Jiang hu san nu xia

A very standard wuxia genre film from the Shaw studio. The title promises action around the title characters but the director seems more interested in the lead male characters.

Lo Lieh play an ambitious martial artist who wishes to be number one in the martial world. Unfortunately, while he's tough, he's no match for the son of the number one martial artist. Unwilling to wait for the next tournament, he connives to steal the legendary Magic Steel Sword from his bride to be who with her sisters is protecting the sword from unscrupulous martial artists. He easily steals the sword which is half super steel and half super magnet.This way he's able to disarm all his opponents by pulling their iron weapons right out of their hands from across the room. The three sisters team up with the son and try to take back the sword. No easy task.

What probably sets this film out is that it's one of the early choreography efforts from Liu Chia Liang and Tang Chia. The action is plentiful and actually interesting at times. Unfortunately, lots of action doesn't make up for shallow characters and frequently confusing direction. The three lead actresses are not up to the choreography and they are often doubled by obvious male stunt men. The final fight between the two male leads in a bamboo forest is very good and quite bloody.

There are better wuxia out there but you might find some of this entertaining.

The movie opens with a needy Lo Lieh. He needs to be the number one swordsman and is convinced, since his skills are inferior, that the Mighty Steel Sword will compensate. Despite plans and disguises all he needs to do to obtain the sword is ask "Can I hold that minute?" Lo Lieh started at Shaw Brothers with good guy roles and by the 1980s moved on to roles as the villain. He is probably most remembered as the villain but I liked him more in his earlier hero roles. In this movie he is the villain. The story tries to make him a sympathetic or misunderstood bad guy but doesn't effectively succeed at that. His character comes across more as vague rather than complex. From the title, the three ladies protecting the valuable sword should be the focus of the story. I think that was not well developed either. The greatest team of action directors in movie history, Tong Kai and the Grandmaster Liu Chia-Liang, seemed to phone it in for the fight sequences. Regardless, a phone call from either of those two could beat any other action director. The fights are sword fights which are the best way to go with actors having no martial arts ability. The best fight is Lo Lieh versus Chang Yi at the end. I rate it a bit above average for the year and genre mostly because of the final fight. It was good to see the variety of weapons used.