The Ghostly Face

When Ghostly Face (a good guy who wears a monster mask) kills a woman's father and steals his sword, she sets off for revenge. She is unaware that Ghostly Face isn't the killer, but has been set up a a band of pirates. Along the way the woman rescues a girl who was taken by the pirates and the pair set off together to find out whats really going on.

Forgive me for being vague, but this is a hard film to rate (and get through). There are incredibly long periods where nothing happens. For example a half an hour in we get a flash back that tells us the story of the rescued girl. It consists of a long sequence of Indonesian Theater and cock fighting. After about 15 minutes of beautiful travelogue footage the pirates break in and we get some action. Much of the film is like this, long sequences of travel footage that ends in a fight sequence. It completely kills the film, and prevents any real plot development.

On the other hand, and its a a big other hand, the fight sequences are fantastic. They are bloody and spectacular and wonderfully comic book like as the lone woman warrior takes on thirty piratical bad guys. Much of the first half hour doesn't make a great deal of sense but its fun to watch.

I loved half of this film- anything that involves the fights. I disliked the travel film footage that stops this movie dead in the water. If you like martial arts film this is certainly worth a rental. I'm not too sure that you'd want to buy this, but if you can forgive the slow parts this is worth seeing (fast forward anyone?).