Golpes Mortais

This is typical garbage made by Lo-Wei in 70's. Keep Away from this!! This one was made for (Jimmy) Wang Wu, and Jackie played the bad guy - and he appeared on few scenes only.(and he's weak because of his illness).

Not a Jacky Chan film by any stretch of the imagination. The movie had potential with the typical setup of the bad guys and the hero on a mission. It just got so out of hand with the twists and turns and the need to explain them all verbally. Some Kung Fu was present. Some pretty actresses were also in the movie. It's watchable but don't expect a Jacky Chan starring role type film. I'd watch it again, if only to sort out the plot twists.

This is not an award-winning classic kung-fu movie. Yes, it takes itself somewhat seriously, but that's half the fun. It's a great movie to keep you entertained with ridiculous and pointless absurd plot twists that are not explained, scenes involving characters jumping out of nowhere, terrible cutting between scenes, and poor dialog.

But that's what is so great about it! Yeah, Jackie Chan plays the bad guy that only appears three times in the movie, and briefly at that, but that's okay. This movie is a great watch at 2am after a fun night of partying, or with a few friends to help make fun of it.

And some of the characters are so ridiculous and absolutely bad-ass, that you can't help but smile and admire the comic book nature of it all.

Picked it up for $3 at my local Blockbuster, and it was totally worth the purchase. I'll be watching this one quite a few times while inebriated. :0)

Sometimes if an actor has not had a successful run as a lead then it behooves him or her to take a supporting role. After the box office failings of New Fist of Fury and Shaolin Wooden Men, Lo Wei decided to cast Jackie Chan as a villain in a secondary position to the lead of Jimmy Wang Yu (who starred in many popular pictures as a one-arm martial artist and many not-so-popular films as a two-arm martial artist.) Wang Yu's stardom was slowly fading at the time of this picture, but he had a much more recognizable name than Jackie's. Useless tidbit: according to Jackie, he made 12,000 HK dollars to Wang Yu's 50,000. The Killer Meteors was based on a Gu Long novel and it was the first of two films to be shot in Korea (To Kill with Intrigue was the second.) Jimmy stars as Mi Wei the Killer Meteor, a sarcastic master of Kung Fu who know no equal. He is so feared and admired that criminals will cut off there fingers in repentance rather than to face his possible wrath and master martial artists serve underneath him. I like Wang Yu's performance with his cocky panache (he even keeps track of his enemies all 491 of them) and glib humor though his character is a bit too "strong" for there to be any real conflict in this film. Also, his weakness at martial arts is very noticeable because of the direction and his slowness (Master of the Flying Guillotine is a good example of where he is choreographed well.) But who needs adroitness of movement when you carry a cool weapon like the Killer Meteor. Only three people have seen this weapon and two of them are dead. Most of the time he uses it as a club on the criminals who are undeserving to die by it's true form.

Wei is approached by Qing, the famous Blue-Robed Swordsman who must bring him to the Celestial House of Hua the Hearty (Wa Wu Bin in some translations/dubbings) before July 15 (according to subtitles) or he will die. Mi is intrigued by this, for he is always looking for a challenge worthy of him, and goes with Qing. When he meets Hua (Jackie Chan) he finds a sick man who needs the Killer Meteor's help. Hua was poisoned by his wife in his Ginseng soup (otherwise a normally healthy soup) and she gives him a yearly dose of antidote. Hua does not like this arrangement and wants his wife dead and the antidote all for himself. Wei accepts this challenge though he learns of the four feared bodyguards of his wife: Blazing Star whose weapons are the Plum Blossom Needles (always a favorite of mine, though for weapons so small they always seem to be caught), Killer Hands with fierce suction grip (like GI Joe's Kung Fu grip with vacuum power), Black Lama whose good at black magic and Taoist Ghost (Lee Man Tai) who is good at tricks. Now these characters sound good, but there use in the film is less than desirable.

Unfortunately the plot is weak. There are too many twists and turns that negate previous plot points and characters who are not whom they seem to be. Or are they? My notes on this film is huge but explaining even half of them would be tedious. Generally if plots become overburdened then you can fall back on the martial arts in the film. With Jimmy being the lead character and unless he was being doubled for flips the martial arts are too slow and the action too pedantic. Also there is not a lot of fighting. There are two main fight scenes between Jackie and Jimmy. The first fight scene is the best while the finale is a bit disappointing. It takes place on wooden poles with stakes on the ground – resembling an action scene from Jimmy's earlier film Master of the Flying Guillotine and a bit like Yuen Woo Ping's Iron Monkey, though both are much more interesting. Luckily for the viewers Mi Wei shows off his killer weapon.

The Killer Meteors was a failure at the box office and did not help either Jimmy's or Jackie's career. Along with the confusing story and mediocre action scenes there are too many problems with this film ranging from the overuse of the "lifted" King Kong score to really cheap costumes. Yet, I cannot say I wholly disliked the film. I liked Jimmy's performance, Jackie's "bad guy" performance, some of the story, the beautiful scenery and the titular weapon. Since there is a plethora of better Jimmy Wang Yu and Jackie movies there is no reason to recommend this film unless you are into watching all of Jackie's or Wang Yu's films – like me.

DVD Notes: the two editions of this film I own are the Columbia version and the Simitar Platinum Series version. There is very little difference between the two. Both versions are full-screen (with the credits running letterboxed), both have Mandarin dialogue (though for some reason the Simitar version says Cantonese which is wrong), both have the same dubbed version and both have the same running time (104m). The Columbia version does have English subtitles though.

I actually found this movie a lot of fun, although if you go in expecting a Jackie Chan movie you'll be disapointed, as he's in only a few scenes and a couple of fights, though his role is important. At the time this film was made, Jackie was struggling to make any impact on the box-office, and was delegated to villian to make way for Jimmy Wang Yu who was a much bigger star at the time (Kimmy Wang who? you may ask) and it's he that is clearly the star of Killer Meteors. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's the story and characters are the reason to watch this, as in that respect it's a good watch. The sets/props/costumes are actually pretty good too for the Lo Wei Motion Picture Co. The fighting coreography is only average, however.

However, most people who see this movie will be expecting a Jackie-filled stunt spectacular, and they will be disapointed.