2 Capsule Reviews - Taiwanese oddities

Turbo Dragon (1985)
aka Dragon Gate Fighter; Dragon Rascal -
Director: Ke Cheng-Lin

This obscure oddity is essentially a Brucesploitation comedy made a couple of years after both Dragon Lee and Bruce Le had moved away from the sub-genre. It doesn't really have an actual plot, and about every 20 minutes or so, it becomes a completely different movie in terms of stuff that goes on onscreen.

Lung Tse (Pan Rui-Li, of Kung Fu Emperor and To Catch a Thief) is a talented martial artist who has a hard time landing and keeping a job. When we meet him, he's working as a priest (!?) who officiates weddings. He loses his job after he beats up the groom in order for the bride to run off with her paramour, some borderline idiot fellow. His next job is to work as a janitor for a fat rich guy (Lin Kuang-Chin, of Tiger Love and Deadly Strike). On his first day of work, he rescues the guy's daughter (Fu Chuen, of Chaste Virgin and Madam Yu Ching) from kidnappers. The boss gives him a job as the stuntman on a cheap Brucesploitation flick (with Wei Ping-Ao in the cast, no less). Lung Tse then gets a normal job at the guy's company doing...construction(?)...different things, while he cavorts around with the daughter.

Just as Lung Tse and the daughter are going to elope, the boss shows up with a present for him: a trip to Thailand...because...uh...reasons? I guess it was to give the boss time to think before Lung could run off with his daughter. Anyway, Lung Tse's martial brother is having some problems with the local crime boss, who is pressuring him to take the fall for gambling reasons. After refusing twice to intentionally lose, the brother is beaten up by the gang boss's secret weapon fighter (Chen Te-Wei, of The Idiot Swordsman) in retaliation and the guy, his promotor/girlfriend (Chang Hoi-Lun), her flunkies, and Lung Tse are forced to flee into the jungle and go into hiding. After an interlude involving cannibals, Lung Tse takes on the boss's hyper-muscular fighter as a means of shoring up accounts.

As I said, Turbo Dragon doesn't really have a story. It doesn't really have an ending, either. Stuff just happens until the main opponent is defeated, at which point the film simply just stops. And the movie just jumps around from genre to another: it stars as a modern action-comedy; becomes a send-up of Brucesploitation; a sappy romance; then something about corrupt ring fights; then jungle adventure; and the last reel becomes borderline science fiction as it's revealed that the Thai crime boss has a supercomputer that he uses to train his secret weapon fighter, not too unlike the apparatus that Eric Roberts uses in DOA: Dead or Alive--the subtitles disappear when they're explaining device, but it looks like it analyzes the opponents moves and it's implied that it downloads information into the person's brain during the fight...I think.

There is some fighting here and there. Pan Rui-Li is in Bruce Lee imitator mode in his fights, although he's not as fast or crisp as the real thing. The fight on the movie set is basically a recreation of the earlier fights from Way of the Dragon (the entire movie looks like a remake of that film). The Muay Thai fights are played more or less realistically, as is the case of these films. There is a fight between Lung Tse and the top warrior of the cannibal tribe that involves them chained to each other--how do Stone Age tribes have metal chains--and wailing on each with iron axes and rattan shields. And the final fight feels like a combination of traditional shapes and more modern sensibilities. The fighting on the whole is okay, but the movie is so nonsensical that it's hard to enjoy.

Evil Hits Evil (1983/1985) 
Director: Nam Ki-nam, Lucifer Lai

At first I wondered if this was a cash-in on Mr. Vampire from that same year, but the release date is early enough in the year that I think it was more of a belated cash-in on the likes of Kung Fu Zombie or Encounter of the Spooky Kind. It is also not very good, with its notability mainly being that it was Doris Lung's last role (ignoring cut n' splice films that reused footage from her movies).

The movie opens with the slaughter of Chen Fu (Kwon Yung-moon) and his family by a group of killers working for the evil Mr. Hung (Chan Sing). Mr. Hung is the richest man in the village and has no problem torturing and murdering anyone who displeases him, which was Chen Fu's downfall: Chen Fu was a groundskeeper at Mr. Hung's house and was guilty of ollygagging so he could listen to Hung's daughter (Doris Lung Jun-Ehr) playing the lute. That barbarian.

Some months later, the ghost of Chen Fu possesses the body of Lee Yao (Alan Liu), a woodcutter in Mr. Hung's employ. Meanwhile, Mr. Hung starts getting haunted by ravens. And the local night watchman has visions of ghosts. And some random passerby gets in a fight with a pair of nunchaku-wielding numbskull bandits who take orders from their pet dog. And Mr. Hung randomly tortures a couple to death. And a Taoist Priest (Robert Tai), tries to exorcise the ghost from Lee Yao. And when that doesn't work, they have a sorcerer's battle. And Lee Yao starts killing off the killers who murdered Chen Fu.

If you look at that last paragraph, you'll notice that it feels a little random. That is exactly how this movie feels: random. It never feels like it settles on a main character or plot line. It just jumps back and forth between different characters until the climax. Heck, the film kills off some of the main characters right before the climax, one of whom I thought was the viewpoint character. I thought Robert Tai's Taoist priest was going to be important, but he dies about halfway through and is replaced with some random female Exorcist and a pair of charlatan priests whom the film spends way too much time with. And I still don't know what was up with the passerby and the bandits: he disappears from the narrative, only to show up as a ghost at the end.

There is nothing to really be gained from it. The action choreography was supplied by Peng Gang of Shaolin vs. Lama fame, but this is definitely his weakest work. Kwon Yung-moon throws a few kicks here and there, including a scene where he kicks a monk's head off. But the rest of the fighting is not lit very well (typical Taiwanese movie problem) and just not very interesting. And most of the climax is Doris Lung getting ghost raped, The Entity style. That is NOT a fitting end to the career of one of the major kung fu divas. 

Eunuch of the Western Palace (1979)

Eunuch of the Western Palace (1979)
Aka: Flying Fists; Royal Family
Chinese Title: 白馬素車勾魂幡
Translation: White Horse Car Hooking Soul Banner

 

Starring: Mang Fei, Don Wong Tao, Doris Lung Chun-Erh, Lo Lieh, Lung Fei, Tsung Hua, Li Hsin-Hua, Su Chen-Ping, Weng Hsiao-Hu
Director: Wu Ma
Action Director: Chan Long, Huang Fei-Long, Hsiao Huang-Long

Wu Ma was never a great director. It might even be a little charitable to call him a “good” director. Most of the time, he was a competent, if uninspired director. Most of his forays into “good” territory were those movies in which he collaborated with his mentor, Chang Cheh. His solo affairs, however, tended to rest mainly on the strength of the cast and talents of the action director. Thus, movies like The Dead and the Deadly and Kickboxer enjoy cult status mainly because of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, respectively. While Eunuch of the Western Palace has a solid Taiwanese cast and a provocative opening, it quickly slips into a mundane “rebels vs. tyrant” story and does nothing interesting with it.

