To Kill with Intrigue (1977) User Reviews

Entertaining and Fun if Nonsensical.

[Space_Mafune · 6/10 · 23 June 2006]

A young master named Cao Lei (Jackie Chan) drives away his pregnant girlfriend from the family castle because he knows it's about to be raided by a gang of deadly bandits determined to kill his family. He charges a new friend with her care and protection. Following the attack on his family by the gang lead by a mysterious veiled woman who possesses tremendous, perhaps even mystical, fighting skills, Cao Lei somehow finds himself spared as the veiled woman seems to take a peculiar interest in him following him around like a shadow. Meanwhile the man Cao Lei had entrusted to care for his girlfriend is not quite the honorable fellow Cao Lei had thought. We soon discover his plans do not mirror those of Cao Lei.

This 1970s Martial Arts film is a lot of fun to watch unfold. Filled with unexpected surprises and unusual plot twists, it really keeps the viewer guessing when he or she's not shaking their head in confusion. The most confusion stems from the relationship with the veiled woman who all reason suggests should be Cao Lei's sworn enemy yet...

Still I love the action sequences and although the wire stuff just never looks believable, there's the suggestion of something mystical at work in our story that helps make some of these scenes somehow a little more credible that they would be without it. Jackie Chan may be the star of this movie Feng Hsu steals the show.

Crappy chop socky from wacky Jackie.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 31 August 2008]

Yet another Lo Wei production to completely waste the talents of a young Jackie Chan, To Kill With Intrigue is a strange mix of wuxia, melodrama, supernatural action, and plain old-school kung fu fighting that is pretty dull despite featuring several surreal WTF moments and lots of laughably bad dialogue.

In an effort to protect his pregnant girlfriend Chin Chin from the Killer Bees, a gang of ruthless killers that are about to attack his home, Cao Lei (Jackie Chan) pretends to be a heartless cad, driving her away, and thus saving her from danger.

During the attack, Cao's relatives are all killed, but he is left relatively unharmed by the gang, whose leader, a scar-faced woman, seems to have the hots for him. Cao then goes in search of Chin Chin, whose safety he has entrusted to his close friend Chu Chuk.

During his quest to find his true love, Cao befriends the head of a courier company whose precious cargo has been stolen by the leader of the evil 'Bloody Rain' clan. Eventually, after being injured in a fight against members of the nasty clan (a fun scene with lots of silly weaponry), and then nursed back to health by the scar-faced Killer Bee (who shows her love by burning his face!), Cao ultimately learns that he is a lousy judge of character: his friend, Chu Chuk, is none other than the power hungry head honcho of the 'Bloody Rain' clan, who has plans to marry Chin Chin himself.

Cue the drawn out climactic battle, with Cao getting kicked in the face repeatedly before eventually choking his traitorous ex-pal to death with a scarf.

Even die hard Chan fans will find this one a chore to sit through, with only the final fight managing to showcase some of the star's amazing acrobatic abilities. Fans of general Asian weirdness might dig the spooky appearance of the Killer Bees at the beginning of the film (with one character inexplicably demanding back his severed hand!), or the moment when three men float through a window to attack our hero, but, for most, this film will have very limited appeal.

The skill is there, but the polish isn't.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 18 November 2003]

A remarkably young, ponytailed Jackie Chan in an unpolished kung-fu actioner that plays more like a soap opera with occasional action. It is overdone, bizarre, sometimes laughably bad (and I'm not even referring to the picture quality here), but it may be worth seeing for the most fanatic Chan fans, who will get a few glimpses of his skill, although most of the fight scenes rely too heavily on extensive wire work. As others have said, Jackie receives such heavy doses of beating in this film it's almost unsettling. (**)

An unusual Jackie Chan movie! But not necessarily in a good way...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 27 August 2012]

I had hoped, and thought, that this movie would be somewhat better than the earlier movies of Jackie Chan's impressive career. However, I was sadly disappointed to find out that it was not to be.

The story in "To Kill with Intrigue" ("Jian Hua Yan Yu Jiang Nan") was sort of trying to be everything at once, trying to accomplish a lot, but just ending up in a sort of strange confusion and semi-coherent story. Which made it not overly enjoyable, and quickly had my attention drifting elsewhere, and only pay attention to the movie with half an eye.

And part of the lack of interest in it, on my part, is that the DVD I acquired from Amazon only had a horrible English dubbed language track. I could not even if my life depended on it understand why English dubbing is appealing or acceptable to anyone? It is poorly done, it totally destroyed the feeling (or mood) of the movie, and it just makes it come off as a very low budget production.

