Da di long zhong

FURY IN STORM is a bizarre little kung fu flick from Taiwan that seems to have been heavily influenced by the spagwest classic DJANGO. The story begins with a Christian guy named Anthony dragging his cross around and boarding a train before the passengers are attacked and robbed by the Japanese. He's left for dead, but is resurrected of a fashion and teams up with a local kung fu expert, Chang Yi, to get revenge on the Japanese. A slim and silly plot but the wealth of action is choreographed well and the director has a certain leaning towards style, with WILD BUNCH-style cutaways to ants and the like during the fights. Anthony isn't much of a Christian after all, committing rape at one point, but Yi is really skilful in the fights and Lung Fei makes a good baddie, as always. Look out for pre-Venom Chiang Sheng in a bit part.

It opens with Jesus Christ carrying his cross down the railroad tracks. The train stops for him and he gets on. It seems this was a trick because the Japanese were hiding in the bushes and now attack. One passenger, Shan Mao, fights back. Lung Fei appears as the Japanese leader. After the fighting they tie Jesus to his cross. To be historically accurate they add another man on his left and right. They are all killed by a firing squad. After the Japanese leave Jesus rises from the dead. He also seems to be surprised by his resurrection. He rummages for valuables then takes off dragging his cross. The Japanese appear again and charge after him. Chang Yi saves Jesus. They buddy up and fight together with Jesus using his cross as a weapon.

My copy is a digital file that plays on a HDTV as a square video typical of the old VHS format. The dialog is Chinese and there are no subtitles. I don't speak Chinese so I struggled to understand the story. The title has the typo "Fury in Strom".

The fights were mostly the stunt men getting tossed around. Chang Yi started as an actor with no martial arts background in 1967. Most of his roles involved martial arts and with on the job training he became an expert fighter. His fight sequences in this movie demonstrate good techniques executed with focus and power. He also smoothly does ten or more consecutive moves without a cut. Unfortunately this alone does not raise the movie up above average for the year and genre.

I can only recommend this movie for hard aore fans of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984. The recommendation is based on the movie being unusual with Jesus Christ as a costar and on the strength of Chang Yi as the lead.