We begin with a five-minute documentary about the history of eunuchs in China and what their function in Chinese society was—mainly to serve the women in royalty without any worry the two parties getting sexually involved. The narrator points out that the Bible also mentions eunuchs—most notably, a servant of the Queen of Ethiopa whom was converted to Christianity by the disciple Phillip—as a way of establishing that it was not simply a Chinese phenomenon. We are then “treated” to a supremely uncomfortable scene: a reenactment of the ceremony that produced new eunuchs. In it, we see little boys stripped naked (the camera does not shy away from their genitals) and tied to an altar, at which point the genitals are sliced off (!) with a fearsome-looking blade and the wound is cauterized with a brand. The narrator states that the freshly-mutilated boys had to fast for seven days: if they survived, they would begin their training.

We then start our story proper, which purports to be the tale of real-life eunuch Wang Zhi, who rose to power during the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Wang Zhi (Tsung Hua, The Drinking Knight and Call to Arms) is oppressing the population and controls the Information Bureau, which means that there is nothing going on in the empire that he does not know. We open with a man and wife couple of sword fighters getting ambushed by Wang Zhi’s men. Despite the interference of a wandering fighter named Li Tin-Chin (Don Wong Tao, of Iron Swallow and Ten Shaolin Brothers), the couple are murdered, but not before the lady gives our hero a letter and tells her to pass it on to a trio of kung fu fighters.

Those fighters are Ku Shin-Shu (Meng Fei), the Killing Flag (Doris Lung), and Invincible Sword (Wang Man-Chuan of Along Comes a Tiger). The three receive the letter and head off on their way, while mysterious guy Li Tin-Chin just lurks in the shadows and shows up to get into a fight or two. Meanwhile, Wang Zhi’s men are on the alert, looking for rebels and killing them, trying to get any evidence that will reveal who’s involved in conspiracy against the eunuch. At one point, Ku Shin-Shu is injured and nursed back to health by Lung Fei, whom we know is an agent for the Eunuch.

Ku Shin-Shu’s blind trust for the agent results in one of the rebel movement’s leaders getting captured and tortured by the Eunuch. So Li Tin-Chin and others lead a daring raid on the palace to rescue him. But before they can get him out of harm’s way, the Eunuch sends a super-powerful kung fu master (Lo Lieh, of Shaolin Executioners and Heroes of the Wild) to block our heroes’ path. Will they be able to save the rebel movement and depose the evil Eunuch?

Eunuch of the Western Palace could have been a unique martial arts film steeped in Ming Dynasty intrigue, staging its martial arts bouts around the complex political machinations that would allow a servant to the court to surpass the Emperor in actual power exercised. But we do not get any of that. Instead, this film plays like a third-rate rip-off of Dragon Inn where the heroes just run around dodging or fighting the Eunuch’s agents until it is time for the climax. We do not even get to see much in terms of actual oppression: the characters talk more about how oppressive the Eunuch is than show it.

The story we do get is not particularly well told, either. In the movie, the main villain is conspiring with the Japanese to overthrow the government and take power to himself. But if he already is practically running the show with impunity anyway, is there really a need to get foreign entities involved with the power grab? Or how about the fact that the heroes have a bunch of agents running with fake letters, while the real one is tattooed on the back of one of the organizers…the same one who gets captured and tortured. Did no one thing to strip the man before torturing him? And how to the enemy agents always know where the heroes are? And where are the heroes going and why are they there in any given scene. The film feels like random scenes of our protagonists walking around or meeting up, with no real rhyme or reason to them.  

Despite boasting three action directors—Chan Long (My Life is the Line), Huang Fei-Long (Shaolin Deadly Kicks) and Hsiao Huang-Long (Three Shaolin Musketeers)—the action is rather perfunctory and at times, uninteresting. It does not help that at least two major fight scenes are filmed at night and the VHS transfer renders those fights almost unwatchable. A lot of the fights are short, with the only sustained fights coming at the end. But even so, Wu Ma unwisely skimps on the action, a kiss of death for a kung fu movie whose plot is as murky as this one’s.

The best fight sequence is the finale, in which Don Wong Tao walks into a snow ghost town to deliver a message to the Eunuch. He is ambushed by a dozen or so lackeys dressed up ninjas who are armed with sabers and spears. He kills them all before facing off with a Japanese fighter armed with razor-sharp cymbals. Then, it’s hand-to-hand combat with the Eunuch, who fights with a set of interlocking gold rings. Meanwhile, Meng Fei shows up to fight with Lung Fei, who wields a chain whip. The latter is a weapon that gets little fanfare in kung fu movies, even older ones, so it’s a welcome edition. Sadly, both Doris Lung and Wang Man-Chuan are absent from the climax.

Most the action revolves around weapons fighting, which would lead me to classify the film as a wuxia and not a straight kung fu movie. Meng Fei is armed with a pair of scimitars, while Doris Lung fights with a retractable iron spear. Wang Man-Chuan and Don Wong fight mainly with swords, as do most of the extras and stuntmen. Lo Lieh is wasted in a supporting role as a fighter with tuberculosis—he spends much his limited screen time coughing up blood—but gets two fights, including a decent one against our four heroes near the end. His character and limited fight action gives this film a shot of adrenaline whenever it threatens to go moribund, which unfortunately, is far too often for a movie like this. And for a movie that starts out as interesting as this one does, that’s a huge let down.

Fighting Ace (1979)

Fighting Ace (1979)
aka: Kung Fu Ace; Master of Death; Kid’s Ace in the Hole
Chinese Title: 好小子的下一招
Translation: The Next Trick of a Good Boy

 

Starring: John Liu Chung-Liang, Doris Lung Chun-Erh, Han Su, Cliff Ching Ching, Wang Tai-Lang, Kwan Yung-Moon, Li Min-Lang, Wu Ma, Kao Ming, Chin Ti, Yu Chung-Chiu, Ching Kuo-Chung
Director: Chang Chih-Chao
Action Directors: Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi, Wang Chi-Sheng

So here's another in a long line of kung fu comedies that came out in response to the success of Jackie Chan's Seasonal Films (Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master), this time starring superkicker John Liu (Secret Rivals and Ninja in the Claws of the CIA). Unlike a lot of other kung fu comedies, John plays his role completely straight, leaving the comedy to some of his supporting cast, which is good, as I can't imagine the guy acting goofy.

Anyways, we open with two guys fighting. The Bad Guy is fighting another martial artist, who is supposedly in possession of a manual written by the great San Te (Gordon Liu's character from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin). The Bad Guy finally gets his hand on the manual, but not before killing the man and raping (and killing) his wife. Luckily, the Housekeeper and the dead couple's son are able to hide from the guy and finally escape.

