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The Battle Wizard

Original title: Tian long ba bu
  • 1h 17m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
665
YOUR RATING
Chen-Chi Lin and Danny Lee in The Battle Wizard (1977)
MandarinActionFantasy

A bookish young man and his sword-loving sister find themselves battling a trio of villains, one of them a beautiful but masked woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man... Read allA bookish young man and his sword-loving sister find themselves battling a trio of villains, one of them a beautiful but masked woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man to see her unmasked.A bookish young man and his sword-loving sister find themselves battling a trio of villains, one of them a beautiful but masked woman who has promised to either marry or murder the first man to see her unmasked.

  • Director
    • Hsueh-Li Pao
  • Writers
    • Louis Cha
    • Kuang Ni
  • Stars
    • Danny Lee
    • Ni Tien
    • Chen-Chi Lin
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    665
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Hsueh-Li Pao
    • Writers
      • Louis Cha
      • Kuang Ni
    • Stars
      • Danny Lee
      • Ni Tien
      • Chen-Chi Lin
    • 13User reviews
    • 21Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos11

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    Top Cast38

    Edit
    Danny Lee
    Danny Lee
    • Prince Tuan Yu
    Ni Tien
    Ni Tien
    • Mu Wan-Ching
    • (as Tanny)
    • …
    Chen-Chi Lin
    Chen-Chi Lin
    • Chung Ling-erh
    Chuen Chiang
    Chuen Chiang
    Han Chiang
    Han Chiang
    • Sze-Kung Hsuan
    Tao Chiang
    Tao Chiang
    • Yueh Chang-lung
    Lu Chin
    Lu Chin
    • Chin Hung-Mien
    Norman Chu
    Norman Chu
      Ping Ha
      Ping Ha
      • Madam Chung
      • (as Teresa Hsia Ping)
      Shu-Hua Hsin
      • Chief Chung
      Chih-Kuang Huang
      Ling-Ling Hung
      Ling-Ling Hung
      • Shu Baifeng
      Hsiung Kao
      Hsiung Kao
      Chan-Hsiung Ku
      Tsan-Hsiung Ku
      Ta Lei
      Ta Lei
      Ho Li-Jen
      Ho Li-Jen
        Shang-Yun Liang
        • Director
          • Hsueh-Li Pao
        • Writers
          • Louis Cha
          • Kuang Ni
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

        User reviews13

        6.2665
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        10

        Featured reviews

        6markovd111

        You won't know what you have watched, but you will still be amazed!

        This is one of those "so bad it's good" type of movies. Plot and editing are all over the place, as are action scenes, but that doesn't matter when people shoot laser beams from their hands and spit fire like dragons. It's a great to watch with your mate to laugh and question life while watching it. I give it 6/10 though. Not everyone can watch this and the movie has a very slow beginning. I recommend it just to hardcore fans of kung fu movies and bad movies!
        6ChungMo

        What did I just watch?

        Definitely along the lines of "Anything Goes" HK cinema, Battle Wizard starts crazy and remains that way to the very end. Convoluted story, strange characters, garish special effects and a snappy pace keep this film entertaining, that is if you go for this sort of thing.

        This is the sort of movie that is immune to most commentary just by the obvious disregard the film makers have for normal movie making. Either you watch this sort of film or you don't. The only comment I can make is that whoever edited this film should have been sent back to the butcher shop to resume slicing tripe. It's some of the worst editing I ever have seen in a Shaw production.

        Fun for an afternoon with friends.
        10jonahhenry-89032

        This is the worst movie I've ever seen... 10/10.

        I hate this movie so much that I love it. This is easily the worst story I've ever seen, the worst editing, and the weirdest movie that I'm currently aware of. The acting is fine, but literally everything else is just awful. 10/10. Would play at my wife's funeral.
        7daustin

        Wacky kung fu freakout

        This is one of the crazy ones, along the lines of Buddha's Palm or Holy Flame of the Martial World, though not as fun or inventive. Danny Lee plays a scholar who is uninterested in kung fu, who pursues the "Red Python" which can grant great power. His task is complicated by his philandering father, the cute Lin Chen-chi and her magical snakes, and angry Tanny Tien-ni and her dagger-shooting leg bone.

        The movie is filled wacky costumes, fake monsters, goofy visual effects, and kung fu "laser" beams. As short as it is, it still gets a bit bogged down in dialogue and exposition. Still, there's enough craziness along the way to hold you until the mind-blowing ending , which features Danny Lee fighting a kung fu gorilla, and a man on retractable metal chicken legs who fires flames out of his mouth. Worth watching, at least for the ending.
        7Calaboss

        Hand Me That Piano

        Prior viewer's descriptions of the action offered here have been duly attempted and I won't dispute anything I've read. I will just say, you REALLY have to be in the mood for this.

        I've been watching Kung Fu movies on TV since the 1970's, and I've seen some pretty wild stuff. But this one dumps a whole kitchen sink of action and effects on you. A lot of it makes no sense and a lot of it looks terrible, but hey, like I said, you have to be in the mood. And as to those cheapy laser beams, just look at American, high-end effects in 1977. Star Wars came out the same year, and the laser effects there were not hugely better than this stuff. Production values as a whole were worlds apart, but the laser beams themselves? Not a big difference.

        Thank the Red Dragon, or the deity of your choice, for the El Rey Network. It has "Flying, Five Finger, One Armed, Eight Pole, Shaolin, Exploding Death Touch Thursdays". Wonders like this one are now brought to my TV each week. Not every movie can be a classic like Enter the Dragon, but El Rey shows them all with no prejudice. Actually, thank Robert Rodriguez, for putting his reputation and cash on the line to start that channel. I don't know another network that would show us these treasures.

        In a contest for the strangest Kung Fu movie, I'm not sure which one would win, but this movie, and Hong hai er (The Fantastic Magic Baby) are definitely two of the top contenders.

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        Related interests

        Jonathan Chang in Yi Yi (2000)
        Mandarin
        Bruce Willis and Taniel in Die Hard (1988)
        Action
        Elijah Wood in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
        Fantasy

        Storyline

        Edit

        Did you know

        Edit
        • Trivia
          The sound that the antagonist (Yellow Robe Man in the English subtitles) makes when breathing fire in the final fight scene was created using the call of the Chinese crested tern, a critically endangered species of bird at the time of production.
        • Goofs
          Chung Ling-erh makes a deal with the Prince to teach him kung-fu if he will teach her to read. This never takes place in the film, but towards the end she adeptly scribes a message onto one of her snakes to send to the Chief, showing that she already knew how to read and write.

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        Details

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        • Release date
          • September 9, 1977 (Hong Kong)
        • Country of origin
          • Hong Kong
        • Language
          • Mandarin
        • Also known as
          • Das Blut der roten Python
        • Production company
          • Shaw Brothers
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Tech specs

        Edit
        • Runtime
          • 1h 17m(77 min)
        • Color
          • Color
        • Sound mix
          • Mono
        • Aspect ratio
          • 2.35 : 1

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