Jin sha dao

A man is showing off a sword to a boy and masked men knock before barging in. The man is killed and the boy sneaks off with the sword. Cut to the bad guy (identified by his "ben wa" balls in hand) gives report to some people and they are displeased but he seems to be invulnerable. Cut again to a swordsman in yellow practices briefly then a female in yellow listens to swordsmen reporting. Tsou Chen plays the lead swordsman and he soon meets Hu Chin.

Hu Chin or Woo Gam is one of my favorite martial arts movie hot chicks. The daughter of an opera performer, Hu Chin started on Taiwan television. She caught the eye of movie director Li Han Hsiang and this lead to roles at Shaw Brothers. This movie was her first credit. She plays a fighter and needs a stunt double often. Her strength on screen was soft core erotic roles. In addition to her sex appeal she could also be funny and sexy at the same time. I find it odd that I personally hardly notice her in movies where she plays anything but a funny little sex kitten. Later our girl arrives at a small tea house. Service is poor because of a dice game is in action. Hu Chin does some moves to demonstrate her "inner power". The practical effects used in this scene to show that power were some of the most pathetic attempts ever put on film. Her fight scenes were only a few moves and that was enough.

My copy is a digital file that plays on a HDTV with the video quality and size of an old VHS tape. The dialog is Chinese and there are no subtitles. I do not speak Chinese and the dialog of this movie is often out of synch with the lip movement. Though this should not matter I found it distracting and tiresome. The last half of the movie hardly held my attention so I rate it just below average for the year and genre.