DUEL FOR GOLD
火
併
Hǔo bìng
The head of a security bureau must contend with skilled fighters who are after the gold in its treasury.
This may be the only wǔxiápiàn hokey enough
to portray excessive sweating and urination.
Its depiction of qīnggōng is equally goofy,
with its over-use of tumbling & trampolining & reversed filmed jumps.
The swordfights, however, are unassailably impressive.
Greed gets the better of six people
who have engaged in mercurial alliances
to obtain the gold safeguarded by a biāojú.
Unlike the representation of biāojú in most wǔxiápiàn,
which is almost always a guarded transport caravan on the road,
the one here is a bank, treasury, and mint.
Of the six actors who play the amoral thieves,
Ivy Ling Po deserves top billing
for being the only one able to show that her character
still has remaining slivers of humanity.
Lo Lieh is too busy doing his rascally rogue act.
Ivy Ling Po deserves top billing
for being the only one able to show that her character
still has remaining slivers of humanity.
Lo Lieh is too busy doing his rascally rogue act.
When thieves go Treasure of the Sierra Madre,
they start losing arms...
they start losing arms...
...legs...
...and blood...
Copyright © 2012-2013 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.
All Rights Reserved
