The Sung dynasty is drawing to a close, but a ragged band of heroes are determined to restore it by rescuing Prince Kang. Murder, torture, heroics and brotherhood follow.

This Chang Cheh film is just under 78 minutes long. That’s right, 78 minutes. I’ve seen TRAILERS for Chang Cheh films that last longer than that. And there’s no prizes for guessing that the Deadly Duo in this film are David Chiang and Ti Lung – who really must have felt like they were married to each other during the late sixties and early seventies. They even share a touching scene where Chiang wakes Ti Lung by tickling him with a bit of vegetation – I kid you not.

Anyway, Chang Cheh gets over the obstacle of the brief running time of this film by basically starting it in the middle. I was scratching my head for the first ten minutes, certain that it was a sequel to a film hitherto unknown by me. I’m still not 100% sure, but I don’t think it is. The result is a predictable feeling of “huh?” throughout most of the film. It really is messy and feels like it was banged out over a weekend while they were all working on another film.

Fans of unintentional humour will find a few laughs here. The scene in which certain members of the team insist on crossing the rotten bridge is very Monty Python-esque.

For all its faults, there ARE moments where it does get genuinely exciting, but these are few and far between.