Some twenty years later or so, the son has grown up into John Liu, who wanders around with his "uncle" looking for kung fu masters to teach him, so that he may get revenge one day. One day he spots a kung fu master (Kwang Yung Moon, The Loot and Ninja in the Dragon's Den entering the household of a rich guy, whom the latter wants to teach his fat, lazy son. John and his uncle are able to get jobs as servants at the household, in hopes of John being able to study kung fu under the master. Luckily, the rich man's son is such a fat loser that the kung fu master, Master Yen, is more than willing to take John as a student. Master Yen teaches John to be more of a super kicker than he already he is until the rich guy finds out and John is forceed to leave.

So John, his uncle, and another servant leave the household and start selling candy on the street. John eventually finds two more kung fu masters, one a palm technique stylist and the other a drunken beggar type (which was required by HK cinematic law in those days) and starts studying under both of them.

This goes well until one day when Master Yen's daughter (Doris Lung Jun-Erh, Master of the Flying Guillotine) is attacked by some would-be rapists and John comes to her rescue. The ruffians turn out to be lackeys of the Bad Guy from the beginning, who recruits John to be his student (even though John doesn't know it yet). Eventually, John must confront the guy to protect his friends and family and avenge his parents' murders.

Yeah, there's nothing new here. There's a fair bit of training and quite of bit of fighting here. There's some humor, although it never gets as irritating as it doesn in a lot of other kung fu comedies from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of the humor comes from the servant character who accompanies John after he leaves the manor, and consists of the guy acting like he's hurt so that John can leave one master and go to the other master's place to study.

The fight sequences are choreographed by Ricky Cheng (star of Chang Cheh's Chinese Super Ninjas) and Wong Chi Sang (action director for the cult favorite Mystery of Chess Boxing). All of the fights are pretty solid, mixing John Liu's flexible kicking with some acrobatics and Southern hand-based fighting, including some Panther style from the villain

John Liu, who was rarely more than his kicking, does some good handwork in this one. However, he's practically shown up by fellow superkicker Kwan Yung Moon (aka "The Mad Korean), who does some great kicking in the first act. Although the fights often look more like John Liu saying, "Hey, look what I can do with my legs!", there's no denying the man's skill. Interestingly enough, John was actually a more consistent fighter on film than his teacher, superkicker Dorian "Flashlegs" Tan Tao Liang.

Worth it for the fight scenes, but everything else is rather bland.

Dressed to Fight (1979)

Dressed to Fight (1979)
aka: Legend of Broken Sword
Chinese Title: 折劍傳奇
Translation: Legend of Folding Sword

Starring: Roc Tien Peng, Doris Lung Chun-Ehr, Yang Chun-Chun, Elsa Yang, Ling Yun, Wen Chiang-Lung, Ku Cheng
Director: Ulysses Au
Action Directors: Wang Ching-Liang, Chan Chuen

Dressed to Fight seems to be a typical late 1970s Taiwanese wuxia film, in the vein of movies like Love and Sword. Incidentally, both of those films were based on the writings of famed author Ku Long, whose works were adapted to film by the Shaw Brothers at about the same time. Most famously, Ku Long’s writings were the basis for popular wuxia films like Killer Clans (1976); The Magic Blade (1976); The Sentimental Swordsman (1977); and The Swordsman and the Enchantress (1978). Hell, he even wrote the story for the early Jackie Chan film To Kill with Intrigue (1976). So Dressed to Fight falls into that category of film, albeit with a smaller budget and more average fight choreography than those Shaw films.

Roc Tien Peng plays Hu Te-Wa, a wandering swordsman, as is the norm for these types of film. His friend, played by The Young Moon Legend’s Ling Yun, tells him that he’s too carefree and willing to get into trouble without any emotional attachment to his actions or the lives of others. Hu’s cohort tells him that sooner or later, something will happen to change his outlook on life. FORESHADOWING.

Almost immediately thereafter, Hu is wandering through the forest when he sees a female hand sticking out of the ground, beckoning him over to her. He ignores the sinister hand as most normal people would and goes about his business. At the same time, another woman (Elsa Yang) is journeying through the forest and comes across that same ghoulish hand. Suddenly, she is attacked by a notorious fighter named Golden Bell Tang (Rikisha Kuri’s Wen Chiang-Lung), and saved at the last moment by Hu Te-Wa, who was still in the area. The woman thanks him and starts waving signs that she is willing to thank him with her body, but he asks for monetary compensation instead.

Shortly thereafter, Hu Te-Wa meets up with a swordswoman named Chang Si-Si (Legend of Peach Blossom’s Yang Chun-Chun) and a third woman (Doris Lung Chun-Her), who alternate tries to seduce and kill Hu. From there on out, numerous parties will attempt to murder Hu Te-Wa, although he doesn’t know who is sending them or why they’re doing it. As this goes on, Hu starts falling in love with Chang Si-Si. BUT…she herself is harboring a secret…a secret society that is. Chang Si-Si belongs to the White Cloud City, a shady organization of swordsmen who are not only unforgiving with their enemies, but are even worse with their own members. Are they behind the numerous attempts on Hu Te-Wa’s life? If so, why would they concern themselves with him?

Both questions get answered, albeit only at the very end of the film and in a single line of dialog. That practically turns the film in a shaggy dog joke, especially since the final revelation about Who and Why is then supplanted with How, which is never answered. Nonetheless, there are enough cute women, double crosses, triple crosses and a general feeling of mystery to keep fans busy until the climatic duels and final revelations. Unlike some Ku Long adaptations, the film isn’t so complicated that it’s impossible to know what’s going on at a given moment: an attentive viewer can piece things together in a single viewing (unlike Butterfly and Sword, which took three viewings for me to make sense of). You will ask yourself at some parts if you missed something, but then you’ll figure out that you didn’t.

The action is Wang Ching-Liang and Chan Chuen. The former had a short and undistinguished career as an action director, although he did stuntwork in a number of movies, including several Shaw Brothers productions. Chan Chuen was already a bigger name, having worked for both the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest during the first half of the 1970s. He worked alongside Sammo Hung on Angela Mao films like When Tae Kwon Do Strikes and The Tournament, and early John Woo kung fu movies like The Dragon Tamers and The Young Dragons.

Despite being a wuxia film, there is not a lot of actual swordplay and most of the action is hand-to-hand combat. However, the main actor here is Taiwanese mainstay Roc Tien Peng, which means that it is a little stiff and unimaginative. I’ve described Roc Tien as being like Jimmy Wang Yu, but without the charisma, and that applies here. Tien’s fighting is as bad as it was in his earlier films, but it’s nothing to knock the socks off a schoolgirl. The last two fights at White Cloud City are pretty good and feature the most sustained weapons combat. Despite her status as a fighting diva, Doris Lung Chun-Ehr doesn’t fight very much and is completely excluded from the last two skirmishes. Some of the earlier fights have a surplus of wire tricks and trampoline jumps, but for the most part, the action is fairly grounded. On the whole, the action is average, which is just fine for an average movie with an average story and average production values. 

