Si wu shi

It starts at an outdoor pavilion where troops and officials have gathered. One official receives a yellow scarf containing the pearl as in the title. They march off across the country. A gang has gathered and watches then attacks. The first fight is a battle with weapons including swords, spears, and flails. It is as good a fight sequence as to be expected for the year and genre. The thieves overcome the soldiers and official.

Cut to two men talk with the female lead - Melinda Chen Man-Ling. They go out to look at prisoners. A few prisoners, only one I can recognize - Little Unicorn, are brought in to dine with her. A "Dirty Dozen" plot seems to be developing. The men are out of their prison clothes and eating again with our girl at a small tea house. A fight breaks out and the men take the opportunity to escape. They come across our girl being attacked by another gang and come to her rescue and are all back together. They hole up in an old temple for the night and come under attack. The bad guys attack again in the morning but our gang has gone and now face a cliff to climb.

My copy came all the way from Taiwan on a licensed DVD by the Hoker Company. There is no English just Chinese with Chinese subtitles. I suspect Mandarin and Cantonese. It is almost wide screen but some of the sides are still cut off. The resolution is comparable to 480 at least.

I only know about ten words of politeness in Chinese so it is a challenge to watch and review a movie with no English. I have done this many times and have noticed some really good actors, Like Shek Kin, can make the audience understand just by facial expression, but that is rare. There was a time I wouldn't even buy a movie unless it had English but nowadays DVDs are becoming extinct so I must buy it when I see it or I'll never see it again.

This movie is only for hard core fans of martial arts movies from the golden age 1967 to 1984. A fan can enjoy this movie without understanding the dialog. I rate it as just average only with those qualifications.