Lau Wing fights his way into Shaolin, apologizing. Then he has a long talk with an old monk. Lee Wan Chung leads another group of monks outside. Lau Wing wants to learn kung fu for revenge. The old monk gives him a special sword then dies at will apparently. Lee and gang will not let him leave. The monks surround him in what they call an arhat formation. There is a fight so pathetically choreographed I cringed. He escapes by flying to the roof. Cut to the lovely Ting sisters fight a thief in a tea house. Cut to a fortune teller tells a swordsman about the sword. Cut back to our hero at a table with the sisters and everyone is discussing an important book.
I always begin my reviews with a summary of the opening scenes. The reason for that is to make sure we are talking about the same movie. Many movies in this genre have more than one title and the titles typically have nothing to do with anything in the movie. This movie as an example has no jade hairpin at all. Though I have summarized the first 40 minutes of this movie I still have no idea of what is going on. At about the 60 minute mark Chan Sing gives an expository speech but too little too late.
The plot is non-existent or at least very confusing. Part of the problem is the picture is not wide screen but falsely stretched to fill the screen and the subtitles are cut off on both sides. Plus the subtitles are solid white and easily wash out. Even if they are accurately translated I am still missing about one third of what was spoken. Concerning the action, I cannot decide if the fight choreography or execution is worse but I've seen better fights in schoolyards.
I am rating this below average and cannot recommend it to even the most hard core fan.
