Du ming zou tian ya

My Life's On The Line contains a good deal of fairly good fighting, although almost all the fight sequences have been accelerated, so it's harder to see how skilled the actors actually are, which is a shame.

The story does have some strange cuts. Most gratingly, when the main character is fighting some old guy in the middle of the movie, suddenly (without the fight having finished) the scene cuts to a brothel where the main guy is surprised (along with the audience) to find himself in a prostitute's bed. She then begs him to take her away with him, and when he refuses, she takes poison. Next, he befriends the family of the guy he has been sent to kill, ending up causing the death of the young grandson, and, indirectly, the rape and death of the daughter-in-law. This follows the often observed Asian movie tradition of killing off everyone the hero was meant to save, just so he can be angry and anguished enough to take on the bad guy. In this movie, the final fight against Kar Yan Leung is quite good (Kar Yan Leung doing an excellent imitation of Bruce Lee), but it is interrupted by The End before anyone wins or loses. The screen is covered in blood, apparently saying that violence is a vicious circle that never ends. Well. Maybe so, but it's not a very satisfying ending.

Add to this a completely useless and really awful stand-alone comedy sequence some time into the movie (I had to fast forward through most of this; it was that unbearable to watch), and this flick cannot be granted anything higher than a 3 out of 10 rating. And that's generous. Definitely NOT one of the better kung fu movies.