A former musician has sold an antique sword that is demanded by people who have kidnapped his ex-girlfriend. Her new boyfriend goes with to retrieve the weapon and save the girl. They are opposed by a group of evil monks who have the other pieces of the set of armor that the sword belongs with.
This is the film in which Jackie falls out of a tree and hurts his head. The hour and a half duration was apparently not enough because the plot was inconclusive. It did hold my interest with action. Something was always happening. How does a musician become a kung fu master/adventurer/treasure hunter? I did not find the back-story of the characters believable. Dialogue and acting were overlooked in favor of action sequences as well. This included some great sets and locations. Right at the beginning, Jackie slides down a mountain as he is being chased by a tribe from whom he stole the sword. The lair of the evil monks was expertly done as well. When he fights the high heel fighters, there is a "double boob punch" that I thought was worth mentioning. Camera-work was not bad at all. I think it looks less impressive than it really was for the camera crew to find placement in odd areas and do moving shots to follow the action. I couldn't tell if it was a real cave or a fabricated set. Stunts made up most of the special effects. Falls, jumps, slides, fire and sparks are pretty standard in a Jackie Chan flick. Audio was not the best. The dubbing looked and sounded really fake and the soundtrack was really cheesy. This won best action cinematography at the 1988 Hong Kong film awards. It has 7.1/10 on IMDB, 4/5 AllMovie rating and user ratings on AllMovie and 78% tomatometer, 62% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. I agree with the 74.2% solid C grade. It's an average, but decent Chinese action film of the late '80s. Nothing else to say but rate it o.k.
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