china, towards the end of the ming dynasty. an isolated coastline finds itself prone to attack from the japanese. a japanese force, led by shinobu hashimoto (lung fei), has made solid inroads, but finds trouble in a small village, on the beach of the war gods. a small japanese party find themselves coming face to face with hsiao feng (jimmy wang yu), a fierce patriot and fighter, who was on his way to join the fight against the japanese on the front-line. hsiao kills all but one of the japanese.

hearing that the japanese forces are more advanced than he thought, hsiao pledges to save the village and sets off to find people who can help fend off the japanese attacks. he returns with chao the iron bull (sit hon), knife expert leng ping (tin yau), a spear expert (kwan hung) and thunder fist (cheung yee-kwai)...

an old jimmy wany yu film which seems to be taking a little influence from kurosawa, with quite an obvious connection to 'seven samurai'. this, though, is a much more simplistic affair, with around two thirds of it being taken up with fighting. character development is minimum, as is the narrative, which only ever strays slightly from its main thrust. the scene is set, there's a build up to a huge confrontation, said confrontation arrives. the end.

still, despite this simplicity, there's a pretty nice atmosphere and sense of anticipation running through the film. this, along with some nicely executed street battles and smaller fight sequences, makes for a very watchable and entertaining film. these sequences are pretty good, although i was a little taken aback by a couple of incidents of biting. very odd...

good stuff...