| Another thoroughly enjoyable Lee Tso Nam flick, with the usual fixin's. A good, engaging story. Wang Tao as the stoic lead. Chang Yi, in a white wig, and bushy eybrows, and solid action from Tommy Lee. But everything is not as it seems, and that's a good thing.
Wang Tao does indeed start out as the righteous hero with the kung fu skills to match. But when his friend and partner in crime-fighting is killed, he turns into a pathetic drunk, wallowing in guilt and self pity. Then a passive coward. And finally full circle, back into righteous hero, on a mission to make things right. A somewhat unusual arc, for lead in a 70's low budget kung fu indie flick, but a welcome one. And this is probably Wang Tao's best performance, in terms of acting.
As previously stated, Chang Yi, gets yet another "white haired villain" notch in his belt mere. But he also switches it up a bit. Is he a badguy? Sure. But he seems sort of calm, and actually tries to get the good guys on his side instead of just snuffing them out, one by one, while laughing maniacally. But much like unstable teenage girls, white haired villains can't really deal with rejection. So of course, he gets enough and breaks out the titular fatal needles towards the end.
The action is another decent choreo job, by Tommy Lee. It's not earth shattering stuff, but holds up well. And the end fight, shot on an interior-for-exterior set, that makes its Shaw Bros. equivalents look like the real thing, is not too bad, and kind of cool in it's own way.
What really did it for me in this one was the story and characters. Sure it borrows a little from the Shaw flick DEATH DUEL, but that was a great film, so I don't really mind. And it just has a different feel to it than your standard old schooler. I would definitely recommend this for fans of Lee Tso Nam's other work. |
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