Avenging Dragon (1983) User Reviews

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[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 26 July 2016]

THE INHERITOR OF KUNG FU is an example of one of the cheap made-in-Taiwan movies that Ti Lung churned out after he split with the Shaw Brothers. It's a bizarre film all right, a historical adventure packed with undistinguished fight scenes and more than a few odd characters and situations. It's one of those films that feels like the writer just threw everything in, hoping that something would stick. Hardly a martial arts classic, then, but fans might find elements of interest hidden away in the otherwise routine narrative.

Lung is saddled with a very boring protagonist role in this and has little to do other than look stern; at least he continues to fight well. The Taiwanese sets look cheap and heavily stylised, although some of them do have quite an impact, particularly one of the snowbound scenes. The costumes are cheap looking and at one point the characters wander around in what appear to be dressing gowns.

A drunken beggar is involved in the plot, which involves your usual teaming up against political villains. One scene has Lung training with the metal rings beloved of the old Shaw Brothers movies. There's a ninja fight and a fiery attack on a house which is very well achieved on the low budget. At other times the story is incoherent and the lowbrow comedy an odd mix with the otherwise serious action. I'm not sure why computer noises were used to accompany flying characters either.

Things culminate in the film's obvious highlight, the ferocious five-way climax set on and around a waterfall of all places. Veteran actor John Ladalski (ARMOUR OF GOD) even makes an appearance here, randomly playing Poseidon or so I thought! It's mad stuff indeed, with intense fighting, explosives, and a random gang of bratty kids who use bubble mixture to blow bubbles and injure the villains! A crazy end to a film that it's rather difficult to make sense of.

Standard, shoddy Kung Fu cheapie made better with the presence of Ti Lung

[dworldeater · 6/10 · 17 April 2022]

The Inheritor Of Kung Fu is a cheap Taiwanese production. Other than the performance of leading man Ti Lung, nothing really stands out here as outstanding. The story is sort of a mess and is edited poorly, but the fights are good enough to pass the time along. There are many other recognizable actors from Kung Fu flicks from this period. The sets look super fake, but at the same time for a movie like this, it's kinda cool. Ti Lung took his craft seriously and brought his A game in an otherwise C level production which made this not so bad of a watch.

INHERITOR OF KUNG FU – Not one of Ti Lung's best

[BrianDanaCamp · 21 June 2012]

Pao Hsueh Li was co-director with Chang Cheh on some bonafide Shaw Bros. classics (BOXER FROM SHANTUNG, THE WATER MARGIN, MAN OF IRON, DELIGHTFUL FOREST) and sole director on a few that were pretty good (FIVE TOUGH GUYS, OATH OF DEATH, BATTLE WIZARD), but when he left Shaw to make independent kung fu films in the later '70s (EIGHT ESCORTS, BLOODED TREASURY FIGHT, REVENGER, THE HEROES, to name four that I've reviewed on IMDb), the results were much cheaper-looking and less satisfactory, despite his ability to recruit top Shaw Bros. stars like Ti Lung and David Chiang to join him. INHERITOR OF KUNG FU (1978) is arguably the shoddiest of them, trapping its actors, including Ti Lung and female star Chang Ling, in cheap sets, awkward fight scenes, and an incoherent plot. Poor Ti Lung keeps getting beaten up throughout the film until he spends some time in an icy cave about the size of an office cubicle learning kung fu from an eccentric reclusive master. There are two beautiful women--a princess, played by Chang Ling, and her maid--who keep turning up out of the blue to help Ti Lung, but their connection to him or the plot is never explained. Chang Ling (WOLF DEVIL WOMAN, DARK LADY OF KUNG FU) is an attractive figure in an elegant cloak and is fun to watch, although her fight scenes are quite gimmicky. There is a group of acrobatic kids who show up briefly before a scene in which we are told they've all been killed. Yet a similar--or perhaps even the same--group turns up at the climax to help out. A dubbing mistake? Different kids? Again, no explanation.

The screenplay is based on a novel by Louis Cha (Jin Yong) whose works were better served at Shaw Bros. where they formed the basis of the "Brave Archer" and "Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre" series of films, among others. The plot here has to do with the search for a kung fu manual, which Ti Lung is thought to have, making him the object of everyone's search, even though it's obvious he doesn't have it. Even Ti Lung's master, played by Chang Yi Tao, aka Philip Cheung (GRAND MASTER OF SHAOLIN KUNG FU), turns against him. It all culminates in a big fight outdoors amidst some picturesque rock formations and waterfalls. A white guy in a monk's outfit shows up, played by John Ladalski, an American martial artist who made frequent appearances in Hong Kong films, and briefly fights the heroes before the kids take him on, fighting him with sticks and soap bubbles(!). Again, his presence is never explained.

It doesn't help that this was made available in the U.S. on a pan-and-scan VHS tape with unusually poor dubbing and archaic dialogue. At one point, Ti Lung says to an opponent, "I'm gonna put paid to you." The film has had a number of titles, but the edition I have is called INHERITOR OF KUNG FU and was put out by Tai Seng as part of its line of Ocean Shores re-releases.