User reviews

A young master named Cao Lei (Jackie Chan) drives away his pregnant girlfriend from the family castle because he knows it's about to be raided by a gang of deadly bandits determined to kill his family. He charges a new friend with her care and protection. Following the attack on his family by the gang lead by a mysterious veiled woman who possesses tremendous, perhaps even mystical, fighting skills, Cao Lei somehow finds himself spared as the veiled woman seems to take a peculiar interest in him following him around like a shadow. Meanwhile the man Cao Lei had entrusted to care for his girlfriend is not quite the honorable fellow Cao Lei had thought. We soon discover his plans do not mirror those of Cao Lei.

This 1970s Martial Arts film is a lot of fun to watch unfold. Filled with unexpected surprises and unusual plot twists, it really keeps the viewer guessing when he or she's not shaking their head in confusion. The most confusion stems from the relationship with the veiled woman who all reason suggests should be Cao Lei's sworn enemy yet...

Still I love the action sequences and although the wire stuff just never looks believable, there's the suggestion of something mystical at work in our story that helps make some of these scenes somehow a little more credible that they would be without it. Jackie Chan may be the star of this movie Feng Hsu steals the show.

A remarkably young, ponytailed Jackie Chan in an unpolished kung-fu actioner that plays more like a soap opera with occasional action. It is overdone, bizarre, sometimes laughably bad (and I'm not even referring to the picture quality here), but it may be worth seeing for the most fanatic Chan fans, who will get a few glimpses of his skill, although most of the fight scenes rely too heavily on extensive wire work. As others have said, Jackie receives such heavy doses of beating in this film it's almost unsettling. (**)

I had hoped, and thought, that this movie would be somewhat better than the earlier movies of Jackie Chan's impressive career. However, I was sadly disappointed to find out that it was not to be.

The story in "To Kill with Intrigue" ("Jian Hua Yan Yu Jiang Nan") was sort of trying to be everything at once, trying to accomplish a lot, but just ending up in a sort of strange confusion and semi-coherent story. Which made it not overly enjoyable, and quickly had my attention drifting elsewhere, and only pay attention to the movie with half an eye.

And part of the lack of interest in it, on my part, is that the DVD I acquired from Amazon only had a horrible English dubbed language track. I could not even if my life depended on it understand why English dubbing is appealing or acceptable to anyone? It is poorly done, it totally destroyed the feeling (or mood) of the movie, and it just makes it come off as a very low budget production.

Now for the good parts about "To Kill with Intrigue", well you have Jackie Chan in a very unusual role (if you compare it to his other roles throughout his career), as he is not really the goody two-shoes that he usually plays. Plus this movie doesn't have the usual slapstick comedy either. It is a serious movie, and the martial arts in it was actually quite nicely choreographed and executed, whereas many of his movies before this one, the martial arts was horrible staged and rigid.

This movie sort of has a weird mutated mixture of traditional, old Chinese warrior movies mixed with Chinese Opera-like characters. Not really sure what director Wei Lo was aiming for here.

"To Kill with Intrigue" is the type of movie that you watch if you are a hardcore fan of Jackie Chan or old Chinese cinema. For me, this was not one of Jackie Chan's better movie, despite it being a venture away from the slapstick comedy. If the movie only had been with its original language track, it would at least have scored a 4/10 rating, but now has to settle for a 3/10 rating from me.

Director Lo Wei was known to read the racing papers and take naps on the set - tells us something about his "approach to film-making, huh? The reviews I've read fall into two categories: 1) this is a film so bad it is funny, or 2) this is a film so bad it is boring.

So let's get to the point we all agree on - this film is really bad.

I vote for category 2). The story is almost incomprehensibly complex, and it is further shredded and twisted by the remarkably poor camera work and editing. Yet Lo Wei was so in love with it that he slows the pacing so we can all have a long look at it, whether we want to or not.

Maybe Lo Wei was upset the day (or two) this film was made - he just wanted to make everybody suffer, cast, crew and audiences alike.

Spare yourself the agony.

Jackie Chan actually said in an interview that he felt sorry for anyone that had to see this movie. I'm going to have to agree with him, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself after I saw this slapped-together sham of a kung-fu movie.

An amazingly horrible film, kung fu corniness at it's best. Everything from the names of the characters: "Chin Chin" which is Japanese for "penis", which is awesome because there are tons of variations in the movie. "All you care about is your chin-chin!" (Actual piece of dialog) The set designs are beautiful and the cinematography catches some great shots sporadically in the film. The fight scenes themselves are just thick with super human hijinks and cheap camera tricks. Altogether, a hilarious piece of kung fu dung.

Not for the serious kung-fu fan, more for the casual-bad-movie-fanatic.

