O Vale das Presas

The movie starts with the helpful narrator explaining the political situation. The child emperor, manipulated by evil advisors, throws his teacher in prison. But, the teacher has a "Get Out of Jail Free" card from the previous emperor. But still, it is not a simple matter to just show the pardon - an adventure is needed. The fights were all above average. Chan Leung, the second male lead, despite no real martial arts skills, did an excellent job of showing power in all his moves. The one problem I had with the fights was the ridiculous "pickle sticker" weapon used by Fan Mei-Sheng. China had many magnificent weapons so why make up a weapon? Why make up such a stupid looking weapon? Wei Pin-Ao was also no fighter. He had a face that asked to be punched so he often played sleezy slimeball characters but here he does some martial arts and rises to the level. The bunkhouse fight at about 48 minutes in was fabulous especially when the stunt man burst through the doors. Lo Lieh was known to be a black belt level karateka before he began acting. He started at Shaw Brothers playing good guy roles in the 1960s and by the 1980s he switched to bad guy roles. He is more known for being the baddie but I liked him more when he played the hero. His role in this movie was probably the purest hero ever as he helped the ladies simply because it was the right thing to do and there was never the possibility of reward for his good deed. Overall I give this a seven and consider it mandatory for all fans of the genre and it is on my list of movies I re-watch every five years or so because of that.