Heroes of the Wild (1977)

Heroes of the Wild (1977)
aka: Heroes of Shaolin; Fox of Shaolin: Hero of the Wild; Kung Fu Challenger
Chinese Title: 大武士與小票客
Translation: Great Samurai and Little Ticket

 

Starring: Chen Sing, Hwang Jang-Lee, Ting Wa-Chung, Lo Lieh, Doris Lung Jun-Erh, Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, Chen Ming-Li
Director: William Chang, Gwon Yeong-sun
Action Directors: Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, Yuen Shun-Yee

Heroes of the Wild is a special film for martial arts movie enthusiasts. Peking Opera classmates Yuen Biao and Yuen Kwei, who had spent most of the year as Yuen Woo-Ping’s assistants, moved up in the world and took on the job as head fight choreographers, alongside Woo-Ping’s brother, Yuen Shun-Yee. Corey Yuen has since gone on to be one of the best action directors in world action cinema, so this film is a treat in that it shows us what he was capable of doing when given enough leeway[1]. It was also Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee’s fourth film of 1977 and features one of his more versatile fighting performances. Taiwanese starlet Doris Lung also gets one of her best fighting performances, too. And all this, plus a strong story, compelling characters, and a great chemistry between lead actors Chen Sing and Ting Wa-Chung, who was maturing as an actor by this point.

The movie begins with a teenage boy (Ting Wa-Chung) flying a kite on the beach with his dad. Then it comes. Anyone who's watched a lot of kung fu movies knows what I'm talking about. It's that musical rift ripped off from The Spy Who Loved Me in the pyramids-Jaws scene. Almost always it's used to introduce some bad guy. The guy in this movie is Tu Ta-Shen (Chen Sing) and he's come to challenge the dad to a fight. They fight and Tu wins, causing the dad to commit suicide as a form of honor. However, before dying, the dad asks Tu to carry out a last request: bring to justice a traitor, Nan (Hwang Jang-Lee), who's begun siding with Qings in order to overthrow the Ming dynasty. Tu accepts and decides to take the man's teenage son with him, in order to train him for revenge.

Some time later, we find Tu and the son, Siao Hu, traveling along the countryside in capes and cone-shaped straw hats. They kind of look like wandering samurai, which isn't surprising, as this part of the storyline is vaguely reminiscent of the old Lone Wolf and Cub films—even the literal translation of the title suggests a direct inspiration. The two arrive in a town and Tu makes contact with some mysterious dude in a mask (the mask looks like the "Oni" mask that I saw in an old Sega game called “Black Belt”).

The resulting conversation teaches us that Tu is not only a martial artist, but an assassin as well. Actually, he's an assassin of the most dangerous type: if he doesn't agree the client's choice of who to knock off, he knocks off the client and takes their money. Makes me wonder how he'd get any business. I guess when you're dealing with the best, you're willing to take a few risks.

So the guy in the mask hires Tu to kill Nan as well, but tells him that he should go through Nan's colleague, Lui (Lo Lieh). Tu and Siao Hu challenge Lui to a duel, but Lui sends his effeminate student to meet them. Siao Hu takes the challenge but is beaten for his efforts. Tu nurses Siao Hu back to health and begins to train him further in kung fu. Some time later, Tu and Siao Hu pay a visit to Lui and his gang. Siao Hu has a rematch with the rather delicate student, who gets his hind parts handed to him on a silver platter. Tu does the same thing to Lui, but ends up getting injured when Lui pulls some dirty tricks on him.

Tu and his young follower reverse roles as Siao Hu now has to nurse Tu back to health. By then, Nan has found out about Tu's plans to defeat him and sends his two grandsons (Corey Yuen and Yuen Biao) to finish him off...but they too get whooped. To add insult to injury, those two came in armed with weapons that pierce and slash and they still couldn't beat an unarmed Tu. But don't worry, the fight itself is quite a sight to behold and is a good example of the high-quality weapons fighting in this movie.  

By this time, Nan is ready to duel with Tu. And they do. However, this time Tu gets to learn the lesson of what happens whenever you try to step to Hwang Jang-Lee, especially before the climatic fight: You get whooped. Hwang Jang-Lee is one of those guys whom you do not want to fight, especially if you're not the main hero. Because if you aren't, chances are that your number is up. Yup, you don't stand a chance against Hwang. Hwang will destroy you. Even if you're the main hero, oftentimes you need a partner to beat Hwang. And sometimes, that's just not enough.

This is one of the movies in which the plot plays an important part in the film and one of the few old school movies that I've seen where character relationships play an important role in pushing the story forward. This isn't to say that the movie has to sacrifice fights for character development; the movie has a healthy balance of both. The character development is exemplified by the relationship between Tu Ta-Shen and Siao Hu. Siao Hu begins the film with nothing but hatred and contempt for Tu Ta-Shen but as the film progresses, he learns to channel his hatred and develops a certain degree of respect for his rival. This comes to a climax shortly after Tu's first duel with Nan. Siao Hu's development as a character is found not only on the personal side, but on the martial arts side. Siao Hu starts off the film as a whiny kid who can barely swing a pole. As the film progresses, his fighting skills gradually improve. Unlike other films, where the kid is a kung fu master after one simple training montage, Siao Hu's growth is more realistic. At the last reel of the film, we learn to what extent his skills have truly developed.

Tu Ta-Shen's character is just as memorable as Siao Hu's. He's a man of honor and principle. He works as an assassin, but has a personal code which prevents him from killing those of honor and integrity. Also beneath his violent exterior is a certain degree of tenderness, as demonstrated by the affection he learns to feel for Siao Hu, who should be his rival, and for the aforementioned prostitute. What's interesting is that the character is played by Chen Sing, who was one of the great perennial villains of the old school. If you’ve seen The Himalayan, you’ve seen just how sleazy and despicable a villain Chen could be. But Chen in fact played a hero in many of his earlier films, like The Bloody Fists; The Two Cavaliers; and The Rage of Wind. As Tu Ta-Shen, Chen gets to combine aspects of both his heroic and villainous roles to create a compelling antihero for the audience to root for.

Villainy is provided by Hwang Jang-Lee and company. One review I read of this film said that this was Hwang "at his white-haired nastiest." I think that's a bit of an overstatement, as he was far more evil in movies like Invincible Armor and Secret Rivals, Part II. Actually, his character is fairly restrained in this one. He's supposed to be a traitor the Mings, but his character is far more interested in being a champion than in any political machination. We learn the reason for this seemingly inconsistent behavior at the climax.

In addition to our man Hwang, supporting villains are played by Lo Lieh, Lung Jun-Erh, Yuen Biao, and Corey Yuen. All four of them do a good job with their roles and the film's choreographers provide everyone with a good showcase of his or her talents. Most notable is Doris Lung Jun-Ehr as Hwang’s granddaughter, who fights with a combination of the snake fist style and a pair of short, double-bladed spears. Her character is implied to be the superior to that of her brothers—the two Yuens—and she does especially well in her fight scenes, of which she has a few.

