Long zhi zheng ba

This is director/martial arts star Frankie Chan's unofficial remake of the Kinji Fukasaku film SHOGUN'S SAMURAI (1978). Instead of Japanese samurai in a period setting, we get modern day Chinese gangsters battling each other for the position left vacant after the mysterious death of their head honcho.

There's lots of well-choreographed kungfu and gunplay in this frenetically-paced flick, and Frankie Chan himself makes for a decent hero. On the downside, spectacular fighting femme Yukari Oshima has a rather minor role, and the story turns a bit ludicrous at times. Still, this is a solid piece of action film-making and probably Chan's best film next to the rollicking THE OUTLAW BROTHERS.

Taking the basic structure of Chiba's SHOGUN'S SAMURAI, this Frankie Chan-directed actioner is, for the most part, a particularly solid, brutal action pic with several standout sequences.

A fight in a parking garage, where barefooted Oshima Yukari and her sisters are forced to fight on shards of broken class, is an exceptionally well choreographed sequence, as is an attack on the patrons of a restaurant that precedes this.

A larger scale fight sequence at a theme park, though nicely choreographed, becomes a little too silly and staged to be effective.

Nevertheless, this is a great action pic and Chan directs with great confidence and isn't afraid to push the envelope.