Perhaps John Liu needed the money to agree to star in this poor sequel to the groundbreaking Secret Rivals I / II that are genuinely classics. Hwang Jang-Lee is replaced by Robert Tai as the villain and it shows just how good Hwang is by how much he is missed. John Liu is always worth watching for his great leg work and Alexander Lou has style and charisma but the fights seem over choreographed and rather slow. Not helped by a poor print of the film on my Vengeance DVD edition. The whole woodcarver desperately looking for a teacher adds little to the already weak plot and the humour wasn't needed in the first two films and works poorly. Not a film to go out of your way to see.
Add a Review
-
phillip-588 June 2007
-
shandalson22 February 2007AFter the seeing first 2 secret rivals movies I had pretty high expectations for this chop socky.
Unfortunately I was rather disappointed. However, it does have John Liu, one of the great kung fu actors and kickers of the golden age. He pretty much saves the film, the scenes without him are damp squibs. His kicking techniques are well to the fore in the movies countless fight scenes.
The lame attempts at comedy tend to spoil the kung fu fun. Watch it with a steady hand on the fast forward button. The action direction by Robert Tai is decent, but anyone who has seen Incredible Kung Fu Mission or the Final Duel will attest the action is far from his best.
Overall worth a look for the countless fight scenes and John Liu. -
BandSAboutMovies14 September 2023Xin nan quan bei tui was also released in the U. S. as The Secret Rivals 3 and Assignment to Kill. It has "Northern Kick" Shao Yi-Fei (John Liu) is looking for the murderer of his younger brother and his friend "Southern Fist" Shen Yin-Wai (Alexander Rei Lo) is the killer. They must work together to find out who really did it - he's played by choreographer Robert Tai - which means ninety minutes of fights.
Directed by Hsin-Yi Chang and Sung Yee Cheung and written by Chien-Chi Chang, this really has nothing to do with Ng See-yuen's 1976 movie Nan quan bei tui AKA Secret Rivals AKA Northern Leg, Southern Fist AKA Silver Fox Rivals.
This movie feels like it would be more at home on USA's Kung Fu Theater which I may have watched just as much as USA Up All Night. -
Leofwine_draca14 February 2017This cheap Taiwanese kung fu film's original title was CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS, but it was re-titled SECRET RIVALS 3 in America in order to tie it into that film series. It doesn't really have anything to do with those films, merely featuring a pair of fighters who begin the film as enemies but who team up in due course in order to battle a greater foe.
This film is pretty poor even by the standards of the Taiwanese kung fu film. The action is cheap and plentiful, but the choreography is only basic. The film packs in the kind of fight scenes that you've watched play out a zillion times before and the lame comedy and plot development in between the action doesn't help. John Liu was a skilled kicker but the camera doesn't capture his magic while Alexander Rei Lo is on autopilot.
The villain is played by former Shaw man Robert Tai, later to become a director who made some fantastically entertaining ninja films with one of the stars featured here, Alexander Rei Lo. You'd be better off watching one of those.