Yeehaw, The Lazy Southerner

This movie essentially begins with a beautiful handmaiden by the name of Qian-Qian (Ling Lung Yu) eagerly telling her rich nobleman lover "Lei Shao-Fung" (Jackie Chan) that she is pregnant with his child. But rather than being delighted with this news he rudely brushes her off and sends her on her way. Crushed over this unexpected rejection of her Qian-Qian leaves the household she had been working at and runs away. Meanwhile, Lei Shao-Fung has returned to his home and informs his father that an elite group of assassins has targeted the entire family and that they are all in serious trouble. No sooner does he tell them this then they suddenly appear out of nowhere and kill off everyone in the family except Lei Shao-Fung who they thought was dead. When he recovers he sees one of the female assassins named "Ding Can-Ren" (Feng Hsu) standing near him and catching her off-guard holds a sword to her throat. However, rather than killing her he decides to spare her life in exchange for information on why his family was targeted. Upon telling him she then escapes only to follow his every footstep from that point on. The story then shifts to Qing-Qing who meets a stranger by the name of "Jin-Chuan" (Le Lung Shen) who saves her from a small group of bandits and subsequently offers her his protection until she decides what she wants to do next. What she doesn't know is that Jin-Chuan was sent by Lei Shao-Fung to look after her and that she was only sent away because he was afraid that she might suffer the same fate as the rest of his family. Unfortunately, Jin-Chuan is not who he says he is and has his own plans for Qing-Qing. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an intricate film which suffered from too many diverse subplots that didn't flow smoothly from one to the next. Throw in a lot of swordplay and acrobatics and the end result was a rather strange film which was difficult to follow at times. At least, it was for me.

For a 70's Hong Kong costume martial arts flick, this isn't too bad. I've always been attracted to martial arts movies with a strong female character and the veiled lady in this movie is such a woman. There's lots of fly-on-wires kung-fu action, and Jackie (or Jacky as he's billed in the credits) spends most of the movie getting kicked around by the baddies, including, initially, the veiled woman. She, of course, falls for him - even though she killed his entire family and he has a pregnant girlfriend.

It is big mystery why this film was shown in Japanese movie theatre although his other far better films in 70's were not. A masked strong Kung-Fu woman became the teacher of Jackie, and she burns Jackie's face and lets him eat stones because of her mad love for him.So Jackie became to look like a zombie or something at last.I felt like seeing horror movie.I remember actions in this film was not bad, but I don't wanna see it again so never mind anyway.

Well, Jackie Chans best films are from 1978 and after , and this film was made in 1977. This film is just ok. It has a grainy picture , like some low budget wannabee bruce lee movies have. Although this picture is directed by Lo Wei (fists of fury, the chinese connection).

This film has Jackie chan as a man who tries to get his girlfriend back from the governer.

In america this film, would probably be rated PG-13 for ,mild violence.

As many have detailed here with a level of seriousness that I find amusing, this is *not*:

A FILM. (cue dramatic music)

It's just a so-bad-it's good, totally surreal, Jackie Chan stunt-for-all. The women fighters are totally kick-butt and Jackie is definitely put in his place.

This is the movie you want to see with some good friends on a Sunday afternoon -- surrounded by munchies, ready to roar with laughter, cheer on the good guys, boo the bad guys, and continually yell, "WHAT?" when something totally bizarre happens. Great fun!!

Arrogant Jackie Chan sends his pregnant mistress away before his arrogant father's house is attacked by a gang of bad guys. Everyone is killed, except for Chan. He goes looking for the girl. Lots of people help him because they are good people or in love with him. Eventually he gets a little humility.

There are some lovely compositions here, and director Wei Lo got to take the company to Korea, where several of the scenes are shot in impressive locations. That said, there are many sequences that are laughable.. In one, Jackie is laying there while others fight in his stead. He's got a good excuse. There's a sword through his heart. After the bad guys are driven off, some one remarks that he's fainted, and they take him back to their place and tend to him.

He gets better again, because he has to fight the evil Ling Lung Lu whose vileness is that he loves the girl that Jackie sent away and wants to marry her. Can you imagine?

This movie is profoundly stupid. I have nothing more to say.

No pun intended - Jackie Chan is ... well someone that people around the world know. And I don't think that will diminish over time - but he is known for a specific thing. While action themed - we know him as "funny man" ... so this departure (one of a few - he was deemed a successor of Bruce Lee - but you can't replace someone like that ...) ... well might feel weird for most fans to say the least.

The movie is made by the main director of Bruce Lee movies (not that there were many ... unfortunately) ... and while this may not reach the same heights when it comes to the story ... action and stunt wise it seems at least on par if not superior (which is not a dig on Bruce Lee - I am a big fan, just saying the choreography the movie puts on display though ... amazing) ... from time to time some comedic thing might shine through too.

Still this is a serious affair ... and the story and the twists may take you by surprise or may not be your thing ... but if you just boil it down to the action ... you may even feel this is better than I rated ... on the other hand we do have outrageous things ... like a weapon that feels completely too large and ineffective ... but it looks cool and fun enough I reckon.

I liked what I saw and the commentary on the disc gave it all a nice touch and a different perspective ... watch and judge for yourself (again no pun intended)

(1977) To Kill With Intrigue (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION/ PERIOD PIECE

One of many failed attempts to emulate Jackie Chan's success after Bruce Lee's death, this one has something to do with revenge and scarring Jackie's face to get back at the person who killed his whole family. I cannot believe I wasted money and time on this low budget garbage for it's nothing like "Drunken Master", Snake In the Eagle's Shadow" or "The Fearless Hyena" etc... One of many films director Lo Wei contracted to direct Jackie Chan in, and is basically the same as the others, which is depressingly lousy and depressingly dumb!

I actually liked this movie, even though you really can't tell it's Jackie Chan until the end, it had some pretty good fight scenes, but still it could've been better.