"The Fake Ghost Catchers" (1982) d/ Liu Chia Yung

Tonight's review, a supernatural kung fu comedy from director Liu Chia Yung starring the likes of Hsiao Ho, Chang Chan Peng, and Fu Sheng, has only been on my "to see" list for the past thirty years, having been unable to score a copy anywhere until the glorious advent of all region dvd players finally made it and many other Shaw Brothers films accessible to long time Western enthusiasts like myself. As one would expect, this is a weird and wild ride, packed with cereal-faced zombies, hopping ghosts, spiritual posession, lazy eyes, foot moles, broad physical slapstick comedy, lo-fi special effects, and Chinese mysticism that pre-dates Ivan Reitman's own Ghostbusters by nearly two years, or, in other words, a must-see for any self-respecting fan of martial horror-comedy. Still not convinced? What if we threw in Wang Lung Wei in a friggin' eye patch? Yeah, thought that'd do the trick...


Fu Sheng, at his dramatic finest, as you can clearly see here.
After a man (Lung Tien Chiang) commits suicide with poison over his unrequited love for a beautiful young newlywed (Lily Li), his spirit returns from the afterlife during a bungled grave robbing by a group of starving bumpkins, who are interrupted by a wounded whistleblower (Chang Chan Peng) fleeing the armed henchmen of a corrupt Qing official (Wang Lung Wei) known as "the one-eyed general", who's trying to kill him before he can transport evidence of his treachery to a nearby judge. The vengeful ghost kills the young woman, whose ghost enlists the services of a phony Taoist magician's young assistant (Hsiao Ho), who happens to be the whistleblower's cousin, leading him to also unwittingly involve himself in the deceased woman/ghost's plan to foil her ethereal murderer before he can give her twin sister (also Lily Li, of course) a similar fate. The titular fake ghost catchers bring in an extravagantly garbed and perpetually unlucky opera performer  with nine lucky moles on his foot(Fu Sheng) and carry along the female ghost in a paper spell inside an umbrella for the ride. Nope, not a typo.


"Let's see Linda Blair pull some shit like this off!"
The actor only agrees to help the young men if the female ghost will help him to be more successful at gambling, leading to expectedly ludicrous results at the local gambling house with a lazy-eyed casino owner (Tu Shao Ming), who even has a lazy-eyed mistress. Meanwhile, the plotting, murderous general only has one eye. You with me, so far? One eye captures the whistleblower and tortures him for the whereabouts of the secret list, but the woman's ghost possesses him, making him impervious to blows, weapons, and even flaming sticks of incense, which he chews menacingly (!) before escaping the general's clutches. At the climax, a trap is set at an abandoned house by the judge and the ghost catchers who defeat and arrest the general and his men when Li's ghost again possesses Peng, who subdues One eye while fighting like a Shaolin wooden marionette. Fu Sheng poses in ornate traditional marriage drag as Li's twin sister afterwards, as part of the set up for Lung's ghost, who naturally isn't about to give up hauntings and murders without a knock down, drag out fight to the finish, complete with wire work, lighting fx, cheap horror masks and makeup, and a goodly dose of gung fu magic, luckily for all of us watching from our seats. See for yourselves.


...and Johnny Wang as the evil One-Eyed General. Joke pretty much wrote itself.
1982 was a busy year for Fu Sheng, who showed up in My Rebellious Son, Cat vs. Rat, and The Brave Archer and his Mate all in the same year as this effort, and his appearance here is mostly in a supporting comedic role, with few fights to mention, but he's freaking hilarious throughout the damned thing, so we'll let that slide this time. On the other hand, the acrobatic Hsiao Ho, who never really received the spotlight he truly deserved, is excellent here, and Sheng's younger brother, Chang Chan Peng, who retired from acting altogether after completing Wang Lung Wei's This Man is Dangerous in 1985, has some equally impressive fight scenes, and it can be argued that his possessed wooden man routine vs. Wang here, rivals or even bests his brother's similar sequence (on a physical level if not a comedic one) in Liu Chia Liang's Legendary Weapons of China,  which was also released in 1982, coincidentally. A good time to be had, for sure, and three Wops on the scale. See it now!


