Karaté à Shanghai

Not to be confused with 1972 "Deadly Fists" aka "Revenge of the Iron Fist Maiden"

The movie opens with Nancy Yen Nan-See finds her dying father and he names his murderer. She seeks advice from a monk. He reminds her that revenge is always complicated. The first man she questions denies everything but he is obviously lying and it seems her father also had a mystery brother. And a map, something about a map!

The first fight scene is excellent. It is also unusual in that the bad guy Japanese samurai says he will fight honorably and then he does indeed fight honorably. Typically the Japanese are one dimensional dishonorable characters in these movies.

I have almost all of Nancy Yen Nan-See's movies starting with 1971 "The Matchless Conqueror". I have reviewed her as showing good power and focus in her fights in most of her movies. I also rated a few of her movies as above average, such as 1973 "Evil Slaughter" and 1972 "Ma Su Chen".

I recently watched and reviewed an earlier movie starring Wen Chiang-Long, 1973 "Chinese Iron Man". His career spanned from 1968 to 1981. I have never found a biography so know nothing of his background or personal history. He does a good job in the fight sequences. Specifically the power and focus is there. It gets better than average when he does 12-16 moves without a cut. Weapons are also mixed in.

There is a big plot twist about halfway through the movie. I am unsure if it makes total sense but I liked it. The drama in this movie actually works and keeps the momentum going when there are no fights.

Overall, I rate this just a bit above average for the year and genre and also recommend it for fans of the genre.