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黑蜥蜴 (1981)
Black Lizard


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 05/02/2007
Summary: 5/10 - production line Chor Yuen

Derek Yee gets married, then the next day goes off on a three year mission to deliver something to the capital. Two years later a mysterious figure calling himself Visitor From Hell appears and tells him to head home because his wife is going to be killed. He gets back and discovered mysterious things have happened whilst he was away, and the place is apparently now haunted. He decides to get to the bottom of the situation and hopefully thereby stop his wife being killed.

Actually I'm not sure the story makes nearly that much sense, but that's what I picked out of it - for at leat the first half of the film it's not at all clear what's supposed to be going on! Chor Yuen was rarely at his best when he wrote his own scripts, and this isn't even one of his best. It does get more interesting towards the end when it stops being quite so weird and starts answering questions, and the conclusion is fairly satisfying..

Outside the story, it's by the book Chor Yuen wuxia. Gorgeous sets and costumes, though he had started relying too much on smoke and coloured lights for atmosphere by this point (and overusing them). The cinematography has his typical style, and the action scenes are not particularly thrilling or imaginative.

The film isn't exactly bad, but it doesn't really add much to the many wu xia films Chor Yuen had already made - it can comfortably be skipped if you're not a huge fan of those films.

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 04/02/2007
Summary: Something different..........

I didnt know what to expect of a movie thats 81 minutes long,
has every character who has sword skills seemingly have the SAME level of ability,
becoming confused as Yueh hua's character, i swear, was introduced to Derek Yee at the engagement party then later they meet like they never met before,
Sun Chien of 5 venoms fame barely doing anything,
So whats going on???

The movie is really a murder mystery, with Derek yee told by a person calling himself the messenger from hell, to return home otherwise his fiance' is going to be killed. He rushes home only to encounter a scarred faced man in red, who has a wooden woman in a coffin that looks exactly like his fiance'. Fighting him, the man in red manages to get away and when he return home, Sun chien is given a strange letter which leads to Derek yee's house. There they investigate the legend of lizard lake and the Black Lizard. And potential, ghosts!! LAter Yueh hua tells a story of his wife and son's death and how the man in red, a possible ghost is involved. But all is not what it seems..........

This movie potentially could of just been a muder mystery without the swordplay, but without the swordplay this movie would be even shorter!! I was quite bored with the swordfighting, it felt like a way to fill in time!!

The ending though is quite interesting and is worth watching just to find out "Who did it!!"

Reviewer Score: 7