There's a lot to know about the background of this movie before even attempting to watch it. This is possibly the first movie attempt at the Louis Cha novel. The first version I ever watched was the 1978 Shaw Brother's movie. The book is almost impossible to squeeze into one movie. This movie is part one of two parts. Also in 1963 the Chinese movie industry was just learning things. Imagine watching a stage play. From your seat you have one view of the action. Most of the movies were filmed mostly like that. The only different point of view would be from stage left or right or a zoom.
My copy is black and white in a format comparable to an old VHS tape. It is Chinese only with no subtitles. This was a challenge for me because I don't speak Chinese.
Opening scene is about a three minute dialog between the old master, seated, and his students standing around him. It cuts to other people talking and finally a hero and young lady (Cheung Ying and Pak Yin) chat it up during a rainstorm. Pak Yin walks off and Simon Yuen appears as an old monk master with three followers and rudely stops her. At about ten minutes the first spark of action occurs - a simple acrobatic flip, then more talking. Hero and lady seem to win the debate. Then Simon Yuen attacks.
The first fight is pathetic. One of the hardest things to film realistically is strength versus strength, as in an arm wrestling match. Two people are making faces at each other while trying to move each other's arms in the opposite direction. There were also a few slight swings of the sword too, then it ended.
The action in this movie is no better than if you and your buddies had a few beers and pretended to fight. A viewer might not expect much from a 1963 production. I expected more because I had seen some of the old Wong Fei-Hung movies from the 1960s with Kwan Tak-Hing and Sek Kin.
Today this movie has little or no entertainment value. I rate it according to the year and genre as average.
