Fan Mei-Sheng Fan and his gang seek a master swordsman with a valuable sword. (The so-called value of this sword becomes immediately irrelevant.) They enter one of my favorite sets on the Shaw Brother's outdoor lot - a restaurant or tea house on a lake. Huang Chung-Hsin as Jiang Dan Feng the Magnificent Swordsman sits there but looks like a bum. Fan Mei-Sheng kills three helpless people then the Magnificent Swordsman finally takes action and kills the entire gang. The opening titles roll with a song then to another tea house.
At this tea house actor Wei Ping-Ao is telling a story. There is a robbery and a fight starts. This time Magnificent Swordsman steps in to fight before anyone gets killed. After the fight he is followed and ambushed. Wei Ping-Ao, one of the attackers, before dying asks magnificent swordsman to deliver a letter to his sister Xiu Xiu, played by Shu Pei-Pei. There are flashback scenes to establish her character.
Magnificent swordsman finds her and tells her the truth. At first she gets all stabby about magnificent swordsman killing her brother but comes to deal with the fact it was self-defense and her brother was a jerk. She bandages where she cut him and the two develop a relationship. Her fiancée and the town continue to believe the magnificent swordsman is a murderer and hate Xiu Xiu.
A gang of thieves enters the story. They extort money from the townspeople. The townspeople agree to pay, continuing to blame magnificent swordsman and Xiu Xiu for everything. The gang collects the money then reneges. Magnificent swordsman solves everything with an heroic end fight then wanders off like heroes did back then.
This movie differs from other Shaw Brothers movies made during the golden age of martial arts movies from 1967 to 1984. Here we have more emphasis on story and a male/female relationship more about respect than romance.
The action scenes are mostly swords and strongly resemble the style of the blind swordsman Zatoichi. There are a few quick strokes and magnificent swordsman leaves his victim with an "X" mark as if leaving a signature. Wong Chung-Shun does as much action as possible without a stunt double because the sequences all seem to be short - about 3 to 5 strokes then cut. This was standard and considered good for the time period and would have been better without the shaky camera effect.
This seems to be Wong Chung-Shun's biggest role. He played in many other early martial arts movies. I will always remember him in the two Bruce Lee movies. In "Fist of Fury" he played the cook responsible for Bruce's master's death. Previously mentioned Wei Ping-Ao also played a bad guy in "Fist of Fury".Wong Chung-Shun died in 1976 at age 56. I must also mention Sammo Hung is listed as an extra. I watched the movie twice and he escaped my notice.
My copy is the Celestial release 2006. All the extra features function but they are simple features like a slide show.
