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Amid the balletic squib-spurting of the opening credits, an Ozu view of a simmering pot (the camera pans swiftly to reveal it balanced on a blade). The bodyguards (Ti Lung, Li Ching) are a couple first seen lounging in an open field, his dart pierces a flower off her hair and they discuss their engagement while fighting off a passel of foes. Their mission is to protect a silver cargo, the Invincible Village lord (Ching Miao) bemoans his dwindling stamina: "I can't even defeat an average person anymore!" The Flying Tiger Clan plans a raid, its leader (Ku Feng) brings fearsome henchmen with monikers like Pestilence and The Mute. The man in the middle is a poor but proud wanderer (David Chiang), "born unlucky," faithful steed by his side. "No one likes to rely on others. That includes me." Chang Cheh builds the adventure with a humorous feeling of bravura, rather like the heroic rivals trying to impress each other by spearing olives and slicing chopsticks at the dinner table, "just a little trick." The scoundrel oversees the ambush in a deft sequence—he waves his hand and his minions scatter into the landscape, he nods and his best warriors leap onto tall tree branches, he raises his staff and row after row of archers materialize on balconies. (His villainy is such that, surrounded by corpses of his men, he shrugs greedily: "Even better, I can keep the loot all to myself.") Up the pagoda tower goes the showdown, an extended melee where the warring figures briefly freeze so that soft wind and dripping blood can be heard. Slow-mo crimson gushes cap the proximity to The Wild Bunch. With Chung Wang, Chan Sing, and Yuen Cheung-Yan.
--- Fernando F. Croce |