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龍形刁手金鐘罩 (1978)
The Magnificent


Reviewed by: Frank Lakatos
Date: 02/10/2006
Summary: A Boring movie. Not worth a serious viewing..

This is one of Godfrey Ho's most expensive productions, and it's another Korean coproduction. The expert choreographer Chan Siu Pang is hired to make this movie into something, but the talent to work with isn't there unfortunately. Carter Wong and Chen Sing alone can't save this movie. Besides Casanova Wong's scenes, this is yet another dull Carter Wong and Chen Sing Taiwanese kung fu snorer. Dragon Lee and Chui Min Kyu have small cameos as assasins. A Boring movie. Not worth a serious viewing. 1/5


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 02/17/2002

Quite a decent piece of old school... the backdrop is the end of the Ching dynasty, with former members of the Ching plutocracy seeking to restore their rights & power over the new republic. Carter Wong plays an officer of the republic who doesn't want this to happen, and Chan Sing plays a scheming general with his own agenda behind making it happen.

All of which is mainly used to set up a bunch of fight sequences... somebody's being ambushed by somebody else pretty much all the time in the movie, and at times you forget quite why they're all fighting. Not that this is a problem particularly... I did appreciate the story in those places where it was relevant. I appreciated the fight scenes more though :)

There's a whole bunch of kung fu action, with everybody fighting everybody else at one point or another. Some great stuff on display too. Carter Wong is great, but for me the show was stolen by kung fu babe Doris Lung. She's cute, and she knows kung fu... perfect combination!

There's some good choreography in there (and some not so good), with the extended final fight naturally being the highlight. It takes all of our heroes' combined skills to take down the seemingly invincible bad guy. Which is just how it should be :)

My enjoyment of the movie was probably helped by the Crash Cinema DVD, which is from a very scratched print, but is widescreen & original language. The theatrical subs are small and sometimes hard to read, but still greatly preferable to an English dub. The transfer appears to be straight from a film print too, as there is no colour bleed or other telltale signs of VHS-based origins. Not a perfect presentation of the movie, but better than most that are out there from the period.

Recommended :)