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DANCE
OF DEATH
AKA:
Eternal Conflict ||
Chuan Lu
Year:
1980 Reviewer: Scott
Napier
Now
I review my first Angela Mao film who has earned the title
"Queen of Kung Fu Cinema" with her roles in classics
'Hapkido' and 'Lady Whirlwind'. This being the only film
available subtitled and widescreen, I had to check this one
out...
Angela
Mao stars as Fei Fei (Fly Fly), a happy-go-lucky orphan who
comes across two Kung Fu
Masters rivalling over who's skill is better. Fei Fei offers to
answer that by receiving Kung Fu lessons from them. Meanwhile,
a disciple of the '5 Style Fists' is on the run from the
'Hundred Birds Clan' wanting to wipe out any student carrying
on the style. Fei Fei saves the disciple but after he is
killed, she may use her Kung Fu for revenge instead on the man
mainly responsible; 'Ma Fa Chun' (Ga Hoi)...
Unable
to defeat him, the Masters and the student discover a soft but
powerful flirting technique (very similar to 'Miss Ho', one of
the 8 Drunken Gods in the classic Jackie Chan film 'Drunken
Master') to counter Mu Fa Shan's 'Up-side Down Horse Boxing'.
Don't
be fooled by my short synopsis, you might think this is
another entertaining Kung Fu-Revenge film. It's highly
unlikely that it matches her earlier classics 'Hapkido' and
'Lady Whirlwind'. The film's characters and actions are rarely
taken seriously, this of all Kung Fu-Revenge/light hearted
comedies is the worst I have seen sadly. I was seriously
looking forward to watching a Jackie Chan choreographed film
and the "Queen of Kung Fu Cinema" taking a lead role
but only to be disappointed. Light hearted comedy and humour
are out of place most times when it tries to squeeze into the
film but in vain. Angela Mao only offers an average
performance, don't mention Dean Shek to me! The last
half-hour's finale is the only worthy thing to see containing
some nice Jackie Chan creativity but the rest is poor.
It
can sometimes be hard to enjoy a film in which you have many
grudges against. I always respect the amount of work that
can go into a film, but this one is a disaster to me. So, if
you are relying on a simple but effective story and plot then
you may want to give this one a miss. I would only ask
die-hard Angela Mao fans to watch this. Chan's choreography is
surprising and helps little to stop this film flopping.
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