(Not very)Special make up tip # 7783: Apparently, ghosts like their Cream of Wheat with strawberry preserves mixed in. 

"The Shaolin Mantis" (1978) d/ Liu Chia Liang

By 1978, the stars of director/fight choreographer, Liu Chia Liang, and HK leading man, David Chiang, were headed in two different directions. Chiang had once headed the biggest productions out of Shaw Brothers Studios, usually opposite Ti Lung, during the arm-swinging early seventies when fight choreography wasn't nearly as scrutinized, and elder Liu was well on his way to legendary status in the genre already, having already helmed such classics as 1976's Challenge of the Masters, Executioners from Shaolin (1977), and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin/ Master Killer (1978) the same year as this minor effort, seemingly meant to boost Chiang back to his former box office glory with Liu's special brand of martial magic.


This particular chichi (Cecilia Wong) isn't served with Slim Jim's or Cheetos, but she still looks scrumptious.
After impressing the emperor (Hung Wei) with a methodically lackluster martial display, dismantling several martial experts including a Mongol (Lee Hoi San) and a monk (Liu Chia Hui, who else?), Wei Fung (David Chiang) is ordered to infiltrate the Tien Gang as a spy, and the longer his mission takes, the worse off all of his family will be for his procrastination: stripped of official titles, thrown in jail, beaten, and finally beheaded. Sheesh. Imagine if the emperor didn't dig his demonstration... It's a good thing he bumps into teenaged Tien Chi Chi (Cecilia Wong) as she's bullying her old tutor out the door, as he quickly talks his way into their residence as her new teacher, turning the frisky teen's focus to writing and reading rather than her preferred kung fu, which he pretends to know nothing at all of. Just as her Grandfather (Liu Chia Yung) discovers Wei's true background and intent, she becomes smitten with her tutor, and declares him her lover, forcing her angry family members to give Wei a martial mulligan, and not send him to his maker.


Did you remember to bring all your weapons, David?
At this point Wei and Chi Chi are married, while elder Tien warns his granddaughter that if her husband should ever try to leave their home, he and his brothers will be forced to kill him, in the name of the rebellion. Enjoying married life and not very concerned about his family's lives back home, Wei finally suggests that they visit his parents together, spurring on the family/gang's traditional five guard showdown, which Chi Chi joins her husband in fighting. Elder Tien doesn't take the news very well at all, killing both his granddaughter and his sympathetic wife (Lily Li) in the process, with Wei barely escaping with his life. Right about here, Wei observes some mantises in the field (on the set, really), and develops the Mantis fist to combat Elder Tien's deadly Shadow fist technique, using the insects as his instructors. As Wei returns on his word to the Tien residence, the final showdown jumps off, with expected results. Where's that Shaw Brothers freeze frame ending? Oh, there it is.


"...very good, and now, go catch your sifu a nice fat, pollenated bee."
Liu Chia Liang would also complete the amazing Heroes of the East the same year, so it's sort of easy to see how this effort sometimes gets overlooked. His middle brother, Chia Yung, who directed movies like Dirty Kung Fu (1978), Shaolin Warrior (1980), and 1982's The Fake Ghost Catchers, with Fu Sheng, also continued to act and perform in martial arts movies as recently as 2011. David Chiang, who crossed over in the Shaw/Hammer co-production The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires in 1974, would go on to appear in things like Shaolin Handlock (1978),  Shaolin Abbot (1979), and The Lost Kung Fu Secret under the silly pseudonym Garth Lo in 1980, and though he continues to maintain a high cinematic profile, for this guy, his best work came in earlier Shaw productions, such as Vengeance (1970), The Heroic Ones (1970), and Blood Brothers (1973). His mantis fist displays here won't force you to forget Feng Ko An any time soon, that's for sure. The adorable Cecilia Wong, credited here as Huang Hsing-hsiu, can also be seen in things like Renegade Monk (1978) with John Liu, Liu Chia Liang's Spiritual Boxer II (1979), and 1981's Old Master. On the scale, two Wops. Decent, but nothing compared to Liang's masterworks. Worth a look.


