Shaolin Invincible Sticks
Men and their sticks. Long ones, short ones
men playing with their sticks men beating their sticks. In this 1978
film men take great pride in their sticks and their ability to keep them
up in the most adverse situations. Without your stick, a man is nothing.
A girl tries to master the stick, but this is really a manly skill and
she does much better with her hands and feet she needs to be older and
more experienced to master the stick.
This struck me as a remarkably dull film with
a lot of really annoying characters the bad guys are annoying -
the good guys are annoying and just about everyone else is annoying.
Except of course for Hsia Kwan Lee but this being her first film she
doesnt really get to do much. I suppose the choreography is competent,
but its fairly repetitive and holds no surprises or has any outstanding
scenes. It is all about sticks.
White-haired Chang Yi wants to prove that he is
the best stickman around and so he and his two henchmen (Jimmy Lee is one)
charge into one stick school after another to challenge and beat their
best. Now Wong Tao is heir to the best stick school in the neighborhood
but he prefers gambling and not paying his bills to taking care of his
stick and practicing with it. He gets kicked out of the family and wanders
about with Kam Kong before realizing just how important his stick is. He
then begins arduous workouts with it banging away at his loyal servant
boy with it till he feels he is ready to take on Chang Yi. Along the way
he has also met up with Hsia and she travels with him - but he prefers
the company of his stick.
Admittedly, I checked out this film primarily
for more of Hsia who so impresses in Leg Fighters and Fatal Claws, Deadly
Kicks, but here she is really given no opportunity to show her stuff beyond
a few scuffles and is nowhere to be seen in the climax when the two men
go into the forest and unsheathe their mighty sticks for battle.
My rating for this film: 4.0