Bruce Leung Siu-Lung is both lead actor and action director and I believe this is his first time at both jobs. His father taught him well.
Bruce starts with comedy and the two opening fight sequences are creative and funny and demonstrate his high kicking skills. Bruce hooks up with two idiots for sidekicks. Hon Kwok-Choi and Mang Hoi were perfectly cast. They are both funny (just to look at) and are proficient in acrobatics which adds to the fight choreography.
They go off to a crooked town. Bruce is a special investigator for the provincial police. In town, boys are for sale at $30 each and the pawn shop owner switches gold pieces to cheat him. After taking care of the pawnbroker he goes to the brothel and sets the hookers free. The bad guys send a kung fu chick to teach him a lesson but they don't fight. He goes to see the big boss.
There's a twist as another man claims also to be a special investigator. The twist is so quickly resolved I ask why even bother to add it? Bruce takes cash from the big boss. The girl meets him again and again they don't fight.
It seems, when they got together to make this movie, they had a bunch of good ideas for scenes, got it on film, then realized they really had not put together a story. Plus they needed a villain! Solution - Get Kurata Yasuaki!
Since the story has come to a dead end Kurata Yasuaki is suddenly added as an unbeatable fighter carrying a fortune in pearls. The set up for the final fight is complete. The chick fights him first, briefly. There's a stupid standoff scene then the chick sides up with Bruce. Creativity then runs amok. Fireworks, a solar death ray, a mini-scooter, and misdirections all failed to amuse me. Wait for it though because the final fight between Bruce and Yasuaki is all good stuff.
Perhaps the best part is how our heroes are more emotional about the death of the mini-scooter than the girl.
My copy plays on a HDTV as a square picture with English dubbing typical of the old VHS format. This format is problematic because the cropping to fit the old square TV screens make the video appear too close up. This adversely affects the fighting sequences and the acting. The actors are all trained in Chinese opera and theater performers use exaggerated expressions to reach the back of the theater. As a fan of this genre, this is something you have to put up with unless you can find the true wide screen version, if it even exists. I have reason to believe this movie does exist in wide screen but have not found a copy.
