Wan ren zan

I'm what you'd call a devout Shaw Brothers fanatic. With that bias in mind, Killer Constable (Lightning Kung Fu) is an interesting diversion from your standard Shaw fare being made at the time. As others have stated before me, the "Kung Fu" in the US video re-title is a bit misleading as there is little to no actual kung fu in the film. Instead we're treated to a lot of swordplay. Not the kind of swordplay you'd expect to see in one of Chu Yuan's jiang hu epics, but a more gritty, rough-and-tumble style of fighting that almost seems out of place in a Shaw Brothers film (much of the action courtesy of a Japanese choreographer whose name escapes me). Shaw veteran Chen Kuan Tai (Boxer From Shantung, Crippled Avengers) plays the constable of the title, Ling Tien Ying, who is ordered to hunt down the men responsible for robbing the imperial treasury of 2 million taels of gold. To make matters interesting, he's given only 10 days to do it. Tien Ying is pretty damn ruthless. An anti-hero if there ever was one, but it's a testament to both Chen Kuan Tai as an actor and Kuei Chih Hung's skill a director that we still care what happens to this man and sympathize with him even after he's done some very questionable things. Speaking of director Kuei Chi Hung, he does a great job of instilling a strong sense of atmosphere and maintaining it throughout the picture. Also, anyone familiar with John Woo's The Killer will immediately recognize a couple of scenes that were clearly used/lifted for Woo's film nearly 10 years later. In fact it's so obvious that I'm surprised I've never read anyone commenting on it before. Perhaps it's due to this films lack of availability? Whatever the case, I'd be interested to hear Woo's take on it. Not to give too much away, but the scenes in question involve a blind girl and two antagonists at each other's throat in the same room, ready to kill one another. Both men play along in lying to the blind girl about the one man's identity and what his intentions really are. Sound familiar at all?

I remember watching this movie as a kid and being quite impressed because I found it so bloody. I often remembered this movie and so I was really happy to find this now in a second hand video store after all those years. Of course I'm not that impressed nowadays - but it's still a very cool swordsplay-movie. I has a lot of great fights with some splatter pleasure like extremities being chopped off. Ohh, and it's no kung-fu- or karate-movie, don't know why they named it "Karate Exterminators" or "Lightning Kung Fu", maybe this was more popular at it's release-date. My german video-release is called "Der gnadenlose Vollstrecker" which is a title that totally fits. Really outstanding is the atmosphere. You have fights in pitch black, in the water and marsh, with fire and so on. And there is a lot of rain. You know, rainy, dark atmosphere, desperate and already injured heroes with long wet hair in the face standing counterpart ready to die. - Cool! And the hero is no real hero because he's a total cold-hearted, bougeois executioner. But there's some development with his character during the story which is quite realistic. And the end is very surprising and radical. So, the movie-makers are not just martial-arts- and swordsplay-professionals, they also knew how to develop a storyline and built some great atmosphere. For me this movie is a hidden treasure of all those kung-fu and swordsplay-movies of the 70ies & 80ies. 7 out of 10.

If you are a kung fu movie fan you can invite your Hollywood movie fan friends over to watch Killer Constable. Tell them it's an action movie that actually has a plot and a dark disturbing emotional impact. Yes, you could even watch this movie with your mom!

I like to analyze plot structure and almost all kung fu movies fall into four plots. 1) Revenge or "You killed my master" 2) The Karate Kid or doofus learns martial arts 3) The fighter who has sworn never to use violence again but is finally forced into it and 4) Martial artists from everywhere come to the tournament which is far more than just that. This actually adds a plot I haven't seen before in this genre. It's the good guy crosses the line plot. If you've ever watched an episode of Highlander the TV series this was a favorite plot there. The protagonist's character progression is amazing and unlike Western plot structure. He starts out as a jerk, then there is hope for him, yet he continues to be a jerk. Then you are cheering for him at the end because sometimes the world needs a jerk to kill the real villain.

The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the fights at the beginning. They are filmed in the dark and you can't see what's happening. With Kuan Tai Chen we need to see everything because he is the real deal. Fortunately the rest of the fights were showcases of his true skill level. Make this one an 8.0 for me. A note to all old school kung fu movie fans. I highly recommend Kuan Tai Chen's latest - "The Gallants" and rate that one an 8.0 also.

Leng Tian-Ying (Kuan Tai Chen) is known as the Killer Constable because as a police officer, he goes after bad guys with ruthless zeal, generally killing them rather than simply arresting the malefactors. When a fortune is stolen from the Imperial Treasury, he is given the task of finding and executing the culprits within ten days. With his best men at his side, he sets out to fulfill this task, but it seems that there are small armies of bad guys all around, all eager to shed his blood for a change....

This is an interesting combination of genres, including the wuxia martial arts system and a touch of noir cinema, creating a very entertaining and atmospheric visual feast. I must say that I soon lost track of just how many bad guys our hero was fighting, and who was on whose side, but it really doesn't matter with this kind of film, it's the spectacle of it all that counts. The only bit that truly puzzled me was a scene where a bunch of straw is set on fire, despite the fact that there has been an ongoing downpour of rain for the previous several scenes - wouldn't the straw be too soggy to light? But never mind, this show isn't about logic, it's about beautifully staged fighting and lots and lots of (clearly fake) blood; take it in that spirit and you'll be quite entertained.

From the same director of the disturbing "Hex" (1980) and the gore jewel "Bewitched" (1981), an updated reinterpretation of Kung Fu classics such as "One-armed Swordsman" (1967) and "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" (1978).

The film is about a police chief who is assigned to go in search of the thieves who have stolen two million gold bars from the capital. He will uncover a plot in which he will do justice with blood.

The film immediately takes on an almost feverish pace, thanks to the frantic editing in the style of Shaw Brothers. Excellent from a photographic point of view, especially the night scenes, they are pervaded by a dark blue that fully satisfies the viewer's view. The fights are fluid and fed with massive doses of blood. With a perfect mix of action and speech, cruelty and irony.

The only flaws are: The not very fluid panoramas and some shots to be discarded kept in assembly. In summary, a fresh and very smooth film. Beautiful, but with the blunders of those who produce films in a few months, in perfect Shaw Brothers style.