The Battle Wizard

A bookish young man named Tuan Yu (Danny Lee) believes that he doesn't need to learn to fight; his father, the brother of the king, disagrees and Tuan Yu decides to walk about in the world to see if he does need that skill. He soon meets Chung Ling-erh (Chen-Chi Lin), a snake-loving girl, who promises to teach him kung fu if he will teach her to read. In the meantime, Miss Mu (Ni Tien) is a fighter without compare, who always wears a mask and vows to either kill or marry any man who sees her face. The three soon find themselves facing all sorts of danger, not least from the husband of a woman who was having an affair with Tuan Yu's father. They will need to find a red snake, a deadly green toad and a lot of courage to make it through....

This is one of the Shaw Brothers films that makes almost no sense if you try to think about it logically, but is a lot of fun to look at anyway. There's all sorts of mayhem, including a gorilla (or rather, a man in a gorilla suit), bullet-like objects being shot from some characters' fingers, a guy who periodically belches out fire and oh, so much more! This film was rushed out just four or five months after the original "Star Wars" film, which it definitely seeks to emulate in terms of what were then state-of-the-art special effects; and it looks just as silly to modern eyes today as that original "Star Wars" does (I mean that affectionately). Tons of fun!

THE BATTLE WIZARD is a wacky, effects-fuelled martial world romp from Shaw that once again features Danny Lee in a kind of superhero-style role. This one came out just four months after STAR WARS and may have been influenced by that film's reliance on then-cutting edge FX technology. It's a short, fast-paced little adventure, with a ton of action and bizarre touches to make it enjoyable; Chiang Tao's half-human terminator and the fighting gorilla are highlights here. The guy with metal legs is also a hoot, and Tien Ni has a great role as a conflicted femme fatale.

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!

This move has it all! Copystrike potential, knees, no knees, snakes, blood sucking and lasers.

The acting and editing is on point aswell.

*clap clap* 10/10

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.