I've read somewhere this low-budget Kung-Fu version of THE HUSTLER-genre had some problem with censorship because of a strong brutality in several scenes. Anyway it's another written-directed-starred trash from Taiwanese icon Roc Tien peng (THE TONGFATHER, 1972). He plays a billiard ace beaten and left for dead by usual mobsters, but, to say the truth, when all of a sudden he reappears in the boss Villa, you can't help but laugh, because the heavy makeup looks like a cartoon (you know, the kind of burned Wile coyote after a bomb exploded on him). Tien peng's real life brother Ho Tien and the late Chang Sing (KUNG-FU THE INVISIBLE FIST) are in the game. Taipei's playboy Wang Kuan Hsiung is the co-star (and I never understood why this mediocre actor was so highly regarded in Taiwan, considering that his major achievement is the terrible IRON OX, TIGER KILLER). Addy Sum Gam Loi (ENTER THE DRAGON), plays Chicken; the usual Chen Hung Lieh plays a pipe-smoker; bulky Kam Kong plays a tough, while local legend Ko Chun Hsiung (800 HUNDRED HEROES; Z-MEN) is the big boss. The story is mostly set in the billiard room (with a Bud Spencer poster attached on the wall). Fistfights are there but billiard-game scenes are simply boring. Production company IFD & Arts is responsible also for a tons of trashy 80's and 90's Ninja movies. THE DESPERATE PRODIGAL (aka EQUALS AGAINST DEVIL) was released in Taiwan 10/23/81.
