Director: Liu Chia-liang
Year: 1978
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: Tang lang; The Deadly Mantis
Genre: Kung-Fu
Plot:
Intent on unearthing a potential traitor, a government spy is sent to a family’s reputed rebel hideout by acting as a tutor for their youngest daughter to gain access to the rest of the family. After initially appearing as a trustworthy aide to the family, they start to become suspicious of a traitor in their own midst and begin a massive campaign of violence against anyone who they suspect as the culprit undermining their own plans. When his feelings for their daughter compromise his mission and eventually unravel his true intentions, it ends up forcing his reliance on a new kung-fu style to get out alive.
Review:
This is a really enjoyable and entertaining effort that really gets a lot going for it. One of the better elements on display is the fact that this one completely redefines the cliched notion of learning a new technique from an elder master in favor of having the hero make up the moves himself while watching the creatures. This is highly unique and rather clever to get a new twist on the genre when the plot-point is something that has been done countless times before. Though these scenes rely nicely on the old-school approach of the endless repetition of the movements in a typical training style that the genre relies on, that this at least attempts something new away from the formulaic teachings of the master/student relationship that’s been done to death.
That leads to the remarkable series of fights here where the reliance on hand-to-hand combat is based on the recently-acquired techniques. It results in some utterly jaw-dropping choreography with the fluidity and rapidity of the movements here resulting in a long, grueling fight that really steals the show and seems highly appropriate considering the remaining parts of the fighting being so good. There's not a whole lot of fighting in this one but it really does get out a lot of good parts when it does, generating a highly rewarding series of encounters to escape the different levels of the hideout and the brilliant brawls to get into the palace at the end that sets up the final fight.
These are certainly enjoyable enough and really get the momentum back from what's the only real problem with this one in the lame romance angle. This takes up way too much time in the story and really makes for quite a hard time getting invested in what's going on as the two begin to flirt with each other quite lamely and are far from being believable in how they get close to each other. Furthermore, it tends to make the film longer than it needs to be with the amount of extra running time being related to how much extra time is spent on their romance with each other as there’s little need for this one to touch on the running time that it does without making some cuts to it. Other than this one problem, it's a highly entertaining effort.
Overview: ****/5
A highly enjoyable and fun martial arts effort with very little to dislike about it, it remains one of the better entries in the style and only has a few minor factors that knock it down slightly. Those who appreciate the style and approach taken here or are fans of the genre will have a lot to like here while those that are turned off by the flaws might not be as high on the film.
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