To Kill a Mastermind
Year: 1979
Director: Sun
Chung
Rating: 7.0
This Shaw Brothers film has more characters than at a State Fair and you
feel like you are on a fast merry-go-round as you try to remember them and
keep them apart. There are none of the usual Shaw Brothers sword fighting
stars in this film and none of their many lovely well-known starlets. It
is as if they had a movie to make and just went around the Shaw lot finding
out who was available. There are some familiar faces here but it takes a
while to recognize them behind their bushy beards, period clothes and in
one case a bald skull cap. But eventually, I go oh, the main villain of the
Qisha Clan of baddies with the white hair and dark stripe is none other than
Johnny Wang; the fellow with the sideburns thick eyebrows and top knot is
Yuen Bun and the gentleman with the bald pate and eyebrows so sharp they
could kill is one of my favorites - Yuen Wah. Yuen Wah who later was to play
some of the classic villains in Jackie, Yuen Biao and Sammo films. He gets
some solid time in this film and has a great fight near the end. Also in
here but on the side of good is Dick Wei and Walter Tso and as a rich merchant
is Ku Feng. As to the other zillion characters, I have no idea who played
them. But they all knew their martial arts.
Choreographing this is Tong Kai who along with Lar Kar-leung as his partner
revolutionized action in Hong Kong films in the 1960s and 70s. And in the
directing seat is Sun Chung who had a diverse output from Human Lanterns
to Big Bad Sis to The Sugar Daddies - a man of all genres. For a martial
arts film this has a surprisingly intricate and clever plot - due I expect
to the scriptwriter Ni Kuang who wrote the scripts for hundreds of films.
But it is the action that you stay for - the plot is just the cherry on top.
It is like being at a roller derby - a fight breaks out like a teenager with
pimples - all the time. You would need a Chinese abacus to keep count. And
they are all good. A myriad of weapons and styles to choose from - one on
one fights; one on many fights. One fight stops and another starts - amazing
that they could fit a story into this.
But they do. The Qisha Clan are a bunch of bad-asses. Three new ones are
initiated into the top ranks like a promotion - but no handshake here - they
have to kill a bunch of prisoners who are promised that if they are able
to kill any of the three they will go free. Good luck with that. There are
now eight members of the Leadership but above them is the mysterious Great
Leader whose identity is unknown and who communicates with them through a
series of messages placed into metal ball and rolled down a gulley into their
headquarters miles away. Which is a cave of course. Bad guys had a thing
for caves back then. This one admittedly very nicely laid out in luxury and
with enough hand maidens to quench their thirst.
The good guys who don't get a lot of time in this film come up with an ingenious
plan thought of by their leader Walter Tso. They don't have the skills to
beat them so they have to out think them. They create situations in which
it appears that there must be a traitor among the Qisha and have them slowly
killing each other. After a really good fight of course. The finale is a
lengthy (in case all the previous fights were not enough) and terrific fight.
This was quite good and not a romance or bit of sentiment to be seen. Ok,
we don't have much of a cast but we are going to give them action and then
more action.
