Shou da gui

ADVENTURES FOR IMPERIAL TREASURES was produced when comedy was firmly embraced by the Chinese martial arts audiences. This KF movie however, keeps the comedy elements to a minimum; the only laughs occur revolving one single character (here as a elderly KF drunk). I'm sure you know the stereotype I am referring to. ADVENTURES FOR IMPERIAL TREASURES was actually shot and produced in Taiwan starring HK stars like Wong Dao, Meng Fei, (typecast as the baddie again), and Alan Choi. Due to the poor dubbing this is one hard to follow KF flick. With subs, it would be easier to following the intrigue. My big major problem with this movie, however, was the constant over-cranking to the fights scenes. It was not just a couple scenes which were sped up, pretty much the whole movie was that way. This film was released in 1981, which was the beginning of the end; by 1985 the KF scene was dead. During this downward spiral, independent studios were making poor creative decisions and lower budget movies really hurt the industry. Lower and lower budgets meant recycling of footage, music, and ideas. The Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest studios frowned upon the idea of overcranking the fight footage in their films. But there are a lot of indy companies did it (an some Taiwan ones did it a lot too). On the plus sides, ADVENTURES FOR IMPERIAL TREASURES does feature some nice sets design and coloful Taiwan photography. Its hard to appreciates the fights though cuz everything is so rushed...