I want to note that Corey Yuen, who helmed the choreography alongside Yuen Biao, gets to fight in front of the camera. I say this because most people (fans of the genre) know him to more of a director and choreographer than an actor. He's worked on some of the best action films of the 1980s, more than half of Jet Li's filmography, and a bunch of other movies over the years. He's a creative choreographer, so with that in mind, it's refreshing to see him fighting in front of the camera just as much as directing behind it. Actually, he's had supporting villain roles in about four Hwang Jang Lee movies that I've seen, including Invincible Armor and Dance of the Drunk Mantis. Now I just need to see Yuen Woo-Ping and Ching Siu-Tung fight in a movie and I'll be satisfied.

The two Yuens to a great job of choreographing the plentiful fights. The style of choreography is characteristic of the era, an intricate combination of real kung fu styles and some acrobatics (probably provided by the Yuens as well). In a lot of movies, the players can take a lot of blows during a fight and still keep on going. Here, the power of the hits in emphasized and the actors aren't able to take as much punishment. This helps give the fights a slightly more realistic flavor, which is refreshing.

For you purists out there, you should be glad to know that there's a lot to see in this movie. Chen Sing uses his infamous tiger style while Hwang Jang-Lee uses the Eagle's claw/tae kwon do combination that he uses in a lot of other movies. Fans of Hwang Jang-Lee shouldn't be disappointed with his performance in this movie. He once again shows us that he can fight with his hands and with weapons just as well as he can kick. His kicking is good in this movie, although not as over-the-top as it is in some of his other movies. However, it's still used to good effect and depicted with a large amount of power.

Ting Wa-Chung, who plays Siao Hu, uses a combination of the praying mantis style and the tiger style, which is cool. Ting has always come across as a C-grade imitator of Meng Fei and Alexander Fu Sheng. He had that young baby face and petulant attitude. Today he’s most known—by hardcore fans—for showing up in the flawed Death Duel of the Mantis and the grade-Z Drunken Master rip-off Peculiar Boxing Tricks and the Master. This film represents Ting’s best work as both an actor and a fighter. He uses that Fu Sheng-esque arrogance to good effect, and some solid emoting when he has the opportunity to kill his master in a cheap shot.

There's also a lot of weapons work in this movie. Actually, the weapons work is some of the best that I've seen and ranks alongside Lau Kar-Leung's Shaolin Challenges Ninja in variety and quality. Hwang, showing his versatility, fights with a pudao, or assault blade (also known as a horse blade, as it was used in battle to slice off the legs of horses from under them) and looks great. Also seen are the double sai swords, pole, three-sectional staff, spear-tipped batons, sword and tonfa, and the shuangdao (that sword that "miraculously" splits into two swords). It's all great stuff.

I highly recommend this movie. It's an excellent film with great characters to compliment great fight scenes. Or is it vice-versa? That doesn't matter. What matters is that when you watch this movie, you'll not only get a showcase for about seven famous martial arts performers, but you get a compelling story to go along with it. If that's not enough for you, I don't know what is.

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[1] - According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, he worked as choreographer on Duel of the Dragons; Kung Fu 10th Dan; and two Manda the Snake Girl films. We believe this film, however, is where he really came into his own.

The Prodigal Boxer 2 (1976)

The Prodigal Boxer 2 (1976)
Aka: Enter the Whirlwind Boxer, Prodigal Boxer 2, Drunken Master Dollar Fist, Young Hero of Shaolin
Chinese Title: 傳奇方世玉
Translation: Legendary Fong Sai-Yuk

 

Starring: Meng Fei, Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Doris Lung Jun-Erh, Liu Ping, Wei Ping-Ao, Hsieh Han, Yi Yuan, Ma Chiang, Huang Fei Hung
Director: Ulysses Au
Action Director: Lau Kar-Wing

 

Young Hero of Shaolin was the sequel to Meng Fei's The Prodigal Boxer. The latter stands out as being the first modern kung fu film (i.e. kung fu film made after 1970) about Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-Yuk. Fong Sai-Yuk is known in Chinese history for being one of the first laymen to study kung fu at the Shaolin Temple and for being a staunch anti-Qing (re: Manchurian) patriot. He was a contemporary of Hung Shi-Kwan, another layman student of Shaolin kung fu and recognized founder of the famous hung gar style of kung fu. Fong himself is often considered to be a proponent of the same style and was often portrayed in movies by actors trained in hung gar. The Prodigal Boxer is considered to be a genre classic by most fans of the genre, if mainly for historical value, as the fights themselves are a bit on the crude side. In this film, Meng Fei's portrayal of Fong Sai-Yuk come across for the type of likably-cocky fighter that Jackie Chan would popularize a few years later.

Meng Fei returns as Fong Sai-Yuk, this time getting involved with an evil kung fu school who has been brutalizing the locals. He goes undercover at the school as a servant and gradually kills the evil teacher's main bodyguards one by one until it's time to face the main bad guy himself. Tan Tao-Liang shows up as a wandering fighter named Kao who goes around challenging schools and fighters to duels. Kao tries to fight Fong early on, but Fong declines. Kao eventually defeats the villain's bodyguards and joins the school. Obviously, his presence will be a threat to Fong, whom Kao recognizes almost instantly. The two eventually fight, after which they form an uneasy bond and team up for the final fights.

The good news here is that Tao Tao-Liang steals the show with his charisma and kicking skills. He's allowed a little more range than the usual stoic persona that defined most of his career and gets to smile quite a bit. His kicking is good, with him performing high and fast spin kicks with both legs. His handwork is rather simple, in sharp contrast to Meng Fei's more elaborate hung gar techniques. His fights, as with all the others, are rather short. Sadly, his talents are completely wasted in the finale, even though he gets to fight the principal villain along side Meng Fei. That said, his best fight is his introductory fight, where he beats up the students of some random school plus said school's teacher.

Ulysses Au's direction here is standard; he doesn't do anything here to really set the movie apart from the hundreds of other movies that make up the old school chopsockey film. Nor does he use his talent well; in addition to Tan Tao-Liang not getting as much fight time as he deserved, Taiwanese kung fu starlet Doris Lung Jun-Erh is completely wasted in a non-fighting role. Hung Gar specialist Lau Kar-Wing, brother of legendary Shaw Brothers director Lau Kar-Leung, takes on the action directing duties once more (he was the action director of The Prodigal Boxer) and does a fairly good job by 1975 standards. There are some spots of creativity, including a quartet of villains made up of a Mongolian axe thrower, a man who fights with a fishing net, a swordsman who wears his sword like a belt, and an ersatz Shaolin abbot. There is also some stock footage from the first film showing us that movie's final fights as part of a flashback sequence; it's a little easier to forgive that since home video hadn't quite been invented at that time.

