The Sword Stained with Royal Blood (1981)

Released March 6, 1981

Director: Chang Cheh

Cast: Phillip Kwok, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng

A wu xia film starring three Venoms. Kwok as usual has the lead honorable protagonist role.

Kwok is an orphaned raised by renowned swordsman.  One day Kwok and his mute servant discover the cave of the Golden Snake and learns the martial arts skills detailed in the manuals left behind by the now dead Golden Snake.

Feeling obligated to honor the will of the Golden Snake, Kwok journeys to solve the mystery of the Golden Snake.  Kwok meets up with an spoiled brat (which he believes is a boy but only a blind deaf person could not recognize as a girl)  of an evil clan who has a mysterious connection with the Golden Snake.  Kwok eventually learns of the nefarious deeds history and confronts the clan in a final 5 Element showdown.

Rating: This was a change of pace from the usual Venom movie with a more complicated plot, more story telling, and less fighting.  8.1

 

Kung Fu Master (2009)

Cast: Yuen Biao

Reportedly it is the condensed version of a TV series.

I bought the DVD because of Yuen Biao.  What the DVD was was a string of endless fights separated by paper thin moments of plot telling.  The fight scenes changed rapidly and if you blinked, you’d be lost wondering where the segue was.

It was like watching a low budget 70s kung fu flick where the fighting seemed endless. The big difference was that the wire fu was much better here but nonetheless the movie lulls the viewer into fight fatigue.  It was a huge disappointment as I had high expectations.

Rating: 3.5/10