You are currently displaying English
飛龍斬 (1976)
The Dragon Missile


Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 06/14/2015
Summary: Solid Movie


Rewatched Jun 04, 2015


Legendary Shaw Bros. studio director Ho Meng-Hua keeps the action moving with a good script and great cast. Must-see viewing!

Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 03/13/2015
Summary: Good fun

Lord Qin Quan is suffering from a highly poisonous boil, which is guaranteed to be fatal in 7 days if he is not treated with the 1000 year longevity rattan, which can only be obtained from one particular herbalist who lives 4 days ride away. Qin Quan gives his loyal retainer Sima Jun the task of acquiring the rattan, and promises him untold riches and power if he is successful. Sensing an opportunity for personal enrichment, the Lord's advisor hires a group of mercenaries to travel with Sima, instructing them to steal the rattan once it has been obtained and deliver it to him instead.

THE DRAGON MISSILE is very clearly an attempt to cash in on the success of THE FLYING GUILLOTINE, kitting Lo Lieh out with the eponymous weapon which is essentially a razor sharp boomerang carved with a dragon, and which manages even more implausible feats of aerial navigation than the famous guillotines, but usually with the same decapitatory effect. Luckily, the film is also awesome and can therefore be forgiven for being a bit derivative and fantastical.

The chief strength of the film is a fine script from Ni Kuang, a fine intrigue of double crossings, betrayals and conspiracies. The characters are also very memorable, with a fine range of distinctive appearances, weapons and techniques. Choreographers Tang Chia and Yuen Cheung-Yan stage some great fights, with the missiles in particular wreaking impressive carnage.

This was the first new Shaw Brothers film I'd seen in years, and it was great to find that it could still be as entertaining an experience as I remembered. I'm not sure why it passed me by (or vice versa) on release, it must have been very late in Celestial/IVL's schedules. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason why it should be so, as it stands up perfectly well with other Shaw Brothers films of the day.

Ho Meng-Hua has never been one of my favourite directors, but he can generally be relied on to turn in a solid film. THE DRAGON MISSILE does not exactly exude style or innovation, but it's a solid piece of entertainment and generally good fun. Flying Guillotine fans in particular won't want to miss it.

Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy
Date: 09/20/2007
Summary: Another version of the flying gulliotine

The dragon missile is a boomerang which chops off peoples heads, sounds familiar?

It starts out like the only people in the film are bad guys but the plot thinkens when Lo Lieh's master orders him to get this special root to cure his disease and only has 1 week to bring it back. But there are various problems, Lo Lieh has others helping him with his mission, or maybe they will hinder him!! The owner of this special root wont give it to just anyone either.

Soon Lo Lieh meets his younger kung fu brother, which reveals the few good guys in this movie. He knows he is not up to no good and pursues him after Lo Lieh uses his dragon missiles to chop off his blind mothers head!!

So there are the good guys after Lo Lieh and his travelling companions wanting to steal the root off him, and will he get the root back to his master in time?

Actually this movie is around 83 minutes and its plot is a little thin. It's basically deceit and fightning that occurs, and a ending that is pretty lame (they figure out how to stop the dragon missiles) yet this movie was entertaining, for what it is!!

Reviewer Score: 7