ej's kung-fu capsule review for films of the chop-socky old-school - 1. basic plot type - gangsters; family honor; fair damsel saved; betrayal between brothers.
2. plot construction - absurd at times, but solidly built.
3. dramatic - occasionally.
4. funny - sometimes, but unintentionally.
5. dialog - all to the purpose, so not bad.
6. cast performance - surprisingly strong, if occasionally overwrought.
7. crew performance - technically solid; well made for the genre.
8. amount of fighting - lots.
9. quality of fighting - solid old-school street-brawling.
10. special any cast or crew notes - apparently includes an early appearance by Huang Jung lee of 'drunken master' fame - i don't recognize him, so either he's 'way young here, or his role is small. impossible to date; the English version claims a 1979 release, but this could not have been made after 1976. further, the English dubbing is by a crew that worked for sys-international, and Australian company, for a syndicate network known as 'chinese metropolitan network'. films dubbed by this crew didn't make it into America until the mid-nighties, when they became notorious for poor video-transfer quality, and occasional parody re-writes of the dialog. this appears to be an early release from them, and so the video-transfer is actually quite good, and the dialog appears to be essentially that of the original film.
- although there are some character-actors who showed up in Taiwanese 'fu films, this is certainly a Korean production.
11. big positive - solid action with believable characters, even if occasionally over-done.
12. big negative - takes itself too seriously, and could have used some intentional comic relief.
bottom-line - who should see this movie - anyone interested in the genre; anyone who likes non-stop action films; a good entertainment for those not expecting high-art here.