Movielogr
Dance of Death (1979)
Directed by Chen Chi-Hwa
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by sensoria
Overview
An orphan boy seeks revenge upon a villainous kung-fu sect that killed his friends. He chances upon two old kung fu masters who are fighting to determine who’s the better fighter; one is a drunk, the other puffs constantly on a pipe. Fei Fei convinces them to teach him kung fu, and then he’ll fight using both of their techniques and will discover which is superior. So Fei Fei ends up fighting his way up the ranks of the evil sect with the two old men trailing after him, evaluating the battles and counting how many of their individual moves Fei Fei uses. The final battle with the white-haired master of the sect, using new kung fu moves inspired by dancers in a brothel, is amazingly gymnastic.—Bret Fetzer
Length 90 minutes
Actors
Dean Shek | Paul Chun | Angela Mao | Shih Hao Ko
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06/22/2014 | TV | DVD | Owned | 7 stars |
| (Average) 7 stars |
Viewing Notes
This a really fun movie because 1) Angela Mao stars, and 2) the focus is on forms and which kung fu master has the best forms. The comedy is goofy at times but the continual emphasis on fighting styles and forms is damn entertaining.
Angela is portraying a guy Fei Fei (I don’t think it’s ever revealed that she’s really a woman) trying to improve her/his kung fu style by training with a couple of guys who each think their moves are superior.
Of course she gets caught up with other kung fu guys seeking to avenge the murder of their master. So like a video game with boss fights, Fei Fei must battle each one to determine which forms are the best against each opponent all the while adding to her repertoire to blend the forms together to overcome her enemies.
My favorite form is “agile monkey picking peaches” and of course the near unbeatable “upside down boxing horse” style. So many forms are introduced it makes me want to learn kung fu so I can say, now “lazy monkey stealing food” when I’m practicing.
This disc has those old school burned on subtitles which can be hard to read at times. But I’d rather have those with the original language track than a shitty dubbed track.
Would make a good movie for Ron’s “I must avenge my master” project.
9 years ago
I’ll have to track this one down to watch, sounds like fun!
9 years ago
Not sure how available it is but I have a 3-movie Angela Mao set you can borrow. She’s really terrific in this.
9 years ago
Ha! I just read the description for the first time and I basically wrote the same thing in my notes. Yeah, it’s fun. One I’d revisit for sure.