First of all I corrected the plot summary as below. I have never done this before so will see if it sticks.
The emperor's brother is out of control and extending the boundaries of his holdings by moving border markers and demanding taxation from peasants. One lord tries to stop him and quickly ends up dead. All his men want revenge but the brother of the emperor seems untouchable by law and by martial arts.
Now for my review:
It starts with a murder but revenge gets complicated when the emperor's brother is the murderer. That is good for the audience though as it requires a plot with a one month deadline, fake deaths, new identities, and a hot kung fu chick.
The lead actor Ling Yun started in Taiwan as a dramatic actor. At Shaw Brothers he continued that genre until 1969 "Twin Blades of Doom" where he played the title character. Despite no martial arts skills he displayed good speed and power in his initial movie. I rated the fights all above average for the year and genre. This continued with 1970 "The Iron Buddha" despite the silly hat he wore. Once into the action he remained in those type movies for the rest of his career until a few ninja movies in the 1980s brought an end to the golden age of martial arts movies.
But back to the beginning. Typically the drama in these movies is filler material. That's not the case here. The opening scene establishes a totally unlikeable bad guy that the audience just wants to punch in the face. Kao Ming maintains that throughout the movie.
The fights in this movie are frequent and short. This is a good technique to use for non-martial artist lead actors. It works best when the actor can demonstrate power and focus and Ling Yun pulls it off for the most part.
This movie is unlikely to be on any fans top twenty list but I recommend it as solid from start to finish and just above average for the year and genre.
