Excelsior

The movie starts with two kids tattooing themselves to be blood brothers. They are separated and one grows up to be a policeman and the other a gangster. This makes their reunion a bit awkward. Plus there is a girl added to make a love triangle. Yes, conflict is the key to good movie stories.

Hong Kong action movies of this time were not heavy on the drama but this one is. Chang Yi was a Shaw Brothers dramatic actor who trained hard to learn real martial arts skills starting in 1967 when the action roles started coming his way. Raymond Lui Shing-Gung was prolific in all areas of movie making. I found no information regarding his martial arts skills. Lung Fei and Shan Mao were among the best supporting action actors of that time.

I rated the fights as good from start to finish. Back then a good fight sequence had three requirements. The actor needed good focus, seeming to be on target with the hits. The hits needed to appear powerful. The best fight sequences also had many moves, like around sixteen or more, before a cut in the action. Chang Yi could deliver all that, plus a back flip. The fights are all brawls or street fights. Sometimes fights like this tend to all look alike but not here. The final fight does add a few small weapons and is the best sequence.

My copy is a copy of an old Ocean Shores VHS. It plays as a square video on a HDTV and it is dubbed in English. For a copy of a copy, this was as good as it gets for quality. Fans of this genre are used to this, but if you are used to Blu-Ray, this is far from it!

I rate this movie just a notch above average for the year and genre and recommend it to all fans of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.