I have never really been a fan of Jimmy Wang-yu. By all accounts he was a
horrible human being and when he is not fighting he could be replaced by
a cardboard box. But when about five minutes into this film he shows up a
certain pleasure node went off in my brain - oh he is in this film my node
said - then it should be fun. You can usually count on a stoic hero and a
high kill count. Even though he had just left the Shaw Brothers he had an
image to protect that he stuck to through most of his career. He didn't have
the budget of his Shaw films and though this one has plenty of action it
has only a few sets and they are very basic. But they are good enough for
a killing ground.
The film begins with a large group of bandits descending on a gold shipment
and killing nearly everyone. These are the Black Tigers being led by the
rough looking Tien Yeh. The government brings in Jimmy and tells him to investigate
discretely to find out where all the gold is hidden. So he immediately goes
to the town of the bandits and kills five guys in an inn as he drinks his
wine. Very discrete. Not a word Wang-yu is familiar with. They keep coming
at him and he keeps killing them.
Then he spots them surrounding a lone figure in a hat worn over the face.
This person whips out a sword and starts killing them. A bad day for minions.
When the hat comes off we see it is a female (Chang Ching-ching) and Wang-yu
of course joins the fight. She is quite cool and Chang was in a number of
Taiwanese martial arts films - The One-Armed Swordswoman, The Screaming Tiger,
The Fist that Kills and her final film Queen of Fist aka Kung Fu Mama!
She has a good presence in the film and disappointingly basically disappears
from the film after this scene. Leaving the board to Jimmy Wang-yu.
His fighting skills impress the top man - especially after their duel on
top of sharp bamboo sticks - and he asks him to join the gang. Wang-yu can't
find the gold but does find out - oh no - lo and behold that they are half
brothers - with the same father. But Wang-yu left 20 years ago and his step-mother
played by Wang Lai has cried so much that she is blind. What is a brother
suppose to do? Basic Wang-yu action of the sword variety with a good finale
in the mud.
