It opens with men escorting a prisoner in chains. Many other men are lurking in the shadows. The attack and the prisoner escapes. After the credits a group of official looking men report to an old guy. Polly, Tien Peng, and Chiang Pin are also at the house. A brief fight breaks out and the two men flee on horseback. Polly follows. Cut to the escaped man and the gang on horseback in the woods. He is their prisoner now. Polly and Chiang Pin have a long talk that ends in a brief fight.
The fights are not bad considering the choreography and execution, The problem is they all look alike. Sometimes it begins with a long stare-down, followed by both combatants leap and spin, then land and stare each other down again. Otherwise the hero is encircled by dozens of swordsmen. There is a cut to close up and a quick exchange of blows versus a single opponent as the dozens of other fighters bounce around in the background. Some torches were added in one sequence but just as a light effect not as weapons. A few times props were launched on wires and that effect looked realistic. I am not a fan of hokey weapons. Here we had poison darts inside an abacus and a blade hidden inside a fan. No complaints.
My copy is a computer file that plays as wide screen on a HDTV. The dialog and subtitles are both Chinese and I do not speak Chinese. I have not been able to find an English version. I have reason to believe there is a widescreen restored English subtitle copy available but cannot locate it. I am on a mission to watch every martial arts movie made during the golden age from 1967 to 1984. These movies are becoming almost impossible to obtain so I grab any copy I can grab because there may not be another opportunity. Current technology is still not good enough to translate the dialog or subtitles on the fly.
This is just another average martial arts movie of interest to only a hard core fan. I watched it once and doubt I will watch it again.
