Ok, so possibly two films with two plots. The first sees a silk trader robbed by the vicious Falcon Posse, led by the incredibly acrobatic Peter Chen, who then enrols in Shaolin Temple to learn kung fu (the silk trader, not Peter Chen). The gang also kidnap the daughter of a rich businessman. The second story involves a Korean looking Bruce Lee imitator getting into various undercranked battles.

The two stories do actually come together at the end but that's not really enough to rescue the movie. The editing is terrible at times with irrelevant scenes thrown in as filler that don't actually progress the plot. Although the version I watched was 82 minutes (PAL) so there may be another 5 or so minutes that improve the continuity. Bad continuity though makes the film a bit of trial and I was struggling to stay awake by the half way mark.

The fights however are well choreographed and impressive despite the unnecessary undercranking. The villain's weapon of choice is a whip, used to good effect, which is something you don't see enough of in kung fu movies. Also working in the film's favour is Peter Chen. When he's on screen its impossible not to watch as he flips and tumbles like crazy. Sadly its not enough to make me want to watch this again.

Review: It is a below average kung fu attempt that I found by chance at a local store. As mentioned the story revolves around the silk dealer Wong On and his story as he learns Mantis kung fu. There are also two women who have to be saved and an evil bandit leader with superior kung fu skills to keep you entertained, or tries to!

I was hoping that a movie made as late as 1983 would be a bit better than this. The fight choreography doesn’t come near any 70’s kung fu movie and it was obviously a very low-budget production. I couldn’t really see any specific fighting styles and the story has no twists, everything is just as it seems. There are two ridiculous characters though, if you find the village idiot idea appealing. Them being the two giants (very big men) hired by the Lord’s to go and save his daughter, but it turns out that they aren’t the brightest mercenaries around and don’t get anywhere near saving the princess. There is one fighter in the movie that stands out though, Chan Wah, who seems to possess some talent. As soon as I saw him fighting I knew that he was going to be the highlight of the film. Unfortunately he gets disgraced and beaten at the end, but at least that provides a bit of comedy.

The last bit of the movie deals with Chan Wah and Wong On’s girlfriend, Siu Yin, who set out to find Wong but gets captured by the bandits. This just gives Wong On even more reason to try and beat the Falcon bandit leader and save both the princess and his girlfriend. After failing to beat the bandits in the first attempt, he trains much harder until he is ready for the final confrontation (not really that remarkable though)!

Nothing in this movie really stood out in any way and it also seems like this was the only movie director Mitch Wong ever made. The dubbing and image quality of my VHS copy was nothing special and the story just didn’t cut it, even for a kung fu movie. Any decent martial arts film should have a few twists thrown in the story, and some really good fights. I was disappointed in both departments and would advise you to rather watch something from my from one of my favorite directors, Joseph Kuo who knows how a kung fu flick should to be made!