Xin fei hu wai chuan (1984)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Sze Yu Lau

Writer:

Louis Cha (novel)

Release Date:

7 April 1984 (Hong Kong)

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Szu Chia Chen	...	Lan Nan
Man Yan Chiu
Tiet Wo Chu
Kara Hui	...	Yuan Tzu-yi
Kuan-chung Ku	...	Tien Kuei-nung
Chi Tai Lam
Fai Wong Lam	...	Waiter Ping Ah-szu
Ka-Yan Leung	...	Hu Yi-tao
Yu-po Liu
Alex Man	...	Miao Jen-feng
Tim Choi Ngai
Pui Ling Tai	...	Cheng Ling-su
Chun-Chung Tong	...	Fu Kang-an
Elvis Tsui
Han Chen Wang
Chi Wai Wong
Felix Wong
Chih-Ching Yang
Jacky Yeung		(as Tak-ngai Yeung)
Qiu Yuen

Also Known As:

New Tales of the Flying Fox (Hong Kong: English title)
San fei woo ngoi chuen (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

Hong Kong:89 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Movie Connections:

Remake of Fei hu wai chuan (1980)

Surprisingly good martial art adventure from the last days of the Shaw Bros.

A clear story line, really well choreographed fight scenes and solid direction makes this obscure Shaw Bros. production a joy to watch. It's a bit more serious then some of the other films from this period but the fights are all very unreal.

There are remarkable scenes with dozens of fighters that are clear and exciting with great kung-fu performances from even the bit players. The fighting style is a 60-40 mixture of wire- fu and more traditional movie kung-fu. The editing is really good and keeps the often absurd flying around from getting really silly. When the fight scenes settle down, the quality of the actors' fighting movements really make up for the wire work. Kara Hui is absolutely wonderful in her first big fight scene in the movie.

I really enjoyed his film with a slight reservation for the last half hour which started to resemble a Golden Harvest film from the 1970's. The quality was still top-notch but the situations got cartoon-like. The film just ends abruptly also.