I first watched and reviewed this movie about five years ago. The copy had poor video resolution and the subtitles hard to read. A poor copy can make watching the movie an effort or tiresome. I don't think it is fair to criticize a 40+ year old movie for those reasons yet realistically how can you like a movie that you can't properly see or follow? Anyway, I came across a better quality copy and watched the movie again and updated my review.
This movie caught my notice because of the many top rate martial arts stars of that decade such as Polly Kuan, Chia Ling, Yi Yuan, and Beardie. It's an ensemble cast rather than one particular protagonist.
It opens with a monk with knives in his back escapes from a temple. He is found by three heroes and he lives long enough to deliver the exposition that Red Lotus Temple is occupied by traitors pretending to be monks. The three minimally intelligent heroes rashly assault the temple and fall into traps.
One of the three is wounded and collapses to be found by Polly. The other two are captured briefly by another faction then Chia Ling saves them. She openly fights against the Red Lotus gang. The other guy gets married to Polly but then discovers his father in law is on the other side. Awkward! He and Polly decide to leave the family and get back to duty. Grandma pulls out the family law book. They must pass three obstacles to leave.
At about the 42 minute mark the actor Chan Wai-Lau (a man playing the grandmother) delivers an excellent weapons sequence using a dragon head pole versus swords. From here until the end the action is almost non-stop. This is what I remembered about the movie which motivated me to find a better copy. The crossing the bridge sequence is fast forward material.
For fans of this genre I rate this movie just a notch above average as long as you get a better copy.
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