Dance of Death (1979)
Reviewed by: mpongpun on 2003-09-14
Every five years for the last twenty years, two guys, Hu (Wang Tai Lang) and Madman Lu (Hui Bat Liu), have been meeting to see who has the best gung fu. For every five years, the two always fight to a draw and have yet to decide who has the best gung fu. Meanwhile, a young orphan boy, Fei Fei (Angela Mao), has been watching the two spar for a while and has a proposition for the two to decide who has the best gung fu. In order to decide whose gung fu is the best, Fei Fei asks the two old guys to teach him their gung fu. Once he masters their gung fu, he will use it on someone to determine whose gung fu is better. While Fei Fei is going to town to pick up some grub, he meets Ku Cheng-Yuan (Paul Chun), the first disciple of the Five Forms School. Cheng-Yuan is on the run from students from the 100 Bird School because they want to kill them. Luckily, Fei Fei is there to save Cheng-Yuan. Shortly, Fei Fei and Cheng-Yuan become fast friends but the friendship is lost when the heads of the 100 Bird School kills Cheng-Yuan and his Sifu's brother. Fei Fei escapes from the slaughter and finds her way back to Hu and Madman Lu. Once Fei Fei finds the two old guys, he gets them to go along with his early proposition of teaching him gung fu so he can avenge the death of his friends to the 100 Bird School (the two old guys don't know this part). The two old guys go along with Fei Fei to town to watch him use their gung fu. Fei Fei uses her gung fu on the students of the 100 Bird School brilliantly but later encounters the two Sifus of the Bird School, Lo Kuan-Tien and Mu Fa Shan (Chia Kai). Fei Fei loses badly to the two but later kills Lo Kuan-Tien with an eye towards Mu Fa Shan. Mu Fa Shan will be tough to beat because he is a master of the "upside-down horse boxing style". In order for Fei Fei to beat this style, she trains in a newly made technique that will be added to the 5 forms technique (Leopard Fist, Dragon, Tiger, etc). This new technique is called the "Dance style" and is made up of six different styles called the "six beauty forms". The six forms are all names of famous Chinese beauties like Hua Mu Lan, Pan Chi Lin, Tiao Chan, Chao Chun, and Hsu Tzi for examples. The final fight between Chai Kai and Angela is fantastic. Also Jackie Chan, going by the name of Chun Yuan-Long, was the fighter director and it shows. The fights that Angela are in are comedic and flow just like a Jackie Chan trademark fight. I've watched many flicks with Angela, and this has to be the only flick in which she is used like this. It's too bad that she wasn't in many films like this.