"If you're gonna reverse jump twenty-five feet onto my gabled roof to safety, I suggest you do it now."

"Warriors Two" (1978) d/ Sammo Hung

Sammo Hung Kam-Bo is probably just as important a name in martial arts cinema as anybody else you could think to mention. Being head of the Seven Little Fortunes Peking Opera group with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao until he was sixteen, working with Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee, starring, directing, and coordinating action sequences in countless movies dating back to 1977, and even being considered a pioneer in the Hong Kong New Wave of the eighties and crazy Jiang-Shi hopping vampire sub-genre of the era, there's few highs that this portly pugilist has yet to reach. Tonight's review is famous for it's technically authentic depiction of the Wing Chun style of Kung Fu, a close quarters fighting style reputed to be developed by a nun named Ng Mui and later made popular by one of Grandmaster Yip Man's students, a guy by the name of Bruce Lee. You may have heard of him. Wasssaaaaaah!!! Yeah, that bad motherfucker.


"Forget you ever knew me as 'Beardy'. You must call me "Mustachey" now."
After a dramatic formal introduction to Master Tsang (Liang Chia Jen), who's the fourth expert in succession of the secret Wing Chun technique, and Cashier Wah (Casanova Wong), who, we're told, will be the fifth master of the style, we're introduced to a real sinister cunt named Mo (Feng Ko An), who's scheming to be elected mayor after having assassinated the current one, with the help of his cronies, Thunder (Tiger Yang), Master Yao (Dean Shek),  and Iron (Lee Hoi San), among others. Of course, standing in the way of Mo's future misuse of power is the well-respected Master Tsang and his pupils, which include Porky (Sammo Hung), who carries buckets of shit through the streets for a living, since he regularly gets cheated out of his wares. Wah overhears Mo's evil plans and unwittingly lets Master Yao in on his secret, earning him a near fatal beatdown at the hands and feet of Mo's henchmen, only to be saved by Porky in the nick of time. The stubborn Tsang takes Wah in as a pupil, and a lengthy, entertaining and informative training sequence is what follows.


"This is the pressure point dummy. Down here, are the pressure point dummy's impressive genitals...", notes Master Tsang (Liang Chia Jen).
The aloof mayor is warned of the impending danger by Porky, but he laughs off the warning and is set upon in the forest by Mo's henchmen, despite the able Monkey style defense of his bodyguard (Liu Chia Yung), who also perishes in the end. Porky also hides news of Wah's mother's murder from him, but when Tsang himself is later ruthlessly cut down by Mo's assassins, they hand deliver the master's lifeless corpse to the school on a gurney, spurring on a large scale battle that Tsang's young proponents are ill-prepared for. Porky mixes up the names of their foes as mapped out in their revenge plans, but dispatches his spear-wielding opponent just the same, though his female classmate's butterfly swords are permanently negated by Mo's swordsmen. Meanwhile, Wah's victory flushes out Lord Mo, who removes his obviously fake old guy appliance, to reveal that he's really a young, gothy-looking Northern Mantis King who could probably use a V8. Insert obligatory rock 'em, sock 'em martial fight to the finish followed by freeze frame end title, right about here.


