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Å@ªá¹a (1979)
The Beauty Escort


Reviewed by: Gaijin84
Date: 08/16/2009
Summary: The same problems, the same results...

After agreeing to a duel 8 years prior, Master Dragon and Phoenix are due to meet on a mountaintop to decide who rules the martial world. Unfortunately Phoenix has died, so her disciple Yee Man Ching (Tiu Man-Ming) has come to take her place. After a quarrel between Dragon's son and disciple (Ling Yun), the duel is fought with Dragon being killed. His sword, by his death decree, is to be given to his #1 student Nam Goong Ping (Ling Yun), and this creates conflict in Dragon's family. His daughter (Lily Li Li) wants to sword for herself so she can rule the family and is insulted by her father's wishes. Meanwhile, bandits attack Dragon's death caravan and Nam chases after a man that runs away with the coffin. It turns out that it holds a swordswoman (Nora Miao) who has hidden in it for the past 8 years after she had gotten a reputation for killing her lovers. Together, "Cold Blooded Mistress" and Nam try and figure out who is behind the plot to kill Dragon and ruin the Nam family name.
Unfortunately, Beauty Escort is a typical Ling Yun swordplay film that fails to break through and establish itself above the other failed films in the same genre. Once again, the story comes from a wuxia novel, but the director and editor do a poor job of bringing the tale to the screen with any success. The fighting scenes are rather choppily done despite the presence of good talent, notably Yun, Miao and Michael Chan. The dubbing on the copy I saw was especially bad, with lots of throw away lines, including a time where Yun actually replies "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." I almost gave up at that point, but managed to get through the rest to a decent final fight which was, not unexpectedly, not good enough to save the film. Another word of warning, the Crash Cinema DVD has a bad transfer, and a fair amount of the film takes place at night, leaving you basically watching a black screen for entire scenes. Don't waste your time.

3/10

Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: Tonic
Date: 07/09/2007

The packaging implies Kurata Yasuaki is in this film, but more than likely it is a simply an error (and I found this DVD in a pound shop).

Pretty boring swordplay, not much in the way of skills - I fast forwarded through most if it.

Avoid, unless the only other film you have to hand is Howard the Duck.