SAMURAI BLOOD, SAMURAI GUTS is a Taiwanese wuxia flick in which the various sword-fighting characters roam the country and interact. There's a femme fatale here on the trail of the usual gruff bad guys who bark out their English-dubbed dialogue with aplomb. The tapestry feels quite large for what is invariably a cheaply-made little movie, and the director's emphasis is more often than not on utilising wire work to having his characters fly and jump into and from trees and the like. There are few recognisable cast members and the whole plot is hackneyed beyond belief, but fans of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON might get a kick out of seeing an extreme low budget version of the story. Despite IMDb listing the year of production as 1971, I would say 1981 is closer to the mark.
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Leofwine_draca24 October 2017
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ckormos113 November 2016It starts with the most "who cares?" plot in the history of martial arts movies. A fighter has stolen another man's fiancée and a hero appears to make it all right. Thankfully, we quickly move on to something about everybody wanting revenge and a book. A girl is out for revenge and our hero wants that book. He returns in a scene where he uses his chiropractor skills to heal an injured street performer. The girl, a monk, and another guy join forces to get hero Tiger. He is able to fight them off and deliver a baby at the same time.
I have been watching every martial arts movie ever made in chronological order from 1967 to today. Just a few minutes into this movie I had a very hard time believing the movie was made in 1971 in Taiwan. It opens with all the cheese of any Alexander Lo Rei movie from 1984. The only thing missing are the gold lame suits. The Ocean Shores label displays a 1986 copyright but that is when the original movie was dubbed in English and transferred to VHS. HKMDB has 2/25/1971 as the date of theatrical run. Taiwan produced some of the worst movies ever to have "ninja" or "samurai" in the title (the VHS title that is) and that was in the early 1980s not the early 1970s.
I think this movie is a great example of how dubbing and background music can change the entire movie. The background music is typical of the late 1970s movies with John Liu. I am sure the words "samurai" and "ninja" never were spoken in the original film. The acting is never more than a look of surprise. The fight choreography is "a sword swings" then an abrupt cut to stunt men flying off in every direction. There is plenty of wire work and little effort was spent to hide the wires.
The movie is only suitable viewing for the most hard core fan. As a hard core fan I watched it once and I am sure I will never watch it again. I cannot recommend it and rate it below average.