"I get all like this when I try to chat up the sweeties!", confesses the mayor's bodyguard (Liu Chia Yung).
Casanova Wong was one of the best cinematic kickers ever (just watch his scene in Game of Death II/ Tower of Death (1981) to see what I mean),  and this movie only helped prove that his top half was also very good, indeed. Feng Ko An displays some serious Northern Mantis technique, as usual, and only some silly wire fu shenanigans in the final reel mar an otherwise excellent appearance from him. Liu Chia Yung is the middle brother of Liu Chia Liang, and his monkey sequence cameo is worthy of note here. Liang Chia Jen, or "Beardy" as he's come to be known, shines as the stoic martial instructor, sans beard, and has several amazing displays in this one. Then you've got Sammo Hung himself, directing, choreographing, acting, doing stunts, pulling off broad physical comedy, and also showing off some top shelf martial skills that fans of his movies have come to expect on a regular basis. This one's a classic all around, and if it's not on your shelves, you've got nobody to blame but yourselves. Four wops, and my strongest recommendation.


"Movement number eighteen...praying mantis overindulges on strawberry preserves..."

"Armour of God"(1987)d/Jackie Chan

For our next entry in Chan-uary, we look back to the year 1987, which saw the release of tonight's review, Chan's box office record breaking hit filmed entirely in the former Yugoslavia(because of their lax insurance policies for motion picture stuntmen, no doubt), and his biggest to date.Chan's legendary d.i.y. approach to stuntwork nearly got him killed this time around, after misjudging a jump from a high wall across to a tree branch and falling fifteen feet to the ground below, with cameramen rushing to salvage the expensive camera equipment before tending to the seriously injured action star(!), who required cranial surgery to remove pressure from a fractured piece of skull lodged against his brain, leaving him temporarily comatose, with a permanent plastic plate in his head and partial hearing loss in one of his ears.That he survived proves he must've been wearing the titular armour of uppercase G during the shot.Content-wise this time around, Chan crafts an often hilarious, always entertaining James Bond-meets-Indiana Jones adventure one-upping his previous high watermark for excellence in comedy, fight choreography(helmed by middle Liu, Chia Yung here), and gravity-mocking physical stunts that defy the realm of possibility for any human being on the planet not named Chan Kong Sang.Sharing the spotlight with Jackie here are the delectable Miss Spain 1979, Lola Forner, who also appeared in his earlier Wheels on Meals(1984), Cantopop sensation Alan Tam, whose late seventies musical outfit, "The Wynners", is parodied in tonight's script, and Rosamund Kwan, who'd appeared alongside Chan in Sammo Hung's Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars in 1985.Years later, Miramax Pictures, after acquiring the U.S. distribution rights, would re-release the film's 1991 sequel, Armour of God II:Operation Condor, re-edited, re-dubbed, and simply re-titled Operation Condor, then give tonight's review the same treatment, re-titling it, Operation Condor 2:The Armour of Gods.Let's see, that effectively makes the first movie of the series it's own sequel, and vice versa.Wait...huh?Let's just get to it already, sheesh.

Asian Hawk(Jackie Chan) introduces the joys of chugging slavic pilsner to some angry primitives.
We first meet international adventurer/mercenary-for-hire, Asian Hawk(Jackie Chan), as he plunders an ancient sword from some African-ish natives, dazzling them with a technological okiedoke before somersaulting, flipping, sliding, and diving to safety; barely avoiding the indigenous folk and their sharpened speartips and taking to the skies in a nifty getaway glider strategically hidden in the bushes, both his pilfered booty, and his own Asian booty, intact, once again.In Italy, he attends the public auction of the recently stolen treasure where a planted phantom bidder boosts the final price for Hawk's benefit, but the artifact is ultimately snagged with an extravagant bid by a sultry brunette named May Bannon(Lola Forner).Back at his hotel room, he's besieged by a mountain of messages noting the arrival of Alan(Alan Tam), who he'd been in an embarrassingly dated seventies pop band called 'The Losers' with, until his jealous buddy ousted him from the group to have female band member, Lorelei(Rosamund Kwan), all to himself.In the years that have passed, Alan maintains his high profile singing career while the girl that came between them has become a major fashion designer.At one of her shows, she's set upon by machine gun-wielding kidnappers, who mow down throngs of innocent attendees in a violent hail of lead before abducting her, demanding the three remaining pieces of the legendary "Armour of God" set as a ransom for her life.Desperate, Alan convinces a reluctant Hawk to help him break into Bannon's mansion and steal back the relic for use to barter with the kidnappers, but May's father, the Count(Bozidar Smiljanic), easily foils their half-baked robbery plan.They convince him to loan them the three pieces of the fabled armour in his collection on the promise that Hawk will return them intact, with the two missing pieces as payment, and on the condition that his daughter can tag along.

