Xin nan quan bei tui

AFter the seeing first 2 secret rivals movies I had pretty high expectations for this chop socky.

Unfortunately I was rather disappointed. However, it does have John Liu, one of the great kung fu actors and kickers of the golden age. He pretty much saves the film, the scenes without him are damp squibs. His kicking techniques are well to the fore in the movies countless fight scenes.

The lame attempts at comedy tend to spoil the kung fu fun. Watch it with a steady hand on the fast forward button. The action direction by Robert Tai is decent, but anyone who has seen Incredible Kung Fu Mission or the Final Duel will attest the action is far from his best.

Overall worth a look for the countless fight scenes and John Liu.

Perhaps John Liu needed the money to agree to star in this poor sequel to the groundbreaking Secret Rivals I / II that are genuinely classics. Hwang Jang-Lee is replaced by Robert Tai as the villain and it shows just how good Hwang is by how much he is missed. John Liu is always worth watching for his great leg work and Alexander Lou has style and charisma but the fights seem over choreographed and rather slow. Not helped by a poor print of the film on my Vengeance DVD edition. The whole woodcarver desperately looking for a teacher adds little to the already weak plot and the humour wasn't needed in the first two films and works poorly. Not a film to go out of your way to see.