This goofy and rather endearing kung fu flick is a strange and unconventional viewing experience which alternates between predictably and originality. Whilst no classic it provides ample viewing pleasure and plenty of action to propel it along nicely, making it a solid addition to the genre. Plus there are two CLASSIC fight scenes to be enjoyed but more on those later. The plot feels inspired by a western in its story of a new police chief (or sheriff), played by genre regular Bruce Li, a man who spent his life impersonating Bruce Lee and made a name for himself with his films at least in quantity if not quality. Li arrives at a small-town prison and invites selected prisoners to join him on an epic quest: if they survive, they'll be free men. Otherwise they can spend their lives bored out of their brains in a no-life prison. Unsurprisingly all of the men agree to join in the quest.
Basically the quest consists of finding the whereabouts of a bandit gang who have been tearing up the countryside and laying waste to their ranks. The film then becomes one long series of fight scenes to the end, with little or no plot exposition in between, which I can appreciate. Li and his buddies go around to all kinds of different locations and beat up the bad guys there. They even fight some religious guys. I guess everyone is a bandit in this film. What I like about THE DEADLY STRIKE are the slight touches of characterisation given to the prisoners; the main ones each have their own back story which influences their actions in the film. One guy killed three men who raped and murdered his wife and is actually pretty decent under his hard exterior, another man used to whip and abuse his wife and now gets to whip the bad guys, another is an expert knife thrower and so on. Each man brings his own skill to the group. As the film progresses you'll wonder why this set-up was bothered with at all, considering that 90% of the fight scenes consist of Bruce Li kicking the bad guys on his own anyway without any help.
Things build up to longer, fiercer and harder fights with the good guys getting bumped off one by one and numbers dwindling. In an unintentionally hilarious scene, Li has a would-be escapee hanged in front of his former cell-mates, a moment which should be shocking and moving but which the bad dubbing makes funny. Eventually they battle the main bad guy, who gets his strength by snorting from a snuff box in his belt (one man amusingly ends up swallowing this box, although I couldn't explain how!). The fight choreography is pretty average for Hong Kong standards, which means that its still above most Western kung-fu movies, but there are some decent moments and Li is a good fighter. Watch out for the deaths, which consist of every single actor drooling blood as he slumps to the ground. The film has cheap production values and a theme which tries to rip-off Morricone but I've seen worse.
There are two bizarre fights in this film worthy of a Wang Yu movie. The first is when Li and his men come upon two leopard-skin wearing fighters in a canyon. The strange thing? These guys fight with one standing on the other's shoulders. The ensuing battle is definitely as strange as it sounds and a lot of fun, propelled by amusing camera tricks and weird facial expressions. The second, classic scene has Li and his party taking on a gang of monks who worship at a snake temple. Thus, they fight with their own unique style of snake-fighting, which consists of them acting like snakes by attacking with strikes that hiss, painting their arms green, and sliding across the floor (very cheaply done, and hilarious with it) to menace the enemy. A great moment. THE DEADLY STRIKE is not a classic, but very entertaining at times and with a lot of spirit if not skill.
Basically the quest consists of finding the whereabouts of a bandit gang who have been tearing up the countryside and laying waste to their ranks. The film then becomes one long series of fight scenes to the end, with little or no plot exposition in between, which I can appreciate. Li and his buddies go around to all kinds of different locations and beat up the bad guys there. They even fight some religious guys. I guess everyone is a bandit in this film. What I like about THE DEADLY STRIKE are the slight touches of characterisation given to the prisoners; the main ones each have their own back story which influences their actions in the film. One guy killed three men who raped and murdered his wife and is actually pretty decent under his hard exterior, another man used to whip and abuse his wife and now gets to whip the bad guys, another is an expert knife thrower and so on. Each man brings his own skill to the group. As the film progresses you'll wonder why this set-up was bothered with at all, considering that 90% of the fight scenes consist of Bruce Li kicking the bad guys on his own anyway without any help.
Things build up to longer, fiercer and harder fights with the good guys getting bumped off one by one and numbers dwindling. In an unintentionally hilarious scene, Li has a would-be escapee hanged in front of his former cell-mates, a moment which should be shocking and moving but which the bad dubbing makes funny. Eventually they battle the main bad guy, who gets his strength by snorting from a snuff box in his belt (one man amusingly ends up swallowing this box, although I couldn't explain how!). The fight choreography is pretty average for Hong Kong standards, which means that its still above most Western kung-fu movies, but there are some decent moments and Li is a good fighter. Watch out for the deaths, which consist of every single actor drooling blood as he slumps to the ground. The film has cheap production values and a theme which tries to rip-off Morricone but I've seen worse.
There are two bizarre fights in this film worthy of a Wang Yu movie. The first is when Li and his men come upon two leopard-skin wearing fighters in a canyon. The strange thing? These guys fight with one standing on the other's shoulders. The ensuing battle is definitely as strange as it sounds and a lot of fun, propelled by amusing camera tricks and weird facial expressions. The second, classic scene has Li and his party taking on a gang of monks who worship at a snake temple. Thus, they fight with their own unique style of snake-fighting, which consists of them acting like snakes by attacking with strikes that hiss, painting their arms green, and sliding across the floor (very cheaply done, and hilarious with it) to menace the enemy. A great moment. THE DEADLY STRIKE is not a classic, but very entertaining at times and with a lot of spirit if not skill.