"Mitsubishi two-wheeling it down the steps?!!?My shouldered basket of perishables!!!"
The three effortlessly infiltrate the remote monastery of a brotherhood of some particularly unhip and evil monks in the mountains, and rescue Lorelei from the stronghold, thanks to the fists, feet, and acrobatics of Hawk, unaware she's been drugged by the monks and re-programmed to gaffle back all five pieces of the Armour of God for the sinister cultists, which she does, slipping Alan a mickey and hijacking him back to hideout, in the process.Hawk is forced to re-infiltrate the stronghold to rescue his friends and steal back the relics for the wealthy count, staving off coming hordes of the brown hooded brothers with an enormous flaming pole(there's even a food fight in here somewhere) before sneaking off to snatch the armour.The only problem is there happens to be a personal bodyguard of high-kicking steroid-ripped kung fu soul sistas with metal heels standing between him and the treasure.Hawk takes quite a licking from the ladies before he manages to use the wooden construction of the balconies to break off their deadly heels and give them the hearty ass-beating they'd been so begging for.Afterwards, he's once again set upon by the entire brotherhood, but he tears open his coat to reveal that he's strapped himself with explosives, threatening to blow everything and everyone to smithereens with them(hey, that's not very gung fu of you, Hawk).After a melee of chucking sticks of dynamite in every direction, inadvertently destroying the entire ball of wax, he somehow manages to escape in the nick of time by diving from the high mountain cliff onto a hot air balloon piloted by his three friends.Roll credits over the signature Jackie Chan blooper reel and this one's in the can, boys.

A martial negress' steel heels would tear Hawk asunder... if he didn't sting like he was hymenopterous and float like a Gandaberunda.
Interestingly, Bo "Snowbeast" Svenson scores an uncredited cameo here as one of the monks.Chan would follow up his massive success here with a return to another lucrative series, Project A, Pt. 2(1987), and Dragons Forever and follow up to yet another of his popular series', Police Story 2, the following year.Rather than subjecting yourself to the inferior Miramax cut of the film, you're much better off seeking out Fortune Star's Armour of God boxset or Hong Kong Legends' Region 2 PAL disc instead.The featured mayhem in tonight's entry makes the action in most Bond films look like a leisurely walk to the grocery store with your grandmother in comparison.Though much of the comedy is of Chan's usual hokey variety, and the fights don't really take off until the last third of the film, there oughta be plenty of incredible stuntwork to keep your glassies glued to, in between.An excellent modern era Chan film, recommendable to any and all enthusiasts of such.Three Wops.

"Dining hall full of evil monks right behind me?I'm not falling for that old one."

