Tie dan ying xiong

This is perhaps the most haphazard bunch of conglomerate kungfu and badly dubbed lips I've ever seen. It incorporates atrocious, misplaced sound effects and absolutely NO direction whatsoever. It stars a young man who gets a 200+ year old ginseng for his dying father, and the invading Japanese (who look so much like Koreans) have set their eyes on it. Then suddenly, we totally forget about the ginseng and go after overthrowing the government! What happened there!? The choreography was pretty lacking, but the badly written dialogue never failed to make us laugh.

Carter runs through the woods, looking fresh and smiling as if he was in a tampon commercial. He has found old ginseng to cure his father. It is too old and too valuable and draws the attention of the evil Japanese. Carter then finds his purpose in life. He breaks rocks by day and plays Robin Hood by night.

The problem with this movie is that it is a one man show. Carter was a top martial arts star with real martial arts skills in 1978 but he was a one trick pony and never had the charisma to fill 90 minutes. The fights are competently choreographed, have focus and power but, aside for a chopstick sequence, totally lack creativity and are the same moves over and over.

I rate it just below average for lack of effort.