Death Duel of Kung Fu (1979)

Directors: William Cheung Kei, Gwon Yeong-sun

Notable Cast: John Liu, Don Wong Tao, Eagle Han Ying, Kim Cheong-Ja, Charlie Chan Yiu-Lam, Chung Fat, King Lee King-Chu, Wu Chia-Hsiang

Also known as: Showdown of the Master Warriors, The Swordsman in Plains

After seeing Secret Rivals and its various sequels, I wanted to hunt down a copy of Death Duel of Kung Fu. The reason? The first Secret Rivals used the chemistry between John Liu and Don Wong Tao remarkably well and Death Duel of Kung Fu featured the two martial artists as the two leads that would ultimately team up (again) to face off against the evil villain. Truthfully, I had no expectations beyond that for the film. If it could entertain, I would have been happy. However, what I didn’t expect is for the film to attempt to add in quite a bit of plot intrigue and dramatic heft to the mix in the way that it did. Perhaps it’s a bit too ambitious for the quality of actors and budget it had, but the effort goes a long way and the rest, well…the rest is the entertaining kung fu that I wanted from it.  

Snuff Bottle Connection (1977)

Directors: Richard Tung Chin-Hu, Lily Lau

Notable Cast: John Liu, Hwang Jang-Lee, Wong Yat-Lung, Yip Fai-Yang, Cho Kin, Phillip Ko Fei, Hsu Hsia, Roy Horan

There is a part of me that is saddened by Snuff Bottle Connection. Not because the film is bad, in fact it’s quite the opposite. This film is solid and a great entertaining kung fu flick. It’s about how the film has been essentially lost to time. My DVD copy is obviously a VHS transfer (complete with tracking problems) and this film is of high enough quality that it deserves a legitimate release to save it from the ravages of time and obscurity. Snuff Bottle Connection is a film that’s bursting at the seams with talented performers and its plot blends a lot of martial arts clichés with some heartfelt characters and an energy to sell it all. Yet, here I am watching it for review in a fuzzy, color bled and poorly dubbed version and it kind of makes me sad despite all of the great things that it has going for it as a kung fu flick.