one with Chia Ling (aka Judy Lee) who pops in for a cameo fight - sort
of like Bollywood does with dancers - called Item Numbers.
He goes back to the same inn as the other two were killed and runs into Miss
Long (Angela) who is cashier, casino supervisor and all around bouncer and
they immediately get into a fight. Numerous attacks on him occur and Angela
helps him out and does some damage on her own. Oh, I almost forgot - the
head of the rebels is Lo Lieh who barely shows up until a big fight at the
end. The one among the umbrellas. I guess these were the sorts of films that
could be knocked out in those days with ease - I would love to know how long
it took to shoot. The director Chen Hung-min doesn't have a resume that impresses
me and the action choreographer Chen Shih-Wei was behind One-Armed Boxer
with Jimmy Wang-yu but not much else. But they put together this action packed
film to good effect. Up on You Tube.
