Lei tai (1983) User Reviews

Good cameos and a Plot partly borrowed from Quan Ji (1971)

[dafrosts · 7/10 · 1 July 2018]

Sun Dai (Lee Chung-Yat) accidentally kills a rival for a woman's affection and runs away at her father's (Chen Kuan-Tai) behest. Sun Dai moves to Thailand but returns 3 years later to see his fiance, whom he tells about a "one-night stand" with a woman in Thailand. He encounters the father (Chan Sing) of the dead man while enroute back to Thailand. Ti Lung appears and prevents Sing from killing Sun Dai. Ti, in turn fights with Sing, giving him the same blows Sun Dai received, severely injuring Sing. Years pass and Sun Dai's son, Dai Ching, goes in search of his father.

This is where the movie became a revision of Quan Ji for me. It is Fang Ko (now Dai Ching) and Wen Lieh (now Selic). Unlike Fang Ko, however, Dai Ching is not aware he has a brother. He is simply searching for his absent father. Selic, is a Thai Kick Boxer (like Wen Lieh). Dad had two families and two sons. There are similar issues with shady Thai Fighter managers. Throw in Lu Feng as the youngest son of Chan Sing, seeking revenge for the death of his brother after Chan Sing dies. Sing dies as a result of the beating he received from Ti, yet blames Sun Dai for it.

The ending is not the "happy" one Quan Ji had. Dai Ching learns Selic is his brother, but arrives too late at the arena to save him. Lu Feng seems a last minute thought in this movie. The fight hardly gives Lu a chance to show off his great skills. it is wound up in less than ten minutes.

I give this a 7 for the cameos - Chen Kuan-Tai, Ti Lung, Chan Sing, Lu Feng and Lau Fong Sai. The plot is a rehash - Quan Ji and it's follow up E Ke were far better.

There's a man in mistresses room, Search EVERYwhere

[movieman_kev · 2/10 · 18 October 2005]

One of the much lesser Cheh Chang movies likely due to Feng Lu's over-involvement in this one. Has proposed incest, lack of a real story and for the most part lackluster fighting. I've seen a great many kung-fu films in my day, and this just doesn't stack up well against any of them. Which is a damn shame since Cheh Chang made MUCH better movies in the past. The plot, such as it is, is a muddled mess of a film. Needless to say, I really can't recommend this movie to anyone at all, I had much trouble getting through the whole thing and found it an excruciating task to do so.

My Grade: D-

DVD Extras: Commentary by Ric Meyers; a compilation 'Martial Arts Theater' trailer; and Trailers for "Running out of Time", "Dragon Inn", "Armageddon", and "the Duel"

Thai-boxing done as boring as possible..

[KnatLouie · 3/10 · 23 October 2004]

I bought this cheap in a double-pack with "Ninja vs. Ninja", and watched it with audio commentary by Ric Meyers (Hong Kong film expert) on, since it was possible, and the story didn't make any sense (even the audio commentator says so! He also told the viewers to not feel tempted to watch it without audio commentary!) Totally incomprehensible plot.

The first 30 minutes is directed Chang Cheh and takes place in Hong Kong or something like that, and is about a guy who fights bad guys. It is done okay, but still boring. The rest of the film is directed by Feng Lu, and the story suddenly goes to Thailand, where a young man has to win the Thai-boxing championship, and as the audio commentator says, from the 45 minute point to the 1h 15m-point, NOTHING HAPPENS! People just walk around making redundant observations, and make boring relationships etc..I had a hard time watching this, and I usually watch a LOT of these 80's Asian low budget-flicks..

But finally in the last half hour or so, we have some good fighting scenes (there's a fighter with a hilarious ugly blue-ink "tattoo" on his chest, which I found to be the highlight of the film)...but apart from the ending, and the gay bad guy played by the always good Ti Lung, who appears somewhere during the first half hour, there's not much to be said about this movie..

Seeing this is not recommendable, unless you fast forward to the gay bad guy, and the fighting at the end...everything else is just BORING!

3/10

Decent action sequences can't overcome bad writing and editing

[I_Ailurophile · 3/10 · 13 August 2023]

For all the many films Chang Cheh made in his career, many are undeniably outstanding classics. 'Death ring' is not one of them.

Early exposition is downright messy, and further tends to reflect melodramatic sensibilities recalling soap operas. The sequencing, incredibly, is even more sloppy, with the result that early scenes are awful about establishing the setting, introducing characters, or elucidating the passage of time. Neither the writing nor the sequencing improve as the length draws on, and from one to the next scenes bounce back and forth in a manner that's downright perplexing. The screenplay is thin and flimsy all around, for that matter, straining to be baseline serviceable; even if we very generously assume that the dialogue of the poorly dubbed version does not wholly reflect the original Mandarin script, the story is simply not well written. It's at best questionable if this is even cohesive, or entirely coherent, and some scenes plainly raise a skeptical eyebrow. Cheh's direction is honestly not much better in this instance, to the extent that I have to wonder if he was actually really involved, for this is so desperately far removed from the high quality of other pictures on which he worked.

The plot (such as it is) has mostly just spun its wheels as we find ourselves more than halfway through the runtime. Up to that point we've gotten two action sequences, both quite some time ago; in fairness, we do get a few more. The action is sharp and fast-paced, and looks great - which is good, because it feels like the one strength 'Death ring' can claim. I guess the sets are nice. I do like the music in and of itself, but some of it feels heavy-handed or even out of place as it's used here. Some other choices made in shaping the feature on a fundamental level come across as needlessly self-indulgent. The acting is unconvincing broadly and in most cases ruefully overblown. And, well, that's a wrap!

I guess if you're dead-set on watching all of Cheh's credits there's a reason to watch this, though take it from someone who has been a completionist in regards to other directors or actors - that pure intent leads one down a rotten road sometimes. I think this is an example of just that, unfortunately, and I can't fathom any other reason to check it out aside from curiosity. The fact of the matter is that 'Death ring' is just not very good, and is rather well below average, especially but not exclusively in consideration of how shoddy the writing and sequencing are; the action sequences are good, but insufficient to save the whole. Truthfully, I have to wonder if I'm being too kind. Watch it if you like, I won't stop you, but this is far below the standards of the director's other movies and countless others you could explore instead. Sigh.

Lacklustre effort from a former great

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 20 July 2017]

DEATH RING is a film made by veteran Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh after his split from the studio. He brought with him a bunch of former and current Shaw stars, who really are the only reason to bother sitting through this thing. Cheh directed the early bits in Hong Kong while Venoms actor Lu Feng took over the reins once the action shifts to Thailand, where there's the usual touristy footage and lots of long-winded character melodrama which is very boring indeed. Actor-wise, we're treated to Ti Lung in an extended cameo as a gay gangster (!), Chen Kuan Tai and Chen Sing in a handful of early moments, and Lu Feng himself as the nemesis of the movie who only gets about five minutes screen time. The rest of the film is quite boring, only becoming enlivened in the first half hour and the last ten minutes.