Les 8 hommes en or de Shaolin

72 DESPERATE REBELS is not terribly well-plotted or edited, nor is the kung fu what it should be in a film of this type, but it does have a certain visual flair and enough fight scenes to keep fans interested if not always seriously engaged. The plot has to do with a trio of heroes (two men, one woman) who take it upon themselves to try and bring down a powerful outlaw named Po Ho Nin (Pai Ying) who has an army of 72 killers and warriors whose combined skills have wreaked havoc throughout the region. The heroes are joined at one point by a blind swordsman (Lung Fei) who teaches them to 'fight in blindness' and, later, by a notorious swordsman who, they hope, can lead them to victory. At one point the heroes have to fight in different chambers set up by the bad guys, including the Tiger, Leopard, Crane and Phoenix chambers. In the latter, they are assaulted by hundreds of bells being rung overhead or thrown at them by women fighters.

The villain's personal bodyguards include a midget and a giant. The giant (played by Siu Kam) has the same glandular condition as seven-foot-two actor Richard Kiel and sports a row of gold teeth, recalling Kiel's role as the steel-toothed 'Jaws' in a pair of James Bond films. The giant bites on opponents' swords and breaks them with his teeth. The running joke is that, like Jaws in the Bond films, every time he's left for dead, he always rises up in the next scene to continue the battle.

The stars are not terribly charismatic. The female fighters are not memorable and not particularly skilled, although they are attractive. The only name actors in the cast are Tien Peng as one of the heroes; Pai Ying as villain Po Ho Nin; Lung Fei as the Blind Swordsman; Tsai Hung as one of the lead villains; and Chen Sing in one short fight scene as one of Po's warriors.

The plot is somewhat incoherent, the actors not at their the best, the English dubbing awkward, and the kung fu too reliant on gimmickry, such as incredibly high leaps up great distances. However, there is a certain amount of imagination on display and the giant is quite a novelty.

The narrator explains all about the pirates. A general comes to arrest the leader but the giant bites off his sword and spits the tip back into his forehead. Barry Chan teams up with the kung fu chick and they hear that "Ghost Killer" is coming to take on all 72 of Pai Ying's men. But Barry and the girl take the challenge first.

The plot here is really all about the martial arts. Barry does his usual competent job in the fight sequences but the girl has no power in her moves. She swings the sword as if afraid she might hurt the stunt men. Wan Shan as "Ghost Killer" arrives during the final fight. This movie makes every attempt to put something different on the screen, something the audience has not seen before. The problem is creativity is more than just being different. True creativity shows the audience what they haven't seen before plus what they never would have imagined seeing.

This movie seems to set the format for the upcoming "ninja" movies. I mean the movies with "ninja" in the title but have nothing to do with ninjas, with outrageous colorful shiny costumes, with fights that defy every law of physics, with weapons never before seen and with nothing that makes sense in between the fights.

Using the old, Bandits versus Heroes storyline, The 72 Desperate Rebels is a pretty decent, late seventies kung-fu flick from Taiwan that features a 7 foot tall monk with gold teeth as one of the villains, some nice costumes and sets, and plenty of good kung fu action!

King Hu regular, Pai Ying (Royal Warriors, A Touch Of Zen) is the big chief who has his 72 fighters protecting him at all times. As narrated at the beginning, each of the fighters is ranked by a different coloured hood in regards to how many people they have killed. It's corny, but it looks good. The Emperor's spy, a vengeful daughter and a mercenary team up in a bid to stop the army of bandits, no matter what it takes...

The fight choreography is done by Ling Kao (Ge) who, although having done a pretty good job in what was seemingly his first film, only did one or two afterwards. The fights aren't anything spectacular, but do keep moving and have plenty of nice acrobatics and swordplay to keep things interesting. Wang Yu regular Lung Fei co-stars as the blind swordsman, in a good guy role for a change.

Although it does have some imaginative moments, 72 Desperate Rebels never really gives us anything to hit the rewind button (so-to-speak) which is quite a shame really. The ending, although anti-climatic as a final battle in a wu xia movie, definitely says, 'it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...'

Overall: Somewhat imaginative, but nothing amazing with plenty of fight action!

Forget the films of Ed Wood. This film is definitely a contender for the worst film of all time. Tension, drama, script, acting, direction you name it, this film fails at every level.

Every cliché of the Kung-Fu genre appears in this film. A blind swordsman, an indestructible enemy, interminable sequences of Kung Fu that seem more like country dancing than a form of combat, a plot so inchorent if not stupid it should get the kind of critical acclaim reserved for incoherent art house films and heroes so irritating they deserve a fate worse than death.

The most stupid scene is probably in the inital scene where the merits of the 72 killers are described, each group wearing different colour head band to signify the number of people they have killed.

Enormously funny if watched with a group of people in the right frame of mind.

Directed by Lin Bing, this kungfu classic features all sorts of various characters and concepts. The pirate Po Ho Nim has gathered 72 fighters to guard him from the Chinese government. However, a band of fighters from various parts of China take a stand and seek out Po to defeat him. This film also is memorable for its 7 foot tall, gold toothed monk who can bite through metal (a reference to James Bond?). The films action starts out slow, but picks up its pace as the heroes take on 4 different branches of Po's army. The ending, however, is a bit disappointing and anti climatic. All in all, classic kungfu action, if you don't take it too seriously.

Rating: 8/10