Popular Taiwanese director Tsai Yang Ming, who brought us the likes of The Prodigal Boxer, 72 Desperate Rebels, and Shaolin Drunken Monk to name but a few, delivers another imaginative and busy wu xia adventure.
The film starts of with our heroes standing off against a team of fighters called the Four Ants - who are, believe it or not, 4 dwarves dressed in different colours, who carry a large coffin around on their shoulders for the next person they kill. The English dub makes them sound like adults speaking like children, which is very odd, and even though their swords are bigger than they are, they still move pretty well. It doesn't last long, but at least you have an idea of where things are going.
Things come across a little messy before the film starts getting 'somewhat exciting' about 30 minutes in. At this point, our three heroes have uncovered and helped stopped some corrupt officials, but things from here on in just don't seem to be in their favour!
As a fan of 70's Taiwanese kung-fu films and Chen Sing, I really wanted to love this, but it just didn't have enough excitement, or fight scenes, to win me over. And the English dub didn't help either. There are a few good fights, and more-so after the one-hour-mark, but nothing to make me want to see it again...
Overall: Worth one watch for some fun fights, but that's about it!