Shaolin Deadly Kicks (1977)

Shaolin Deadly Kicks (1977)
aka: The Flash Legs; Deadly Kick, Flash Legs
Chinese Title: 太極八蛟
Translation: Tai Chi Eight Dragon

 

Starring: Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Lo Lieh, Wang Hsieh, Doris Lung Chun-Erh, Chin Kang, Lu Ti, Tsai Hung, Ou-Yang Sha-Fei, Gam Sai-Yuk, Wu Chia-Hsiang, Cheng Fu-Hung, Lung Fei, Chen Hui-Lou, Min Min, Wang Tai-Lang, Tseng Chao
Director: Wu Ma
Action Director: Huang Fei-Long, Hsiao Huang-Lung

 

There is not much to be said about the background of Shaolin Deadly Kicks. It’s a film directed by Wu Ma, a well-known character actor and disciple of sorts of Chang Cheh. The two collaborated directly on a number of projects, including The Water Margin; All Men are Brothers; Shaolin Avengers and The Shaolin Temple. Prior to that, Wu worked as Chang’s assistant on Return of the One-Armed Swordsman and The Singing Thief, among others. That said, unlike John Woo, another disciple of Chang Cheh--who inherited his mentor’s penchant for blood-soaked tales of brotherhood and male bonding--Wu Ma was a more workmanlike director. His work was generally competent: he knew how to place a camera, he could film action in reasonably competent way, and he can handle drama okay. And that more or less describes Shaolin Deadly Kicks: it does everything solidly, without standing out in any way.

The movie opens with eight robbers breaking into a house to steal a map to a hidden treasure. When the owner of the house is roused from his sleep and goes to see what’s happening, one of the robbers (Lo Lieh, of King Boxer and Mad Monkey Kung Fu) kills him with a metal claw at the end of a rope. Knowing that the Law will soon be on their trails, the lead robber (Shaw Brothers actor Lu Ti, of The Bastard and The Men from the Monastery) cuts the map into eight pieces and suggests they go on with their lives for three years before getting together and finding the treasure.

At the end of the three years, one of the robbers (Chen Shen-Lin, who spent his career playing extras and bit roles in films like The Shaolin Invincibles and Heroes of the Eastern Skies) is a now a lout living at a brothel without ever paying his bill. He gets kicked out and is quickly arrested for being a deadbeat. He’s thrown in a cell with some guy named Hung Yi (Dorian Tan Tao-Liang), who is desperate to leave. The two escape with the help of a third prisoner, and they meet up with a second robber (played by Li Hsiao-Ming, who worked as choreographer on Snake in the Crane’s Shadow and Drunken Arts and Crippled Fist). Both men thing that their respective pieces of the map are enough to find the treasure. In any case, both Hung Yi and the third prisoner turn out to be undercover policemen—there’s a third constable who is following closely behind. A big fight breaks out and everyone but Hung Yi is killed, leaving him all by himself to find the remaining six bandits.

The story is a bit episodic, with Hung Yi tracking down a bandit, confronting him, getting into some fights, and ending up with another piece of the map. This essentially repeats itself until we reach the climax, when Hung Yi faces off with the last surviving robber. Along the way, he befriends a young woman (Doris Lung Chun-ehr), who happens to be the daughter of the one of the bad guys. This puts her father at odds with his cohorts, especially when the latter begins to suspect just who exactly Hung Yi is. The film ends as the final villain is dealt the killing explosion, so we don’t even really know what happens to the actual treasure. There is also a bizarre subplot involving one of the bandits as a nobleman who does matchmaking: his latest match is a pretty young woman and a dwarf (Ai Tsu-Wang) who acts like a kid and whose face looks like it was repeatedly struck with the Oxford Dictionary. Hung Yi steps into to save the bride from her husband, since God forbid this pretty girl be forced to have sex with an unattractive midget.

The film is pretty standard chopsocky business, although the second “episode”, in which Hung Yi goes after the third bandit, Chang Fang (Kam Kong, who was Dorian Tan’s student and a frequent bad guy in these films) is actually rather compelling. It is easily the best directing that Wu Ma does in the film; it’s a shame he was on autopilot for the rest of the movie. Chang Fang is a poor woodsman whose mother (Ou-Yang Sha-Fei, of Death Duel and The Avenging Eagle) is blind and whose child is sick in bed. He doesn’t have enough money to buy medicine; he’s hoping the pending robber reunion will turn his fortunes around. When Hung Yi meets up with him, Hung Yi notices his quarry’s family situation and mercifully allows him to give up his piece without going to jail. Chang’s mother begins to suspect that her son has been up to no good. In order to not disappoint her, he prefers to try to kill Hung Yi—away from the house—fearing that when his colleagues come calling for the map piece, his mother will find out about his nefarious activities. Hung Yi kills him, but gives the family money and reassures them that the man had done nothing wrong. The mother believes him, but the tears on Chang’s wife’s face suggest that she has figured out what is really going on.

The action is frequent and varied, if a little lackluster in its execution. The fighting is solid, but it lacks the power and energy of the movies Tan Tao-Liang had done at Golden Harvest the year before under Sammo Hung’s direction. Choreographers Huang Fei-Long and Hsiao Huang-Long were undistinguished action directors for the most part. The former is best known for his work on Story of the Dragon and The 18 Bronzemen, a beloved indie classic. The latter was starting his career as a choreographer when this was made and would make a number of lesser-known Taiwanese films, including 7 Promises and Eunuch of the Western Palace, which we’ll discuss later on.

Tan Tao-Liang gets a strong showcase for his legwork, at least in terms of demonstrating his flexibility with his legs. Tan could never—or chose to never—indulge in the crazier aerial kicks that his contemporaries Casanova Wong and Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee could pull off. He does perform a few jumping spin kicks, but he favors multiple side kicks, high roundhouse and spin kicks, and chain kicking. Nonetheless, when you build a movie around the leads footwork, it can get boring quickly if you don’t have anything behind it.

Thankfully, the action directors thrown in a whole slew of weapons to keep things interesting. The first big fight between Hung Yi and the bandits has the latter fighting with shovels and hoes. Later, when Hung Yi squares off with Chang Fang, a large stick with a rope tied to it is used. Taiwanese mainstay Lung Fei uses a variation of the Sun and Moon Blade that looks like half of a buzzsaw. Another bandit lives in a House of Traps™ and is guarded by two men with extendable spears. There are also claws, bombs, bamboo stakes, cane swords and other weapons included in the madness. The frequent action, combined with a few good character moments, makes this recommended for aficionados, although the uninitiated might find the film a bit tedious.