Now for the good parts about "To Kill with Intrigue", well you have Jackie Chan in a very unusual role (if you compare it to his other roles throughout his career), as he is not really the goody two-shoes that he usually plays. Plus this movie doesn't have the usual slapstick comedy either. It is a serious movie, and the martial arts in it was actually quite nicely choreographed and executed, whereas many of his movies before this one, the martial arts was horrible staged and rigid.

This movie sort of has a weird mutated mixture of traditional, old Chinese warrior movies mixed with Chinese Opera-like characters. Not really sure what director Wei Lo was aiming for here.

"To Kill with Intrigue" is the type of movie that you watch if you are a hardcore fan of Jackie Chan or old Chinese cinema. For me, this was not one of Jackie Chan's better movie, despite it being a venture away from the slapstick comedy. If the movie only had been with its original language track, it would at least have scored a 4/10 rating, but now has to settle for a 3/10 rating from me.

Could be renamed "Jackie Takes A Severe Beating"...

[clurge-2 · 7/10 · 20 July 2000]

Here we have one of the few flicks where Jackie Chan, our hero, spends more time taking a lickin' from everyone else, than he does giving it out. Jackie is stabbed, poked, choked, burned, scalded, sliced, whacked, skewered, and school boy'd in just about every scene of the film. It makes for plenty of action, don't get me wrong, but his only triumph comes at the end so that we can leave happy. I realize that Chan is supposed to represent the man who loses everything (house, family, friends, pregnant lover, etc.) but the guy can't even defeat a woman with super-human abilities?? Movies have taught me that Jackie can overcome ANY disadvantage and kick some tail...but apparently not here. Jackie spends more time on screen as a bed-ridden cripple than fighting the powers of evil. Reminds me of a story where a boy wants to move away from his parents because they beat him. When asked where he wants to go live he responds, "I want to live with Jackie Chan's character from 'To Kill With Intrigue', because he doesn't beat anybody!".

Pretty bad? - Not pretty, just bad.

[winner55 · 2/10 · 24 June 2006]

Director Lo Wei was known to read the racing papers and take naps on the set - tells us something about his "approach to film-making, huh? The reviews I've read fall into two categories: 1) this is a film so bad it is funny, or 2) this is a film so bad it is boring.

So let's get to the point we all agree on - this film is really bad.

I vote for category 2). The story is almost incomprehensibly complex, and it is further shredded and twisted by the remarkably poor camera work and editing. Yet Lo Wei was so in love with it that he slows the pacing so we can all have a long look at it, whether we want to or not.

Maybe Lo Wei was upset the day (or two) this film was made - he just wanted to make everybody suffer, cast, crew and audiences alike.

Spare yourself the agony.

Killing with intrigue.

[DoorsofDylan · 7/10 · 30 April 2023]

Recently getting two of 88 Films Jackie Chan releases at CEX, and winning one on a eBay auction,I felt it was time for an intriguing viewing.

View on the film:

Loading up a number of audio options, 88 Films present a great 2K transfer which retains a slightly rough film grain texture, with each of the soundtracks buzzing with sharp clarity.

Shot in freezing cold Korea and having a frosty relationship with the director, over disagreeing on how the fights should be filmed, Jackie Chan gives a live-wire performance as Shao-Feng, thanks to Chan performing each of the stunts with a real finesse, while Feng Hsu brings a delightful shot of mystique to the tale as Can-ren, with Hsu visibly appearing gleeful as Can-red taunts behind her veil before performing a take-down.

Despite the disagreements with Chan, director Wei Lo & cinematographer Chung-Yuan Chen high-kick a highly amusing atmosphere of quirky, off the wall ultra-stylized thrills, from a chopped off hand flying in the air, to the tops of coffins soaring towards Shao-Feng, as strange masked figures emerge.

Although the screenplay by Lung Ku offers enticing threads, (such as The Killer Bees group of Ninjas) which sadly get abruptly dropped, Lo and Chen jump over the plot dead-ends, with tantalizing Action set-pieces blazing from rolling, somersault tracking shots, crash-zooms landing on each deadly punch, and brightly coloured jagged whip-pans over Shao-Feng killing with intrigue.

Absolute barry.

[fuzzy_nolan · 10 April 2002]

Jackie Chan actually said in an interview that he felt sorry for anyone that had to see this movie. I'm going to have to agree with him, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself after I saw this slapped-together sham of a kung-fu movie.

