Black Lizard (1981) User Reviews

Average story of a monster in the martial world

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 19 July 2017]

BLACK LIZARD is a typically convoluted film from Shaw Brothers director Chor Yuen, made during the studio's transition from straight kung fu fare into more mystical magically-focused oddities. This one's quite straight forward for Chor Yuen, but the plot involves the titular monster that's hundreds of years old and demands a sacrificial victim every now and then.

Given the director's pedigree, it's no surprise that the thrust of the plot is more about involvement in the martial world, with all of the intrigue you'd expect. Derek Yee teams up with underutilised Venoms star Sun Chien to investigate the mystery and come up against various dark or sinister personalities, including a cameoing Yuen Wah and a sweaty Yueh Hua. The sets are dark, the characters brooding, the women beautiful, but the lack of involving action and less horror content than expected means that this isn't one of the director's best.

Mystery with a few sword fights

[ckormos1 · 5/10 · 21 January 2017]

The narrator explains that Lizard Lake is a spooky place. Cut to an engagement party. Derek Yee is the future groom and Yueh Hua is the security chief. (Too many people to remember are quickly introduced.) Derek is supposed to be off on a long mission. They have a ceremony releasing lizards into a lake. Every three years a big red lizard appears and it has something to do with deaths. Derek comments this should occur when he returns. Cut to Derek arrives at an inn and receives a message on a dart. The "messenger from Hell" asks to meet him at a pavilion. He tells him his fiancée will soon die. They fight a bit and then Derek rushes back home. He encounters a red caped man carting a coffin. Inside is a woman who at first appears to be his fiancée but then turns to wood. They fight and red cape escapes with the coffin as if he is carrying it as a purse. On returning home he finds Auntie was killed though he saw her (ghost) at the front door. Derek is joined by Sun Chien, playing a constable, and they investigate at Yueh Hua's estate.

The first time I watched this movie I only got about thirty minutes into it and gave up because I could not understand what was going on and failed to care. Before trying to watch it again I read a few reviews and they all agreed the movie was hard to follow and probably didn't make sense either.

I did watch the whole movie for this review. It is mostly a mystery and I felt it just was not that interesting. The fights were few and they all seemed the same. I can only rate it below average and do not recommend it.

Not An Outstanding Film - But Some Righteous Sword Play.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 5/10 · 16 April 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Black Lizard. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 1.00 Pace - 1.25 Acting - 1.25 Enjoyment - 1.00

TOTAL - 5.25 out of 10

Two essentials let Black Lizard down; the story and the direction. The writers throw too much into the mix and don't possess the skills to give a clear, concise, and believable conclusion. Plus, there's an unnecessary opening sequence. The way both writers and directors handle it makes the segment frantic and disconnected from the rest of the picture. Therefore, when we start the main story thread, we're already confused about the timeline. It would have been preferable if they had included the Black Lizard Lake mythos a little later into the tale and started the story from the point where Stranger From Hell makes his appearance. But the writing issues don't stop there. For me, the story felt too coached. It lacks a sense of natural flow, and it became too jagged and messy. But the concept is a good one shame the delivery is off a tad.

Apart from the sloppy beginning, the rest of the direction is passable. Though, two fight sequences take place in darkness. It's a pity as you cannot observe the actors' skills at sword-wielding. All their training has gone to waste. Apart from that, the greatest element of the film is the pacing. The sword and martial arts fighting are enthralling and exciting. That is the reason I thought the story revolved around these fights.

The cast is average, though their martial arts skills are superb. Had the tale and the filming been better, the actors and actresses might have had more to get their teeth into. The cast who appear to add more persona to their characters is the older supporting cast; the master's elderly and last servant, and the grave keeper.

I would recommend this to all the martial arts fans and possibly some of the more die-hard thriller devotees. Somebody new to the genre may turn off after the first ten minutes. I love this genre, and I nearly hit the off button. Even though they could have improved some elements, the film is still enjoyable and worth one watch.

Please feel free to visit my Killer Thriller Chillers list to see where I ranked Black Lizard.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Jinkies!

[midnightmosesuk · 6/10 · 7 July 2019]

Scooby Doo Kung Fu.

Secret passages. Rubber Masks. People pretending to be monsters. Spooky mansion. It ticks all the Hannah Barbera boxes. All it needed was Scrappy Doo to annoy everyone and it would've been like a lost episode.

Despite not understanding the majority of what was happening, I persisted if only for the strange goings on, hoping it'd all be clear by the end. It wasn't.

The magic of murder...

[poe426 · 9/10 · 25 March 2013]

No sooner does Long Fei (Derek Yee) get engaged than he's off for a two-year trip. Upon his return, he finds out that there have been several murders during his absence. Who murdered who and why is revealed late in the going, but in the interim we have spectral figures moving ghostly about the now-darkened mansion of Xiao (Yueh Hua), a monster in red attacking everyone and everything that moves, and more twists and turns and secret passageways than in a dozen fright films. Xiao's wife, it turns out, was a victim (apparently) of the monster in red (the apparent reincarnation of the spirit of a black lizard found in the Lizard Lake). Constable Tieh (Sun Chien) enters the picture and helps Long Fei make sense of the mysterious (and apparently supernatural) goings on. The closer they come to the truth, the more touch-and-go things become. The final resolutions are about as convoluted as they come, with secret after secret revealed in the closing minutes of the movie. THE BLACK LIZARD is a worthy who-done-it, with a martial arts twist (or two or three). Worth a look.