This just might be my single favorite Shaw Brothers film.

This just might be my single favorite Shaw Brothers film. There is more going on here than in most of the Shaw Brothers films I've seen. No, I don't mean it's more complex or complicated I simply mean that was more character depth here than in most I've seen. The fighting was decent and quite brutal for the time, the acting was actually more restrained which was a nice touch. But it was the direction, cinematography, and score that lifted the film. Chang Cheh's use of slow motion, close-ups, score, and framing really gave the film a mythic feel. The main lead Lo Yi seems compelled against his will to get involved even though he knows how things will turn out. This was grand stuff, there was so much back story missing and so much left unsaid but instead of lessening the film, this plays as a strength as it makes this feel like this was just a single chapter in a much larger story.

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This movie was a bit hard to rate due to any factors but it all comes down to how much I was entertained. The biggest problem I have with many Jimmy Wang Yu is how obvious it is that he is in fact not a good martial artist, he can sell it reasonably well most of the time but the filming and editing style really differs on his movies versus single wide shot that were popular at the time. Jimmy's acting here is pretty good as was most of the cast. The story was quite a bit better than most of the "police goes undercover" films. The fighting is pretty clumsy and slow at times but the length and brutality shown more than make up for any short comings. The end fight is the biggest highlight of the film and it's what really raised the rating for me, it showed me somethings I've never really seen in this type of film, this is the first time I'm seen a sword fight in the mud and I really enjoyed it. Also both fighters became exhausted which as most fan would know doesn't happen in most martial arts movie as fighter will fight hundreds of opponents for an hours without even breathing hard, so to me at least this was refreshing. Overall this movie really entertained me with it's complex but easy to follow story, decent acting and great finale.

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Wow, I had heard good things about this movie and went into it with high expectations and I wasn't let down. This is a great horror movie but better than that it a great film period. The main part of the movie takes place during a 2 hour time period and is filled with flash backs through out, which brings depth to the main character. The movie s very gory and becomes more so as it goes on. There is plenty of black humor and drama as well to help balance things out and even most of the minor characters are given a bit of depth and development. The film is based on a true mass murder incident even if the story itself is fiction. I've seen some other movie with Jose in them but she never really made an impression on me until now. Josie Ho was amazing in this and I will be checking out more of her films.

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