The evil Kuan (a perfectly hateful Shek Kin) steals two swords from the peaceful martial arts sect the Supreme Gate. Strong, willful master swordswoman Yuk Bin (superbly played by the lovely Betty Loh Ti) gets ousted from the Supreme Gate for being Kuan's daughter. Things become worse for Yuk Bin after she's blinded by Kuan in a fight. Kindly mentor Nam Chee (affable Zhang Yang) teaches Yuk Bin how to overcome her affliction and retain her sword-fighting skills. When the equally wicked, arrogant and power mad Sun Tai Yong (marvelously essayed with rip-snorting cocky relish by Kelly Lai Chen) takes over the Supreme Gate and defeats all the other master sword-fighters, only Yuk Bin remains to defeat him. Director Chiu Feng Yuan, working from a complex and engrossing script by Faan Yee, delivers a potent and gripping tale about honor, loyalty and betrayal. The astounding choreography and exceptional stuntwork are both on the money arresting and exciting, with lots of wild leaps and jumps as well as a copious amount of graphic bloodletting. The estranged relationship between Kuan and Yuk Bin is quite potent and moving. The breathtaking widescreen cinematography, the rousing, energetic, majestic score, and the beautiful rural countryside setting further enhance the sound quality of this solid, stirring and highly satisfying film.
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Woodyanders23 July 2008
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planktonrules29 November 2010When this Shaw Brothers film began, I was very disappointed. While there are a lot of exceptional new Shaw Brothers DVD releases (with nearly perfect prints and amazingly good captioning), this one is NOT that amazing. The print is scratchy, dark and the color is almost absent. In addition, the captioning was not particularly good--and a bit distracting with a Chinese dialect also present above all the English captions. While it's not the worst captioning I have seen nor is it as bad as a dubbed film, it could definitely stand some improvement--and the use of someone who really understands English well!
Yuk Bin is happy at her school--the Supreme Gate. However, when an evil baddie, Kuan, kills her master her life turns upside down. Not only is this beloved man dead, but she then learns that her real father is...Kuan!!! The dumb jerks at Supreme Gate throw her out since her fatter did this and you really feel for Yuk Bin. After all, she is loyal to Supreme Gate and cannot be held responsible for her wicked daddy. As for Kuan, he now wants Yuk Bin to join him and become his daughter once again. When Yuk Bin refuses, in anger he strikes her with the dreaded Icy Press and nearly kills her. The violent blow leaves her blind! Well, because of other martial arts films (such "Master of the Flying Guillotine"), we know that blindness alone cannot necessarily stop a martial arts expert (nor, for that matter would losing an arm bother a kung fu action hero or heroine). Tune in for yourself to see exactly what happens next--however, don't be surprised if there is yet another baddie even worse than Kuan in this movie!
While this film is only fair for a Shaw Brothers film (partly due to the print quality), even this is a huge step above the average martial arts film. That's because the action is pretty good compared to many martial arts films and the idea of a blind fighter isn't nearly as dumb as some of the gimmicks I've seen in other kung fu films--such as guys in gorilla suits doing martial arts and guys with 36" tongues that they use as weapons! Actually, believe it or not, the gorillas and tongues were from the same movie...but that's for another review.
By the way, get a load of the diabolical laughs! They sure had the evil baddie laughs needed for such a film!
If this film had a better print and captions, I'd give it a 7 or 8. It is good but could be presented better. -
gorthu19 April 2009This is not a great movie, but it is very rare. Yet again, Rarescope lives up to their name. If you are a kung fu fan, just go out and buy all of Rarescope's titles. Most of them really are great movies, and the DVDs are super cheap. They went out of business (at least the US distributor did), so get em while you can.
I enjoyed this movie, but it isn't really anything special. The story is about Betty Lo Ti's character finding out that she is the daughter of a very evil man (played by Sek Kin, the villain from Enter the Dragon). She gets kicked out of the Supreme Gate clan after her father steals their precious Golden Sword and Mirror. A man from another clan wants to help her out, but the only thing she is worried about is getting back the sword and mirror and being part of her old clan again. This movie deals a lot with honor, and that is what I liked most about it. The storytelling is only decent, and the action is not very good, but not too bad for 1968.
On the positive side, the acting is great, and the outdoor locations are very nice to look at. And the indoor sets are also good. If you really like old swordplays, then you may want to take a look at this. Betty Loh Ti shines brightly, and unfortunately this was made the same year that she took her own life.
I didn't go over the story very much, but I don't want to give anything away.
Picture quality on the Rarescope DVD is fine. I was expecting it to be bad, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is widescreen, and ALL of the burnt on subtitles are readable, and for once they are well written.