Palma d'acciaio, un turbine di violenza

A typical low-grade Martial Arts movie from Hong Kong, where this opened 12/29/71. Two years later it made some money in foreign markets like Italy and France. The influence of spaghetti-western is all too evident (the heroes arrives on their horses!). Story is formulaic, the set is cheap (a farm, a tavern, a small forest, a stony valley) but the cast is a joy for the fans of old school Kung-Fu extravaganza, in that its filled with famous HK actors (Alan tang, Charlie Chin), regular character-actors (Chiang Nan, Lee Man Tai, Chu Mu, this one also in charge as film-director; the ubiquitous Hao Li Jan from Enter the Dragon) and an army of stuntmen including future legends of the genre like Chen Kwan Tai (Boxer from Shantung), Tommy Loo Chun Kou, Jason Pai Piao (Stranger from Canton), Eddy Ko Hung (Avenging eagles; Lethal Weapon 4; the documentary Dragonland), and many other familiar faces. So the whole matter is a sort of Who's Who of old Kung-Fu cinema, and this is why I give a broken 6 to this mediocre film. A kind of nostalgic archive, if you like.