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (1977)

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (1977)
Chinese Title: 銀蕭月劍翠玉獅
Translation: Silver Xiaoyue  Sword and Jade Lion

 

Starring: Angela Mao Ying, Don Wong Tao, Wen Chiang-Long, Doris Lung Chun-Erh, Su Chen-Ping, Tung Li, Chiang Ming, Wu Chia-Hsiang, Wu Te-Shan, Shao Lo-Hui
Director: Karl Liao
Action Director: Ko Pao

 

By 1977, kung fu diva Angela Mao Ying had for the most part left Hong Kong—she’d do a final film for Golden Harvest at the end of the year—and focused her career on making movies in her native Taiwan. Most genre fans will agree that her output suffered a notable drop in quality, now that she was separated from her main collaborators: director Huang Feng and fight choreographer Sammo Hung. Try as they might, Taiwanese action directors like Pan Chang-Ming, Lai Ting-Chung and Huang Kuo-Chu were simply out of Sammo’s lead. This isn’t to say that her Taiwanese efforts weren’t entertaining; a lot of them have their moments and some of them—The Lady Constables and The Damned—are genuinely good genre entries.

Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion is generally considered to be one of Angela Mao's lesser films, and with good reason. The action is decent, but not very memorable; the story makes little sense; and the writing leaves a lot to be desired. There is more story here than in a lot of other kung fu movies—this is a wuxia film after all—but the storytelling is less than competent and sacrificing Angela Mao action for undeveloped plot is not a very good way to get on the viewers’ good sides.

A kung fu master sends his pupil (Angela Mao) into town to find his brother, who knows the identity of her parents' killer (a fact we do not learn until near the end). She spends much of the next 80 minutes going from one school or clan to the next, asking if they've seen Liu Chang (i.e. the brother, played by prolific director Shao Lo-Hui), and occasionally getting into a fight. There are a multitude of characters, including a righteous clan leader, played by The One-Armed Swordswoman’s Chiang Ming; a near-deaf inn owner outside of town (prolific actor Wu Chia-Hsiang); a shady escort business; and a wandering righteous fighter (Su Chen-Ping, of The Eight Masters and The One-Armed Boxer), among others.

Meanwhile, there’s a mysterious martial artist who is killing anyone who has any contact with Angela Mao’s character. Why? What secrets do they hide? We never actually find out that part. And just who is the guy hiding literally behind the shadows, screwing Ermei clan leader Su Yen (played by Doris Lung Chun-Ehr) and talking about a mysterious jade lion that’ll guarantee dominance in the Martial World? Is it the Stranger (Don Wong Tao, of Secret Rivals), who greets Angela at the inn by attacking her with wine and food? Is it the helpful, yet secretive, guy, played by Dragon Inn’s Wan Chung-San? Or perhaps the elderly clan leader, played by Yuen Shen, who played the Abbot in Rebel of Shao-Lin?

There are a few double crosses, surprise reveals, and double agents working for the good guys (or bad guys), but it's all to nought. We don't learn the learn the reason for Angela wanting to find Liu Chang until the final reel. We never learn why Don Wong Tao is even involved in the intrigue: the film suggests that he’s a government official, but it’s never explicitly stated. There are several parties working for the good guys whose identities and motivations we never learn. It's a 1000-age wuxia novel condensed into 84 minutes, but with everybody's backstory shorn off.

The action, choreographed by Ko Pao (who also worked with Angela on The Lady Constables), is pretty okay. It's better than some reviews led me to believe, but nothing classic. Angela spends most of the film fighting with a short spear, which can extend into a regular-sized one, like a retractable baton. Typical of his post-1976 films, Wong Tao uses hung gar instead of his original tae kwon do training. His signature weapon is more interesting: a pair of short-handled halberds that can detach with a cord. Fellow Taiwanese action starlet Doris Lung has two short dust-ups with Angela, wielding a fu chen, or horsetail whisk. I would’ve liked to have seen them go at it with more hand-to-hand, but okay.

The best fight has Angela fighting a formation of villains wielding flails/maces that are dressed to look like lotus blossoms, that can also explode on impact. That sequence is quickly followed by a drawn-out House of Traps™ set piece involving spears, buzz saws, and flaming incense censers. This scene actually has some brutal moments, like Angela Mao ramming a guard’s face into a cauldron of fire and burning the poor sap’s face off! The finale is a two-on-one battle involving Angela Mao and two male characters. It’s not bad, although it’s certainly not up to Mao’s Golden Harvest films. The movie then ends completely ignoring both the subplot of one of the secondary villains, not to mention one of the esoteric objects described in the film’s title(!). And just what is the “Moonlight Sword”? It’s certainly not Angela Mao’s weapon, or Wong Tao’s weapon, or anybody else’s weapon as far as I could see.

The Secret of Shaolin Poles (1977)

The Secret of Shaolin Poles (1977)
aka: Prodigal Boxer 2; New Prodigal Boxer 2; The Story of Fong Sai Yuk
Chinese Title: 方世玉大破梅花樁
Translation: Fong Sai-Yuk Big Broken Plum Blossom Pile

 

Starring: Meng Fei, Yasuaki Kurata, Lau Kar-Wing, Chang Yi, Doris Lung Jun'er, Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Joh Yim-Yung
Director: Ulysses Au
Action Director: Lau Kar-Leung

 

In 1977, Lau Kar-Leung teamed up with Taiwanese director Ulysses Au once more for another independent flick, this time with a lot more success than the blandly forgettable Ming Patriots. The cards were stacked more in their favor this time: this project seemed to have way more of a budget than their previous collaboration had and, consequently, a (relatively) longer shooting schedule (Ming Patriots looks to have been choreographed by Lau over the weekend while he was visiting relatives in Hong Kong). Moreover, the story, which involves Chinese folk hero Fong Sai-Yuk, hit closer to home for Lau, considering that Fong Sai-Yuk was a student of the hung gar style, the same style that Lau Kar-Leung had trained in. Furthermore, Lau had already worked on two Fong Sai-Yuk movies around that time: The Men from the Monastery and Heroes Two, so he probably had a deeper connection with the story.

Finally, Lau Kar-Leung had already worked with most of the cast by this point. After all, one of the principal actors was his own brothers (a veteran choreographer by this point, too), so there was no trouble there in knowing how to choreograph him. Lau had worked with Meng Fei on the landmark hit Five Shaolin Masters, so he was probably well aware of the actors' strong and weak points. Chang Yi had stolen the show in Ming Patriots, so there was little chance of him screwing this film up. It must make a big difference to an action director when you're intimately familiar with the actors you're working wit.

The Secret of Shaolin Poles is the second official sequel to the 1972 classic The Prodigal Boxer, a film that bore the distinction of being the first modern kung fu movie about folk hero Fong Sai Yuk. Fong Sai-Yuk would show up in numerous films afterward, being played by the likes of Alexander Fu Sheng, Chin Kar-Lok, and even some fellow named Jet Li. Meng Fei was the first, however. Meng had reprised the role in 1975 in Young Hero of Shaolin, which shares a lot of similarities between this film's cast and crew. This movie however, addresses a number of plot points from The Prodigal Boxer, including its main villain (Yasuaki Kurata of Fist of Legend), who's supposed to be the brother of the villain from the first film (also played by Kurata).

