The people of a village entrust their savings to banker, but the bandits who persecute the village people (not the music group, sadly!) seem to know in advance every move. A wandering blind-man and a karate-man who's searching for the responsible of his brother's death, find that the banker's assistant is the informer of the bandits... another mediocre Gongfupian from Taiwan: the main star is Chiang Pin (aka Kong Bun), who acted mostly in Swordsplay genre, so he wasn't a credible fistsfighter, without a blade he looked a little bit uncomfortbly; the evil guy is Tien Yeh, the big boss in the cultish THE ONE ARMED BOXER; the fatman Ou Yau Man and the moustached Yee Yuen were among the gentlemen who made nine or ten martial arts movies per-year. Bartender Teruo Sakamaru aka Tetsuo Kashimoto, who won a Zatoichi lookalike contest, had a brief movie-career in trash like this (Sing Lung was his nome-de-plume for HK cinema, curiously the same the director Lo Wei gave to a young Jackie Chan). Released in Italy as LA VENDETTA DI BRUCE LEE (the vengeance of Bruce Lee), 'cause the main hero is called "Bruce Lee" by italian dubbing. Well, not a MUST, but the Zatoichi's imitation is funny and the cast is fascinating if you're familiar with the good old days of the Taiwan actioners!
2 Reviews
We need someone to play Zatoichi - just get the bartender
ckormos119 May 2019
It starts with a man on horseback rides into town with a woman who dies on arrival. Next there is an abrupt cut to three men riding horses are attacked by Zatoichi, the blind swordsman from Japan. Cut back to our guy in town is fought when he tries to leave. Zatoichi then drops out of the sky to continue the sword fight.
My copy is a computer file that plays on a HDTV as a square video with embedded Chinese subtitles typical of an old VHS tape. The dialog is also Chinese and I do not speak Chinese. The appearance of Zatoichi is so absurd I suspect this movie is some kind of comedy. It's a sad state when a viewer can't be sure if a movie is a comedy. I take partial blame because of the language barrier.
The man playing Zatoichi is Sing Lung. I have read but cannot confirm that he was a bartender who won a Zatoichi look-alike contest and this movie appearance was the prize. This supports my point that anyone can be an actor. I count six movies he appeared in with four as the blind swordsman. Credit is due as he looks like him and nails the sword moves.
I feel I can't do a proper review on this movie because of the mentioned issues. If I ever come across an English version I will watch it and return here but my search shows there never was an English version.
My copy is a computer file that plays on a HDTV as a square video with embedded Chinese subtitles typical of an old VHS tape. The dialog is also Chinese and I do not speak Chinese. The appearance of Zatoichi is so absurd I suspect this movie is some kind of comedy. It's a sad state when a viewer can't be sure if a movie is a comedy. I take partial blame because of the language barrier.
The man playing Zatoichi is Sing Lung. I have read but cannot confirm that he was a bartender who won a Zatoichi look-alike contest and this movie appearance was the prize. This supports my point that anyone can be an actor. I count six movies he appeared in with four as the blind swordsman. Credit is due as he looks like him and nails the sword moves.
I feel I can't do a proper review on this movie because of the mentioned issues. If I ever come across an English version I will watch it and return here but my search shows there never was an English version.
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