Teng Piao (Ti Lung) is sentenced fifteen years for opium smuggling. After the opening credits an assassin sent by Lan Fei appears. He offers 5000 gold to forget about the revenge. Teng Piao simply wants revenge but revenge is never simple. He kills the assassin and goes to Zhou Bai (Jason Pai Piao). After fighting the lackeys he checks into the inn and sees the lovely and mysterious Ching Li. She has been expecting him. They talk. Many men attack. He kills them all but one who he sends back. The police appear and take him to the station for a talk. He is advised to leave town but won't. Zhou sends for his six killer brothers. Ti Lung and Ching Li talk again. Her husband went missing fifteen years ago when he went to meet the Black Leopard. It is revealed that no one knows what Black Leopard looks like except for a birth mark. It could be anyone, male or female.
China has many authentic ancient magnificent weapons. But this is the movies and almost anything can be a weapon. In martial arts, weapons training is advanced practice. This is to avoid injury. Even a wooden sword can injure a martial artist practicing alone. In the movies, stunt men can be injured by rubber knives and plastic swords. Some movies use whips as weapons. In reality the whip is a poor choice of weapon. The physics of the whip as a weapon in movies is cartoon physics. But if you are trying to avoid injuring your stunt men then the whip is a good choice. Same for the iron chain in this movie. Plus you don't need cartoon physics using a chain in fights.
As for the action, a gun appears in the first scene and unfortunately many guns return toward the end. I don't like guns in these movies. The fights were all good but there was no "Wow!" factor. The dialog tending to repeat things the audience already knew. I only rate this movie a tad above average because of Ti Lung's performance.
China has many authentic ancient magnificent weapons. But this is the movies and almost anything can be a weapon. In martial arts, weapons training is advanced practice. This is to avoid injury. Even a wooden sword can injure a martial artist practicing alone. In the movies, stunt men can be injured by rubber knives and plastic swords. Some movies use whips as weapons. In reality the whip is a poor choice of weapon. The physics of the whip as a weapon in movies is cartoon physics. But if you are trying to avoid injuring your stunt men then the whip is a good choice. Same for the iron chain in this movie. Plus you don't need cartoon physics using a chain in fights.
As for the action, a gun appears in the first scene and unfortunately many guns return toward the end. I don't like guns in these movies. The fights were all good but there was no "Wow!" factor. The dialog tending to repeat things the audience already knew. I only rate this movie a tad above average because of Ti Lung's performance.
