Like so many martial arts films imported to the US in the 1970s and 80s, this film is horribly dubbed--using voices that are just inappropriate for the film. However, oddly, the DVD also features captions directly on the print--both in English and a Chinese dialect. The dubbing is not exactly what the captions say and while you might want to try turning off either the captions or the dubbing, you CAN'T! This simply isn't an option and you must watch the film this way.
The film begins with the slaughter of the master and most of his household. If you are familiar with martial arts film, you'll realize that this is a very typical sort of plot--though how it occurs is a bit differently--with some weird contact poison. Just a bit later, the dead master somehow has come back to life and his surviving student is naturally surprised!! It can't be him, but he DOES seem to have all his old kung fu skills. What gives?! Is he some sort of evil zombie?! Yep...of sorts. And it's up to this lone student to get the the bottom of this odd and mystical plot. And, yes, the plot gets very, very weird--too weird to adequately explain. You have midget kung fu, ghosts and dead folks keep seem to be coming back to life! Trippy! When the hero falls downs a hole, my wife exclaimed "It's Alice in Wonderland with that rabbit hole"--but this was not to be the case! It's just weird and...weird! Did I mention that it's weird??!! It's like kung fu and LSD combined and it only gets weirder as the film progresses--to the point of absurdity later on in the movie.
As far as martial arts action goes, this is a second-rate film. While the actors are very good with gymnastics (with LOTS of backflips and the like), their blows never come close to landing--in fact, it's less like they are fighting but more like the antagonists are dancing with each other! It's a shame, as I could see wading through a relatively poor plot because the fighting is so good, but this simply isn't the case with this one. Here, the plot is a bit weak (but never dull) and the fighting just isn't great...and the editing quite poor, as the film jumps about very abruptly (owch, that hurt my brain). On top of that, the poor print and odd captioning/dubbing issue is disconcerting. So, unless you are a big fan of martial arts films and have already seen a bunch, I advise you to try starting with a better film of the genre to see just how good they can be. Try a Sonny Chiba or Shaw Brothers film instead--they are simply much better movies. On the other hand, bad movie buffs might just enjoy it because it really gets bad about midway through the film...REEAAALLY bad! But, I don't give it a lower score because although bad, it's rarely dull! "He's short, impotent...and a bad dresser!"--my favorite line from this bizarre film!