Not the Jackie Chan we know and love

[dbborroughs · 3/10 · 29 December 2008]

Early Jackie Chan film where there is no sign of the Chan persona we know. This is Chan in a full on traditional revenge tale of the sort that was cloned and re-cloned by countless producers and studios all through Hong Kong Taiwan and Mainland China. Its a very serious story that shows none of the humor and warmth that would catapult Jackie Chan to super stardom. Its also clear from watching this that had he not reinvented himself odds are we would never have known him because his career would have been painfully short. As a film on its own merits this is a good looking but pretty unremarkable movie. I was watching it, in the midst of an all day marathon of martial arts films and it would have blended together with every other film that I watched that day had I not noticed Jackie in the film. Honestly I don't think the film is really worth bothering with (there are too many other better variations) except if you're interested in seeing where Jackie Chan started.

It takes off from "Jackie Chan with mutton chops" and keeps on going...

[invisibo-1 · 7/10 · 19 February 2006]

An amazingly horrible film, kung fu corniness at it's best. Everything from the names of the characters: "Chin Chin" which is Japanese for "penis", which is awesome because there are tons of variations in the movie. "All you care about is your chin-chin!" (Actual piece of dialog) The set designs are beautiful and the cinematography catches some great shots sporadically in the film. The fight scenes themselves are just thick with super human hijinks and cheap camera tricks. Altogether, a hilarious piece of kung fu dung.

Not for the serious kung-fu fan, more for the casual-bad-movie-fanatic.

Yeehaw, The Lazy Southerner

Swordplay and Acrobatics

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 2 January 2021]

This movie essentially begins with a beautiful handmaiden by the name of Qian-Qian (Ling Lung Yu) eagerly telling her rich nobleman lover "Lei Shao-Fung" (Jackie Chan) that she is pregnant with his child. But rather than being delighted with this news he rudely brushes her off and sends her on her way. Crushed over this unexpected rejection of her Qian-Qian leaves the household she had been working at and runs away. Meanwhile, Lei Shao-Fung has returned to his home and informs his father that an elite group of assassins has targeted the entire family and that they are all in serious trouble. No sooner does he tell them this then they suddenly appear out of nowhere and kill off everyone in the family except Lei Shao-Fung who they thought was dead. When he recovers he sees one of the female assassins named "Ding Can-Ren" (Feng Hsu) standing near him and catching her off-guard holds a sword to her throat. However, rather than killing her he decides to spare her life in exchange for information on why his family was targeted. Upon telling him she then escapes only to follow his every footstep from that point on. The story then shifts to Qing-Qing who meets a stranger by the name of "Jin-Chuan" (Le Lung Shen) who saves her from a small group of bandits and subsequently offers her his protection until she decides what she wants to do next. What she doesn't know is that Jin-Chuan was sent by Lei Shao-Fung to look after her and that she was only sent away because he was afraid that she might suffer the same fate as the rest of his family. Unfortunately, Jin-Chuan is not who he says he is and has his own plans for Qing-Qing. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an intricate film which suffered from too many diverse subplots that didn't flow smoothly from one to the next. Throw in a lot of swordplay and acrobatics and the end result was a rather strange film which was difficult to follow at times. At least, it was for me.

This movie is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sluaghan-macdonald-1 · 8/10 · 19 August 2005]

Summary:

I can't believe all of the unfair comments I have read posted about this film. Sure it may not be one of Chan's best but one cannot deny the good aspects of the film. A few examples:

1. Jackie Chan has long hair, and not only long hair but unbelievably long sideburns. These sideburns let me tell ya, there so good right, they don't even grow from his face as much as they are extensions of his hair. Awesome.

2. There's a guy, a ghost or specter, I can't tell, and he comes from nowhere during the first 10 Min's. of the film and screams at Chan and his family to "return my hand, return my hand" in full scary movie voice, and Chan throws the hand to the guy. He laughs maniacally and then runs/disappears in a series of laughably bad cuts. Classic.

3. Shortly after that we are introduced to the main villain's/teacher and her gang of weirdo, all girl, henchmen.Get this "THE DREADED KILLER BEE GANG!" who apparently were disgraced by Chan's father. Now this gang of Killer Bees or whatever, they all have these weird flower masks as well as Chinese lanterns on poles. WHY? I don't know either. Anyway, the main villain's and two other Killer Bees shoot out of these caskets like jack in the boxes, laugh maniacally and proceed to massacre Chan's entire family. Obviously sending Chan into a full on hate-fest for the Killer Bees. But he's out of luck to do anything as he gets his rear handed to him by the girl.And folks this all takes place before we hit the 30 min. mark.

