Gui liu xing

The other review here is for another movie. It seems the reviewer wheelerman has watched "The Brothers Five". This movie is "The Comet Strikes". Just to make things straight. Please make adjustments, thank you.

The movie begins with a creepy old guy enters a tea house for some take out. Sek Kin is almost unrecognizable under all that makeup. Cliff Lok and his drinking buddy are too drunk to be afraid. They fight him and die. Their master and a woman arrive to investigate their deaths. Despite warnings they enter the haunted house. They die too. Some clan chief and Nora arrive next. Nora is not allowed in because she is a girl. She listens from the roof and gets a message from the dead "Don't avenge us or you will die too". Despite that solid advice they fight. She survives by running away.

Later the son of the earlier victims arrive. Nora and Lee Kwan do not directly answer his questions and act silly about it. When the inn keeper finally directs him to the four coffins there is a "Ghost!" panic moment that only makes things more confusing. All of the spooky scenes seem contrived.

Nora did a good job in all of her fight sequences. From an acting perspective she added an element of fun too. Lee Kwan's fights were total comic relief. Lo Wei's fights were all about the practical effects and looking at the back of the stunt man standing in for all the real fight moves.

I first watched this movie about four years. I made notes but did not finish a review because of other distractions. All the notes I made back then praised the movie. On this second viewing I am questioning all that praise. Despite my ambivalence, Golden Harvest had a fabulous first year with this as one of their movies and I rate it above average.

This comes up many times through out this movie and always precedes a lot of bloody deaths at the hands of the Brothers Five. First off, this movie inspired me to write my first review on IMDb since I saw no one has yet and there weren't many votes. I own way over 100+ kung fu movies, at least half of which are Shaw Brothers. I would have to say that Brothers Five now easily ranks in my top 10 of entertaining kung fu movies.

It stars the great Pei-Pei Cheng (Golden Swallow, Come Drink With Me)who informs five different guys that they are brothers whose father was killed by evil and corrupt leader of the Flying Dragons, Lord Wan. Each Brother wants to kill Lord Wan, but they must learn to work together to get the job done. (Lord Wan does not die easily) Unlike some Shaw Brothers, the plot is very easy to follow. No wondering who the hell is who and what side they are on.

This movie is just one fight after the next. There's not really any hand to hand combat, it's all weapons. This movie has a great variety of weapons (Swords, halberds, hammers, knives, throwing claws w/chains, whips, tridents, and many more) all masterfully wielded. It's next to impossible to count how many people are slaughtered in this film. If you a fan of bloody action, you will not be disappointed. It reminded me a bit of Chang Cheh's work or the Lone Wolf and Cub series. The best part is that the blood sprays do not come across as cheesy.

Director Wei Lo used Pei-Pei Cheng in a lot of his movies, and with good reason. Her swordplay is incredible. It's a real pleasure to see everyone in action, each having a different weapon and style.

So if you like non-stop fighting with weapons, an easy to follow but good plot, and bloody violence, don't pass up this recently remastered (Celestial)gem from Shaw Brothers. I hope you found this review helpful.