Wu di tie sha zhang

A typical low-grade Martial Arts movie from Hong Kong, where this opened 12/29/71. Two years later it made some money in foreign markets like Italy and France. The influence of spaghetti-western is all too evident (the heroes arrives on their horses!). Story is formulaic, the set is cheap (a farm, a tavern, a small forest, a stony valley) but the cast is a joy for the fans of old school Kung-Fu extravaganza, in that its filled with famous HK actors (Alan tang, Charlie Chin), regular character-actors (Chiang Nan, Lee Man Tai, Chu Mu, this one also in charge as film-director; the ubiquitous Hao Li Jan from Enter the Dragon) and an army of stuntmen including future legends of the genre like Chen Kwan Tai (Boxer from Shantung), Tommy Loo Chun Kou, Jason Pai Piao (Stranger from Canton), Eddy Ko Hung (Avenging eagles; Lethal Weapon 4; the documentary Dragonland), and many other familiar faces. So the whole matter is a sort of Who's Who of old Kung-Fu cinema, and this is why I give a broken 6 to this mediocre film. A kind of nostalgic archive, if you like.

It starts with two men on horseback riding through the desert as music plays. Alan and Charlie come to the rescue of a girl getting raped by the reservoir. The rapist requests their names and addresses to properly thank them for showing him mercy. He returns their kindness with cruelty by returning with Pai Ying to get revenge against their entire escort company. Pai Ying is the title character and uses his power to take over the entire town. Our guys train to beat him. It all comes down to the final fight.

I have the Video Asia DVD of this movie. It comes with the 1993 movie "Shaolin Megaforce" (original title Megaforce from Highland") in a two for one. This movie is dubbed in English. The video is widescreen and the resolution is good but scratchy at times. The voice over actors aren't the "A Team" but they are good. All it takes to be good is not to be annoying.

This is one of the early movies to feature training sequences. One fighter strengthens his hands and the other works on leg strength. The exaggerated, over the top training sequence would become a standard part in these movies by the late 1970s. These actors are not martial artists as typical of the time. Both have the habit of raising their arms over their head, like signaling "Touchdown" between moves. This is unrealistic and wasted energy and movement but perhaps it also makes it look like more action.

The parts of this movie that drag are the drama and the drag is because it is melodrama. It gets beyond that to cringe-worthy with the children crying after watching mother drown herself.

This movie would only draw the attention of a hard core fan of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984. That fan would find here a totally average movie, formulaic, with every beat delivered as expected and nothing beyond those minimal expectations.