4. After Chan gets knocked out over he's laying in a bed, seemingly pretty comfortable, until 3 Chinese/Mogonlian/Mexican henchmen decide to float up in THROUGH the window to attack poor sleepy Chan. Guy can't catch a break! Anyway, he easily dispatches the gang killing one of them by kicking him through the window, in full bad reverse, too bad we didn't have more than $13.94 for a SFX budget, motion. Just a barrel of laughs, man I'm telling ya.

5. All I'm gonna say for this one is the main bad guy is posing as three different people. Chan's best friend Chu Chuk, The Governor, and the main bad guy, and they all look the same, same actor same duds, but none of the stupid cast figures it out. At one point before handing these two guys butts to them, he says: "So you now know that I am Chu Chuk as well as the Governor, but I'm also a THIRD person. Who do you think?" and the two guys just look dumbfounded, as would I if I heard such a laughably bad line. "Who do you think?" HAHAHAHA that is the best man, and the way he delivers it, classic.

Listen, if you truly like Kung Fu films, and I don't mean HALF PAST DEAD, or CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE or any of those crappy Hollywood films, I mean old school Kung Fu 1977 style, pick up this movie. It cost me $3.99 at Wal-Mart and it was ten times funnier than I expected, and if your into these old movies your looking for funny.

Just sit back relax, smoke a joint, and get ready to bask in the overwhelmingly bad, funny and weird To Kill With Intrigue.

At one point Chan actually has half his face burned off, you can't beat that.

Not bad 70's chop-socky...

[mcslime · 5/10 · 3 September 1999]

For a 70's Hong Kong costume martial arts flick, this isn't too bad. I've always been attracted to martial arts movies with a strong female character and the veiled lady in this movie is such a woman. There's lots of fly-on-wires kung-fu action, and Jackie (or Jacky as he's billed in the credits) spends most of the movie getting kicked around by the baddies, including, initially, the veiled woman. She, of course, falls for him - even though she killed his entire family and he has a pregnant girlfriend.

Sal

[sal-29 · 22 February 1999]

It is big mystery why this film was shown in Japanese movie theatre although his other far better films in 70's were not. A masked strong Kung-Fu woman became the teacher of Jackie, and she burns Jackie's face and lets him eat stones because of her mad love for him.So Jackie became to look like a zombie or something at last.I felt like seeing horror movie.I remember actions in this film was not bad, but I don't wanna see it again so never mind anyway.

Just ok

[iscream22 · 5/10 · 21 August 2001]

Well, Jackie Chans best films are from 1978 and after , and this film was made in 1977. This film is just ok. It has a grainy picture , like some low budget wannabee bruce lee movies have. Although this picture is directed by Lo Wei (fists of fury, the chinese connection).

This film has Jackie chan as a man who tries to get his girlfriend back from the governer.

In america this film, would probably be rated PG-13 for ,mild violence.

PERFECT Sunday afternoon couch potato flick

[irish23 · 3/10 · 29 July 2007]

As many have detailed here with a level of seriousness that I find amusing, this is *not*:

A FILM. (cue dramatic music)

It's just a so-bad-it's good, totally surreal, Jackie Chan stunt-for-all. The women fighters are totally kick-butt and Jackie is definitely put in his place.

This is the movie you want to see with some good friends on a Sunday afternoon -- surrounded by munchies, ready to roar with laughter, cheer on the good guys, boo the bad guys, and continually yell, "WHAT?" when something totally bizarre happens. Great fun!!

I had no idea what was going on the entire time

[isaacsundaralingam · 2/10 · 7 April 2021]

This movie is profoundly stupid. I have nothing more to say.

A waste of time and money

[jordondave-28085 · 4/10 · 15 June 2023]

(1977) To Kill With Intrigue (In Chinese with English subtitles) ACTION/ PERIOD PIECE

One of many failed attempts to emulate Jackie Chan's success after Bruce Lee's death, this one has something to do with revenge and scarring Jackie's face to get back at the person who killed his whole family. I cannot believe I wasted money and time on this low budget garbage for it's nothing like "Drunken Master", Snake In the Eagle's Shadow" or "The Fearless Hyena" etc... One of many films director Lo Wei contracted to direct Jackie Chan in, and is basically the same as the others, which is depressingly lousy and depressingly dumb!

This movie wasn't too plain

[junfan · 12 June 1999]

I actually liked this movie, even though you really can't tell it's Jackie Chan until the end, it had some pretty good fight scenes, but still it could've been better.