Director: Mar Lo
Year: 1979
Country: Hong Kong
Alternate Titles: Chu long ma liu; Stroke of Death; Drunken Monkey
Genre: Kung-Fu
Plot:
Sent to a prison in the area, a small-time crook meets a one-eyed master who has been sentenced to death. Shortly before he is executed, the master gives him a wooden keepsake, half of which is missing, and cryptically tells him he must search for the other half for then he will understand. Shortly thereafter, he breaks out of prison with another inmate and goes in quest of the missing piece to discover its secret. However, he's not the only one after it as a gang leader who also wants the piece is now on the trail of the missing half of the wooden puzzle, forcing a major battle for the sake of the object and the secrets it holds.
Review:
There's a lot to like with this one. Among the better features here is the fun, simplistic storyline that provides this one with enough action and fighting throughout here. The choreography, attempting to employ the animals' signature moves and stances into the usual acrobatics and flips that were commonly associated with the style and genre, creates a slew of impressive sequences here offering the combatants squaring off each other into some athletic and impressive bouts. This increases throughout the course of the film as the first few encounters are enjoyable but not as well as the later encounters where the training becomes complete with the use of his skills getting put to the test against the villains on his trail. These scenes have a lot to like with the battle in the brothel featuring the prostitutes or the finale in the mountain setting creating an enjoyable series of action scenes that are quite fun. Combined with the goofy oneliners that give this a fun, lighthearted atmosphere it has a lot to like.
There are some minor flaws to this one here. The main issue is the underwhelming plot that doesn't really serve much else beyond serving up a showcase for the constant fighting. The setup here involves the student escaping from prison and going on the quest to retrieve the clues for the truth of the mystical kung-fu style he's trying to learn while attempting to stay out of the reach of the former member that's also trying to steal the information contained within the manual. This is a formulaic and highly unoriginal storyline that doesn't do much new or interesting for the genre that's done this same setup in numerous other efforts, leaving this one to feel quite unremarkable compared to scores of other films like this. While there's nothing wrong with that, it's a feature that makes the film a solid second-tier effort at best due to its rather samey setup.
Overview: ***.5/5
A formulaic if a rather enjoyable genre effort that relies mainly on its frenetic pace of high-energy fighting to carry itself over its minor flaws, there's a lot to like here even with it being a mid-tier effort. This one has a lot to enjoy with fans of the style or genre while those who don't like either of these factors should heed caution for higher prominent choices first.
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