Shang Hai tan: Shi san tai bao

Why even pretend to have a plot when you can fill up the frames with fights? Now, I have to admit to a liking of action movies, even the kind where people fly and magic is not out of the question. It's hard to get into that kind of movie, however, when it is completely unclear exactly who you should want to win all of these fights.

The visual impression is nightmarish, not period. The odd combinations of time periods portrayed (something for everyone! is it the 1930s? 1960s? 1970s?) makes the movie feel disorienting, the crowning touch being the (probably uncredited and unpermitted) Jerry Goldsmith music from the Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Stage blood flows everywhere, but when you aren't certain who you would like to see bleeding, the effect is more like watching a series of trailers rather than one movie.

Ti Lung with a pipe. Yes, that's really in there.

This one is probably only for the Chang Cheh/Ti Lung/David Chiang completists.