The movie begins with a pair of anti-Qing rebels being presented before Commander Ma (Challenge of Death's Chang Yi). In a moment characteristic of a Lau-choreographed film, Ma commands them to kneel, but their horse posture is so strong that Ma's soldiers are unable to force them to do so. Only through the manipulation of pressure points are they able to force the two guys to kneel, after which Ma kills them. We then get a few random fight scenes, including one of a guy who looks and dresses like Fong Sai-Yuk (Lau Kar-Wing, of Kung Pao: Enter the Fist) who beats up a bunch of soldiers with just his fan. At about the same time, Commander Ma receives news that Dragon Lee, brother of the Tiger Lee villain character from the first movie, wishes to challenge Fong Sai-Yuk to a duel atop some poles and wants Ma to pay him a reward if he wins. Commander Ma agrees, thus setting up a match-made-in-hell partnership between the Japanese fighter and the Qing official.

We then follow Fong Sai-Yuk (Meng Fei) as he makes his way to a village to visit his friends. There are two things wrong with that, however. First, there are quite a few assassins ready to kill him on the way, including a man dressed as an old woman and blind man armed with a garotte. Second, when he arrives, Fong finds out from Xiao Yu (Doris Lung, who had worked with Lau in Master of the Flying Guillotine, the local girl who wants to get into Fong's pants, that his friend were those two guys who were killed in the first scene. She informs him that an impostor--the guy we saw fight the soldiers--had secured the men's heads after the execution. Fong and Xiao Yu head for the local brothel in order to find out who the impostor is.

While hanging out at the whorehouse, Fong gets in a big kung fu fight with the fake Fong Sai-Yuk, who turns out to be a man named Fong Tin. Fong Tin receives an important hung gar lesson from Sai-Yuk, who beats him up and taunts him about the weakness of his technique at every turn. While leaving the brothel, Fong Sai-Yuk makes eye contact with a pretty prostitute (Joh Yim-Yung, who had been in Ming Patriots) and is rebuked by Dragon Lee, who tells him to stop looking at his woman.

There's a "touching" scene in which Fong Sai-Yuk, Fong Tin, and Xiao Yu go to a restaurant where a small shrine has been erected in honor of Fong's friends. We learn that Fong Tin had secured the heads of the men, found their bodies, and then sewed the heads back on and buried them so that they could have a peaceful afterlife. Huh. Anyway, the two Fongs become friends.

Commander Ma and Dragon Lee meet up at the site where the pole duel is supposed to take place. The latter makes a public announcement that he intends to duel with Fong Sai-Yuk. While that hardly seems worth mentioning, I have to point out that he does so while simultaneously physically abusing the prostitute from the earlier scene, whom he had bought from the brothel. When Fong Tin hears that a cocky Japanese fighter is challenging Fong and mistreating Chinese women, he goes to challenge the man himself. He soon finds himself on the wrong end of a sharpened bamboo stake at the bottom of the poles. Fong Sai-Yuk eventually arrives and fights Dragon Lee, but the poles atop which they're fighting are booby trapped and Fong is seriously injured. Only some quick thinking from Xiao Yu, the prostitute, and an almost-but-not-quite-dead Fong Tin save Fong Sai-Yuk's life.

Fong Sai-Yuk is nursed back to health by the prostitute, Xiao Yu, and Fong's own mother (Kong Ching-Ha, of My Blade, My Life). Xiao Yu's father tries to turn in Fong for the reward money, but the heroes fake Fong's death in order to get him out of harm's way. Fong ends up going into training with a crippled fighter named Ma Chiu (Superkicker Dorian Tan Tao-Liang), while Dragon Lee goes on a warpath, arresting the women in Fong's life and trying to rape them. Unlike Anderson Silva, Fong's more than ready for a rematch.

The quality of Lau Kar-Leung's choreography here is a lot closer to what he was doing for the Shaw Brothers in 1977 for films like The Deadly Mantis and Executioners of Shaolin. The moves are quicker and crisper and the hung gar techniques are more prevalent, even though Meng Fei spends much of the movie fighting with a fan. There's less overt hung gar philosophy here than in Lau's own directorial efforts, but one can see it in some of the training sequences and in the fight between the two Fongs. The neat part of the training sequence is how much Lau emphasizes solid footwork, despite hung gar being known mainly for his animal-based hand techniques.

In a burst of creativity from Lau not seen since Masterof the Flying Guillotine, the standard-issue Fong Sai-Yuk pole fight is given a breath of fresh air via the numerous traps hidden inside the poles. Apparently, Fong Sai-Yuk really did fight atop a series of poles, knocking his opponent off and winning it. This film adds to the legend by including exploding poles, descending poles, poles that split into two when someone steps on them, and sharpened bamboo that rises from the ground at certain intervals. It's nice touch and works well for the movie here.

The actors acquit themselves fairly well to the material here. Meng Fei is good as the cocky, but likable Fong Sai-Yuk, and his fighting is a lot more assured under Lau Kar-Leung's direction than it ever was under Lau's brother (who choreographed many of Meng's movies). His handiwork with the fan predates Jackie Chan's famous fan fight in The Young Master. Yasuaki Kurata and Chang Yi are solid as always, with the latter essentially reprising his role from Ming Patriots. Doris Lung, who looked great under Lau's direction before, is relegated to a flower vase role as a girl involved in a sort-of love triangle between her, Fong, and the prostitute. Even worse is Tan Tao-Liang, one of the great genre superkickers, who is forced to play the role of the master, with minimal fight action. A brief exchange between him and Kurata shows that he might've shined more than ever before under Lau's direction, as his career was hampered by one too many cheap Taiwanese films with choreographers who didn't know how to tune into his skills. Alas, that wasn't to be.

The main flaws to this film fall mainly on the shoulders of the writers and Ulysses Au, who fill the film with racist jabs at the Japanese and violence against women. Things get particularly ugly in the last act when Kurata's character tries to rape Doris Lung and then beats the prostitute to death. He then outlines his plan to Chang Yi, in which he plans to rape Doris atop the poles unless Fong Sai-Yuk shows up to fight him again. The rampant misogyny never adds up to anything more than the filmmakers trying to make the Japanese character as hateful as possible.

I almost wonder if it was Lau's experience on this film that inspired him to make Heroes of the East, which treated Yasuaki Kurata and Japanese martial arts in general with respect for once. You can just imagine Lau listening to Kurata's complaints about the character he's portraying and then rubbing his chin and planning out a film that would remedy that, occasionally exchanging ideas with Kurata in order to develop said idea. It certainly gives this movie another dimension of sorts in how it helped spur the creation of one of the greatest kung fu movies of all time.