Ba Li sha shou

One of the oddest martial arts flicks you will ever see, this strange Euro/Far East hybrid is both a fine old school style kung fu flick as well as a European espionage tale, concerning gangsters pursuing two young men who steal a cache of diamonds from them in Hong Kong. The chase leads them around the globe, and the viewer is treated to a glorious travelogue of both Paris and the French Alps, where the film comes to it's violent climax. It's funny to see the reverential way the Chinese film makers lovingly film the French scenery. Obviously filming in a European locale was very special and unique for them. Their love of the foreign land transfers nicely to the film itself, and watching "Paris Killers" becomes an extremely enjoyable experience because of it. Filled with many head scratching moments that make little sense, this is one to watch in an altered state of mind with friends who enjoy bizarre movies. The French girls are filmed so lovingly in various states of undress, that the camera appears to leer at times, but it is all harmless fun. It must be mentioned that the main draw of "Paris Killers," besides the beautiful widescreen photography, is the impressive martial arts on display. There are many action scenes involving kung fu and it's very well choreographed. Those scenes are fast and intense and fit in well despite the European setting. for fans of the martial arts genre, this is one to track down, if for nothing else than for it's sheer weirdness. Extremely obscure title, and most likely not easy to find. The copy I saw was labelled "For sale in South Africa Only!..." which only adds to the strangeness...

It starts with Tam Sing goes out for medicine for his dad when the loan sharks demand payment. Dad dies. A student of the old guy joins in to fight the gang and the two become kung fu buddies. They become gangsters working for some boss and making big money then decide to go to Paris and be their own boss. By ten minutes in the plot has been stretched to the breaking point but that doesn't stop them - off to Paris!

This is the second of two movies starring Tam Sing. He was another martial artist who seemed to come out of nowhere in the 1970s to star in martial arts movies and then quietly returned to nowhere. I have no biographical information about him other than his screen credits for this movie and 1974 "The Sharp Fists in Kung Fu". I assume the production company made some money on the first movie so they took that money and spent it all on a European vacation to make a second movie planning to make more money and continuing that business plan. Problem was this movie turned out to be a double nostril stinker. Many movies were made according to this business plan in the early 1970s and I cannot think of a single one that was not a putrid turd.

The movie has the typical lengthy travelogue sequences as the stars drive around Paris looking at the sites. From a movie viewer perspective these scenes can be soporific. I like them because I like to see how the cities looked years ago without ten million tourists and gridlock everywhere. I wish for a time machine to take me to Paris back then.

Back to the movie. I could go on at length about the basic Film Making 101 mistakes committed. Instead I will just detail one important rule. Start the scene as late as possible. For example, if it needs to be established that the character has checked into a hotel then perhaps start with him opening the door to his hotel room. If you want to make a boring movie that is obviously padded for runtime then show the character getting out of his car, walking through the parking lot, checking in at the front desk, riding up in the elevator and then opening the door to his hotel room.

This movie is way below average for the genre and I cannot recommend it for fans. I watched it once and I am done.