Long hu feng yun

This almost unknown Swordplay movie begins in an atmospheric way reminiscent of the Italian spaghetti-western that anticipates the plot of Tarantino's Hateful Eight: we see the arrival of a group of cavaliers to a post horse station in the desert. They're a police escort for a dangerous prisoner (actor Ma Kei), and their commander (actor James Nam) is a very diffident one. Expecially because the people he finds inside the station aren't what they seem to be. Photography, direction and acting are more than adequate and the first part admirably relies on people observing each other, no dialogues, pure Sergio Leone style. I was astonished by the unusual elegance of a movie belonging to a genre where, too often, gratuitous action was more important than a good story and solid personages. Here you have both. Honorable Hong Kong film debut for Korean singer Nam Hoon Suck, renamed James Nam, or Nam Gungfan (or Nam Kung Hsiu in the cult classic Five fingers of death, where he was the blind one). Released in HK 4/8/70 and produced by Hong Kong Alpha, later responsible for several trashy-but-funny Bruceploitationers like Exit the dragon, enter the tiger and Bruce Lee against supermen. Ill Wind (also known under by title Post Horse Station) is a truly surprisingly item from the gloiruous days of HK Wuxiapian.

It starts at night as a man in black sneaks around in a house. He finds a piece of paper and then is captured. Cut to a small tea house. Some dangerous looking men await an arrival. A prisoner in a cangue approaches. The group includes two dead men. The prisoner taunts the guards that they will never succeed in taking him to prison. Though his gang wants to free him others want to kill him. A woman, Chang Chi-Yu enters and two men challenge her. She demonstrates her inner power and the men leave in fear. Subsequently two men end up dead with darts in their head yet no one can tell who did it. Some more stuff happens in the dark and finally a guy who could be the emperor by how he is dressed appears. He demands the prisoner be handed over to him and the main guard refuses. A fight breaks out. The prisoner avoids a dart in his head. Three men search the prisoner but do not find what they seek. The first 30 minutes or so of the movie is a good build-up of suspense with some fights added to keep pace. There is also an extended fight sequence at about the halfway point. There are a lot of things done right with this movie. Despite that the movie never rises above the point of just plain average for the year and genre. My copy is a digital file with the screen size and video resolution of a typical VHS tape. English subtitles have been added. If you are a hard core fan of martial arts movies from the golden age 1967 to 1984 then this movie fits. It is simply another average movie with no special moments.