These movies were made one year apart in 1976 & 1977. You will see John Liu as the leading actor with his exceptional kicking arsenal.

The Chinese titles for these 2 movies read like this: Southern fist and Northern kick. John Liu represents Nothern kick who with his ally, Southern fist confronts the legendary Hwang Jang Lee (the villain). They team up to represent the glory & magnificence of Southern Shaolin fist and Northern Shaolin kicks power.

Wang Tao plays Southern fist in the first episode, he is then replaced in the second episode by Wong Cheung, another Chinese actor who also played & fought with Jackie Chan in Snake in the eagle's shadow. Although there are some fights between John Liu & his Southern counterpart in both movies, the main fight is with both of them united againest legendary kicker Hwang Jang Lee, which makes the climax of the film!

Secret Rivals I & II are considered one of the collections of classic Hong Kong Martial Arts movies!

Review: The Secret Rivals changed the martial arts film forever by ditching convoluted plots favored by Shaw Brothers and focusing on the physical talents of its stars and stunt performers. The film also presented an unprecedented level of quality high-kicking and acrobatic kung fu from some of the genre's greatest talents. Ng See-yuen's sequel, The Secret Rivals 2, took those same assets and doubled the talent quotient. The result is a lean kung fu classic that works up to one of the greatest fight sequences ever filmed!

Ng See-yuen stumbled upon a hit formula combining Northern-style, high-kicking action with traditional Southern boxing. But the key was having superkicker Hwang Jang-lee go toe-to-toe with another superkicker, namely John Liu. This portion of the equation remained in the sequel although Don Wong Tao, the boxer was replaced by Tino Wong. This worked fine as Tino was about at the same skill and charisma level as Wong Tao.

Having had his character "Silver Fox" killed off in the first episode, Jang-lee returns as his own brother, "Gold Fox," complete with a new beard. After examining the corpse's shoes, he discovers a map disclosing the whereabouts of a large stash of stolen silver in the nearby hills. Meanwhile, Gold Fox's thugs are training in preparation for a fight with the two men responsible for Silver Fox's death. But with Shen Ying-wei (Don Wong Tao) on assignment elsewhere, his brother Shen Yin-wu (Tino Wong Cheung) becomes the prime target along with the returning Hsiao I-fei (John Liu).

The first half of the film is awkwardly constructed with little thought put into the already thin plot. There is talk among Gold Fox's men of going to a martial arts tournament, possibly the same seen in the first film, but nothing comes of it aside from a pointless scene where they randomly kill two would-be fighters planning to go themselves. Moderately entertaining training sequences follow with both the heroes and thugs taking shots at wooden dummies, as Jang-lee keeps a low profile. Without any driving force like the early rivalry that John Liu and Don Wong had in the previous film, it seems like See-yuen is just killing time in order to reach second half where things pick up significantly.

Fights haphazardly begin to fall into place as John Liu takes on Blacky Ko, thus dealing with his personal mission. Tino's little martial buddy (Sham Chin-bo) is killed by Corey Yuen Kwai and Tino retaliates.

It's a rare pleasure to see Corey in front of the screen, as opposed to directing the action as he is best known. Having received much of the same harsh Chinese opera training that his former brothers Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan did, he proves to be quite agile and capable with weapons combat, particularly the spear. It's a little confusing to see him portray two characters since he sports the same goatee in both roles, although one dies midway through.

Tino and John team up to take on Jang-lee's cohort (Charlie Chan) and this ends the martial foreplay. The rest of the film plays just a little like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly with Jang-lee trying to find the silver while John and Tino plan how best to deal with him.

Still twenty minutes from the end of a relatively short film and a terrific finale battle that's broken into thirds begins. The first part features an initial scuffle our heroes get into with Jang-lee. The legwork from John Liu and and Jang-lee is outstanding, but this is only the first course. The fight ends unfinished with Jang-lee bounding off in search of the silver while our heroes plot his demise. They return only to face Jang-lee's two color-coded teams of fighters trained to combat each style our heroes specialize in. The duos' ingenious solution is to simply switch places and fight the opposite team. Once again, John Liu is performing some awesome feats of skill. One sequence in particular is unbelievable. As fighters come at him from all sides, Liu leaps and ducks repeatedly and immediately follows with a series of devastating roundhouse kicks. All the while, Tino is holding his own against the other team.

Then a third and final round with Jang-lee follows and the fight goes into overdrive. It begins with the film's second wacky gadget, the "Poison Dragon Thorn." The first is a mechanical hand that one of the thugs has replaced his missing left hand with. The Dragon Thorn Jang-lee wields is a pair of spinning blades that can only be countered by Tino's Wing Chun knives. An excellent twin weapons duel begins that moves extremely fast without seeming overtly undercranked. The way the whole fight ends after Liu rejoins the fray is suitably dramatic with Jang-lee performing a few more of his fantastic trademark maneuvers.

The Secret Rivals 2 starts out conventional, but has one of the strongest finishes of any old school kung fu title around. The leg fighting from Hwang Jang-lee and John Liu is some of the best you'll likely ever see in film. Yuen Biao once again doubles magnificently for numerous acrobatic shots. More spaghetti Western music and riffs stolen from a James Bond film add zest to the action, even if they are a bit overused. The story in this film is weaker than in the previous one, but it all works towards more combat, especially in the second half. This is where the film scores big with action good enough to cheer for.

Narrative-wise, this is very similar to its predecessor, using the concept of fists and kicks combining for victory. By the time the sequel had been made, there were already a number of films using this premise including 'The Hot, the Cool and the Vicious', 'Challenge Of Death' and 'Death Duel Of Kung Fu'. However, this marks the first significant appearance of Yuen Woo Ping as a fight choreographer and, although not his best work, it shows the promise he would later fulfill. Tino Wong makes an adequate replacement for Wong Tao and remains a sadly ignored star of the Jade screen. The sparks really fly when John Liu and Hwang Jang Lee do battle; the two masters of bootwork are truly a joy to behold. This sequel doesn't match the original, but there are enough fresh ideas to make it watchable.