Dubbed
This Taiwanese kung fu film is mid-level Jimmy Wang-yu with an embarrassingly
low kill count. That isn't the Wang-yu we all know and love. I kept waiting
for the one-on-many fight leaving dead bodies strewn on the ground like autumn
leaves but it never came about. But they throw together a great cast that
are good fun to watch but at the same time it feels like a lost opportunity.
The poor dubbing and murky video off of YouTube did not help and whether
the haphazard editing was on the original version or this one I don't know.
But at times it made little sense. But it has quite the five-some - Wang
Yu and Chia Ling vs Chang Yi, Hsu Feng and Chen Hung-lieh. Lots of fights
all around. Chen Hung-lieh (Jade Faced Tiger in Come Drink with Me) gets
a lot of quality evil time with his leering bad toothed grin and slicing
blades. He brings a much needed energy to the film. Everyone else looks a
little bored to be in another low budget Taiwanese kung-fu film with a lousy
script. Wang-yu was coming off The Man from Hong Kong and Hsu Feng just finished
the Valiant Ones so this must have felt like a big step down.
A militia has gathered to congratulate themselves for being brought into
the government service but they are attacked by a band of hired bandits and
killed. Wang-yu and Chia Ling show up in time to capture the head villain
but he won't say who was behind this. Since we have seen him in many other
films, we immediately know it has to be Chang Yi who presents a front as
a philanthropist. The prisoner is killed on his way to the courts by hired
assassin Chen Hung-lieh who then decides to stick around because he is hoping
to score with inn keeper Hsu Feng who hired him. We know she is a baddy because
she always has a cigarette holder as long as the Eerie Canal in her mouth.
But sweet Hsu has given her heart to Chang Yi and in one of the oddest scenes
ever when they have to part the film plays it as tragic melodrama.
Wang-yu comes to town to look for the killer of the prisoner and brings Chia
Ling along as it was her father who had organized the militia and been murdered.
Some small but decent fights ensue - Chia against Hsu Feng and Chen Hung-lieh,
Chia against Chang Yi, Wang-yu against Chen Hung-lieh and then both Wang-yu
and Chia Ling in a fine fight against Chang Yi. The first hour belongs to
Chia Ling and Wang-yu stays out of the action till the final third. The director
is Larry Tu Chong-hsun who is not known for much of anything and the choreography
is from Huang Kuo-chu who had choreographed General Stone, Five Pretty Young
Ladies, Scorching Sun, Fierce Winds among others.
