In the wild bunch of Kung-Fu pics sorted out from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 70's, this Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix was a little surprise, even if made with same zero-budget formula. More a sentimental drama than a story of revenge, it has the psychological aspect not totally overwhelmed by the usual rain of fists and kicks. The main character, played by actor Ang Fung, is not a Bruce Lee-type hero but a shy boy who enters in a gym where he is bullied being is unable to fight. But he is a master with a secret arm: being son of a carpenter, he learned how to throw nails with his bare hands, husing them as mortal needles. He never do this easily and publicy, nobody knows it at the gym. The local beauty (Shaw Bros female star Wang Ping) fall in love with him but she was promised to the gym's best fighter (actor Chu Jun, a stuntman visible also in Enter the Dragon in the badguys army). The troubled and the beauty ran together and the champion goes after them. Things gets complicated by the fact a Triad organization hires the nail-thrower as a professional killer, so when the gym champion reaches him to take a revenge and bring back the girl to her home, nothing will go in the right way, leading the story an unpredictable and very sad conclusion. Acting is effective enough for a movie like this, expecially by nail-thrower Ang Fung, and action is fast and furious. But what makes this movie a cut above many others are the original weapon used by the star and the poignant portrait of a social misfit doomed by the fate. The production values are low, the countryside setting is the same you can see in many Taiwanese actioners from the Era, but the fights (staged by stuntman and grande-z director Tu Lu Po or Tu Man Bo of Bruce and the iron fingers' fame) are quite good and the final clash against the almost unbeteable henchman played by stuntman Chin Kung is funny. All in all a little curiosity who deserve a look.