"The Treasure Hunters"(1982)d/Liu Chia Yung

Tonight we look at a hugely successful Shaw Brothers kung fu comedy, directed by middle Liu brother, Chia Yung, and starring the late Fu Sheng while introducing his own real life brother Chang Chan Peng, as well as third Liu, the venerable Chia Hui and his ever shaved head, Wang Lung Wei, the essential martial bad guy of all-time, paired with high kicking swordstress, Yang Ching Ching, this time around, and even a humorous cameo by the director himself as a cratchety antiques dealer.Especially notable, Fu Sheng had just broken both his legs on another film and worries had arisen whether he'd ever be able to physically perform in front of the cameras again.Judging by this movie, he quickly put everyone's fears to rest, trampolining himself into the air from shop awnings and pole vaulting himself into action from the opening sequences on the lush Shaw Brothers sets.As for the chemistry between Sheng and Peng, they play off each other effectively throughout the film, with Sheng as a sort of Lou Costello to Peng's Bud Abbott.Also notable here is the noticeable difference between Liang and his brother Yung when directing movies.Liang's movies always have a deep-rooted morality at their core, while Yung abandons morals for laughs at every juncture, as is evident here; the main protagonists are a con man/thief and a spoiled rich kid, with nary a moral to share between them, but the audiences are expected to cheer the enterprising criminals on and laugh at their broad jokes.I doubt you'd be asked of the same in any Liang movie.

"Do you take credit cards?" asks Chau Chu Chi(Chang Chan Peng).
At the outset, we see a cross-eyed sheriff(To Siu Ming) escorting his obese wife by horse across the badlands when he's set upon by a masked bandit while his two hundred men lie in wait in the high grass and surrounding cliff ledges.He steals the official's gun, armband, and horse, leaving the lazy-eyed lawman to discover that the thief had only set up dummies and weapons to give the illusion of a crew of villainous henchmen.Worse yet, he's now forced to carry Fatty on his back the rest of the way.Back in town, Chi Ta Po(Fu Sheng) snickeringly relates the story to a number of friends, then demands payment for the laughs he's just provided them.While eating at the restaurant, he notices a self-centered young nobleman(Chang Chan Peng) running up his own bill with piles of extravagant food he'd never finish even if he wanted to.Chu convinces Chi to enter into a partnership with him, where they share everything, including the massive debt he's just entered into and has no cash to pay, leading them both into a massive fight with the restaurant's men.Afterwards, Chi is inadvertently captured by the sheriff, and Chu writes a bad personal check to pay his bail, promising his partner the majority of Chan Po Chu's fabled treasure, once the two men find it.They surmise that a stack of the deceased Chan's letters, now owned by an elderly antiques dealer(Liu Chia Yung), must contain clues to the fortune's whereabouts, so they set out first to buy them, and if that doesn't work, there's always stealing...

Fu Sheng picks on the cross-eyed To Siu Ming every chance he gets.
Also searching for the treasure is Lord Mo(Wang Lung Wei) and his deadly female cohort(Yang Ching Ching), killing anyone who looks for the treasure and blaming the murders on a travelling Buddhist monk(Liu Chia Hui)and his five monk entourage.If you're looking for the motivation for anybody seeking the riches, or why killing those who do is an effective strategy, you're watching the wrong movie.Chi and Chu manage to steal the letters by using the exorbinant value of the dealer's other antiques to their advantage in a late night fight, after being caught breaking into his home.They decide that the monk must know the whereabouts of the treasure, and after trying to get him arrested by the flaccid lawman, they befriend him instead when they become aware of Lord Mo's treachery, leading to another martial battle of epic proportions where Mo and his female sidekick easily defeat Chi, Chu, and the monk, whose leg gets slashed in the process.The student monks rescue the men, but are unable to defeat Mo as their special Five Monk Array technique is ineffective due to their injured master.Away from the melee, the injured monk teaches Chu to join in the acrobatic, pyramid-like technique in his place, while Chi surmises that glue would help him greatly in a square off against the female's swords.What follows is a dizzying free-for-all involving glue cannisters, tumbling monks, and wooden practice dummies that will leave the audience gasping for breath by the time the words "Another Shaw Classic" flash on the screen.

