Daggers 8: Viewer Comments

“Daggers 8” is a pretty decent old skooler with an engaging story (and not a simple revenge story--okay, there is a revenge segment at the very end, but…), good acting and solid (if not constant) fights. Basic plot follows a young man (played by Meng Yeun Man) who desperately wants to learn kung fu while his grandfather (who is presumably his closest living family) forbids any foray into the martial arts. Of course Meng’s character strikes out on his own to learn the "forbidden" arts. Each of three "teachers" (using this term loosely, as Meng cons each into becoming his teacher) he befriends are offed by an assassin played by Wilson Tong, who uses dagger-enhanced fu as his killing method (hence the title). The first teacher, a cook, is played by Peter Chan (oft comedic player); the second, an acrobat, is played by Alan Chui; and the third, a tailor, is played by the great Lily Li. Each of these "teachers" has their own unique style that they impart on Meng before Tong shows up to end the lessons. Lily Li is probably the most impressive of the teachers and her fights with Meng and Tong are impressive, although the latter one doesn’t last too long. By the time Li is offed, Meng begins to suspect something is amiss (okay, his character is not too bright), but is called back to his grandfather on the guise of the latter being ill. In fact the grandfather is looking to confess something to Meng but Tong has other ideas. The meeting between Meng and the grandfather sets up the final act between Meng and Tong (the revenge thing) and it’s an act worth waiting for. Their climatic fight is a beaut. All the fights are pretty solid and seem to build in intensity as the movie progresses. All the leads do a decent job carrying the film to its bloody end. 3.5 Stars (almost 4 though).

The fights are good, especially the end fight. It has a good well rounded cast, full of familiar faces. Lily Li in particular, comes off well. Meng Yuen Man is a decent leading man; and Wilson Tong, despite being a stereotypical bad guy, brings the goods. Both as actor, director and action choreographer.

The movie isn't exactly grounbreaking (not even in 1980) but a decent way to spend 90 minutes--although there are much better old school flicks out there.

I saw a clip of this movie in the previews section of this webpage and liked the quality of that fight scene very much.

For me, "old school" martial arts movies involving genuinely skilled practitioners are treasures from the past, as it's so common for wirework, CGI, and other technological tricks to substitute for advanced combat ability.

So I was quite pleased seeing the whole thing and watching each of the creative and well choreographed fights. There's also a simple and effective story as well.

The lead character played by Meng Yuan Man is a kung fu enthusiast who is forbidden by his grandfather to study the martial arts further after his elder brother gets killed in a duel. The grandfather prefers that the young man puusue only academic scholarship, but Meng rebels by running away, hoping to find masters to continue training him.

None the less he does not seek to avenge his elder brother, but rather to further his art as well as to find his own path in life, and sincerely believes learning martial arts can be for righteous or base purposes depending on the individual.

Thus, in a series of adventures he meets and befriends three different people who each impart their unique skills to him. The core of the plot however, is that each of these instructors gets ruthlessly eliminated one after another by a mysterious assassin who is an expert with daggers.

By the time the third teacher, a young woman played by Lily Li (veteran of many Shaw Brothers movies), gets murdered, I had a hunch who was behind the killings and I was right. This revelation was still very upsetting, as it was a tragic waste for each of the three teachers to die for training the youth to be a better man.

Ultimately, after this plot twist is revealed the young man tracks down and kills the assassin in a thrilling showdown, incorporating all elements of the skills he had learned.

The assassin is played by the great Wilson Tong, who uses knives he has strapped all over his body, even in his hair! Lily Li was one of the young man's masters and for me she really stole the show. You knew her showdown with Tong was going to be good when he looked at her and said, 'Well you look like a REAL woman, I didn't expect that.' Well that REAL woman gave him a run for his money. This movie had great fights throughout.