All the aliases of this film only begin to do it justice and are as confusing
as the film itself. Trying to rate this film is a hopeless exercise really.
It is nearly incoherent and inexplicable but it is marvelously inventive
and totally insane. I would love to see this on a big screen with a big bucket
of popcorn on my lap yelling along with the crowd at the frantic nonsensical
happenings. This should be a Midnight Movie somewhere in the world. I was
surprised to see that it was not directed by either of the two Taiwanese
directors of the absurd - Chu Yen-ping (Golden Queen Commandos, Fantasy Mission
Force, Seven Foxes) or Lee Tso-nam (Kung Fu Wonder Child, Magic Warriors,
The Challenge of Lady Ninja). Instead it is directed by Chang Peng-I who
I know nothing about. I get the sense that there is a whole world of crazy
ass kung-fu Taiwanese films made in the 1980s after the censorship rules
were relaxed. But most I would guess are lost. This one has been saved in
a murky print on YouTube and with nearly the entire film taking place at
night, so good luck with making it out (I could not get decent picts).
The plot could not be simpler. Everyone wants to kill Snowy White (Tien Peng).
Some for his 13 Moon Sword, others for revenge, some for honor, some for
the book of Heart and Mind and many just for the hell of it. But literally
everyone wants to kill him even his friend and travelling companion (Chan
Sing) who keeps saving his life in order to kill him someday. Snowy receives
a letter supposedly from an old enemy Eagle (Tien Ho) challenging Snowy to
a re-match and Eagle gets a letter supposedly from Snowy saying the same.
Seven years previously Eagle had lost his left arm in a duel and now uses
that arm as the hilt on his sword as a reminder. He has been practicing in
the forest for all those years along with Little Red, a young girl or guy
I am not sure, and he has become so quick that he can catch pigeons flying
in the air. They realize they have been set up by someone - I am not sure
we ever find out for sure - and both end up in Tiger Village after passing
all the dead bodies and cripples and one hunchback whose top teeth protrude
like a sharp buzz saw. An orthodontists dream. Tiger Village is not a place
you would want to spend much time in. Everyone is a killer or crazy. Or both,
And it is always night. But there are some beautiful women there.
Tiger Village is run by the squirrely Weirdo Gang as the dubbed version would
have it. They are a countless collection of assassins in all forms and sizes
and outfits - men and women with only one purpose - to kill Snowy White.
And for the next 70-minutes it is a continuous series of the Weirdo Gang
behind masks, popping out of hiding places, dropping down from heights,
ninja like tactics with blow pipes and explosions coming at him and his companion.
Eagle ends up siding with Snowy because he too wants to be the one to kill
him. There are also three sisters who want him dead - they live in a lovely
well decorated cave where the fog stays at about a foot in height all the
time. An interesting homey touch. A long ago lover of Eagle's shows up as
well to kill him and Shih Szu somehow found herself in this film wandering
around. Not to mention the female vampire in which a mysterious figure keeps
killing people for fresh blood for her by sticking a sharp pipe into their
bodies and draining the blood. And of course there is a poison palm that
will make your body crumple up. This doesn't even begin to get at most of
the crazy wonderfulness of the film. The editing is dreadful, continuity
is a concept the director never heard of, the dubbing laughable - it
is a mess but a lovely one. In the proceedings Wang Hsieh and Alan Chui (who
also choreographed) also make an appearance.