Mo Seung(Liu Chia Hui), the monk, is dragged into the scramble for Chan Po Chu's treasure.
Yung's directorial credits include Dirty Kung Fu(1978),The Fake Ghost Catchers(1982),Wits of the Brats(1984),and Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon(1990), some of which we'll look at later on.If I was gonna list his acting or fight choreographer credits, I could be here all day.I shouldn't have to mention too much about my favorite Shaw Brothers actor here, except that he went on to star in Hong Kong Playboys(1983), Wits of the Brats, and his final appearance in Liu Chia Liang's Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter(1983) after completing this one.Peng seems to have completely dropped off the radar after appearing in only five movies; this being his only starring turn.As for the evil Wang Lung Wei, who's become one of my favorites over the years, we'll be looking at a film of his where he isn't the villain later on.You'll wanna be around for that.The flexible, potent Yang Ching Ching scored herself 11 assistant fight choreographer credits, as well as acting in 36 films herself.If you're into action-packed kung fu comedies, this will be the movie you've been looking for.Amazing martial arts and stunts, some good laughs, and a cast packed with Shaw Brothers stars, it merits the full four big ones on the scale.Look for it!

Lord Mo(Wang Lung Wei) has no problem holding off Chu, Chi, and two wooden practice men.

Legendary Weapons of China(1982)d/Liu Chia Liang

Let it be known on this drab and awful weekend,in a break between partying and entertaining monthecunts,I put before you,arguably, the greatest kung fu movie of all time.Liu Chia Liang was indeed the greatest director the martial world had seen,responsible for such epics as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,Heroes of the East(both starring adopted brother "Gordon" Liu Chia Hui),and Jacky Chan's Drunken Master II.In your humble N's eyes,this is his masterpiece,showcasing all eighteen Shaolin weapons and weaving a fantastic tale of traditional kung fu and Taoist maoshan folk magic around an all-star cast that included my personal fave Fu Sheng,returning from breaking both legs during the filming of Deadly Breaking Sword.Amazing stuff transpires.You need to see this if you havent already.

Ti Hau's master pauses to give a metal salute to Helloween.
The Yi Ho Society,a branch of the anti-foreigner Boxer movement,practices Pugilism kung fu,a mix of fighting skills and dark magic,to combat Western bullets for the Empress Dowager's behalf.Only thing is,they arent impervious to bullets(!).Clan leader Lei Kung(director Liang himself) knows this and dissolves his branch,preferring to spare his pupils a death by gunpowder.The other branches set out to kill him for his believed treachery,led by Ti Tan(Gordon Liu,of Kill Bill-fame),Ti Hau(Hsiao Ho),and Fang Shao Ching(Hui Ying Hung).Kung's brother,Lei Ying(director's brother,Liu Chia Yung)is also looking for him,hiring a local conman(Fu Sheng) to pose as Kung to throw the others off the trail.In Yunan,all involved parties cross paths,unaware of who anyone is or what side they're on!

A conman's(Fu Sheng) body,controlled by a voodoo doll,does some seriously choice shit.
The Yi Ho practitioners use ventriloquism,smoke,darts,and magic,as well as kung fu and weaponry to weed out Kung,who is posing as an old woodsman in the village.Kung is a wily adversary though,and soon enlists Fang and Ti to help him regain his depleted martial skills,leading up to lengthy grandiose battles with Ti Tan,who he deafens(!), the Yi Ho leader himself, and his own treacherously greedy brother Ying,who only wants fame and money.The final battle encompasses all eighteen weapons in a knock down,drag out fight to the finish!

Lei Kung(Liang) prepares for a battle to the death with Lei Ying(Yung).
Liang started his career as a choreographer for the Shaw Brothers,and nowhere more than here does he prove he is a true master at his craft.A martial artist myself for the past twenty-six years,I could go on at great lengths at the dazzling display of weapons,forms,and fighting styles displayed herein,but I'll digress,instead asking you,the viewer,to see for yourself.If you're into kung fu,this is as good as it gets.If you're on the fence about the genre,this will turn you into a full-blown fan.There's only one score on the Wopsploitation scale this movie is worthy of,and that's the highest rating,which is:

If you blink,you'll miss some truly dazzling real kung fu here.