Forced to Fight is a straight wuxia tale with a very simple and oft-used plot: a murdered master’s student seeks revenge on the powerful and evil man who committed the crime. The film starts with Chan (David Tong) attacking anyone that moves all while challenging Mo Yan Chan (Lui Ming) to a duel. Unfortunately for the guards, Mo Yan is nowhere to be found, but they all suffer the wrath of Chan’s rage. A wandering swordsman, Tan Chan Fei (Yueng Yueng) steps in and asks to mediate the fight, ensuring that it is a fair duel. Not really caring how the fight will occur, Chan agrees and shows up at the agreed duel location. Not surprisingly, Mo Yan’s crew has set an ambush, and the next half hour is non-stop fighting with people being thrown from cliffs, smashed with rocks, split in two clear down the middle and even being arm barred in modern MMA style. Chan finally makes it to Mo Yan and dispatches him rather quickly. Meanwhile, Tan Chan Fei has secretly been goading the two to fight so that he can challenge the winner immediately and proclaim himself the most superior master in the land. He kidnaps Chan’s wife and even kills his daughter, all to get him to fight him. Throw in a friend of Mo Yan’s that is shamed into going after Chan, an emperor who is looking for the best fighter to take over his general’s position and you have everything leading to a bloody final showdown.

There isn’t anything in Forced to Fight that you can’t find in other movies and in better quality. It’s a pretty early wuxia offering from Taiwan with flying heroes and enormous body counts. The editing is pretty atrocious and leads me to believe the original movie was hacked up to make this dubbed version. The story is threadbare and the fight choreography is mediocre at best. It is quite violent, but all of the unique stunts are obviously done with dummies, making it lose a bit of the potential impact. There are also strange flashback scenes using annoying echoes and camera angles that add nothing to the story. Not recommended other than to those looking for poorly shot, never ending scenes of carnage and mayhem.

3/10