Master martial arts moviemaker Liu Chia-liang wanted to make a movie about Chinese royalty’s relation to the common people. He accomplished it with one of the greatest kung-fu adventures ever made, incorporating at least three of the most brilliantly conceived and executed fight sequences ever caught on film. Wang Yu is the streetwise title character while the director’s adopted brother, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, plays an incognito prince who uses Ho as a dupe to try avoiding court intrigue. But any description of the plot cannot communicate the beauty and ingeniousness of Liu’s invention and vision. Combining laughs and thrills, the monumental director adds to his legend with a film that only gets more impressive with each successive viewing.
