Tuesday, February 19, 2019

FEARLESS FIGHTERS (1974) ****


Two clan brothers are at odds.  One feels the government owes him, so he steals a shipment of gold.  His brother, hoping to restore his honor, steals it back with the intention of handing it over to the authorities.  Of course, HE gets blamed for the theft.  Four strangers are drawn into the plot, each with their own suspicions and motivations for getting involved with the gold.  Eventually, they learn to trust one another and work as a team to fight the evildoer who wants the gold for himself.

Fearless Fighters is densely plotted but never confusing.  It reminded me a little of Shogun Assassin as it sometimes feels like there were multiple movies edited into one.  It moves at a breathless pace and amazingly enough, it crams in a ton of plot and even more action into a short amount of time.  Our heroes can’t take two steps without a group of bandits or killers or somebody jumping into the frame to do battle with them. 

It’s also chockful of colorful characters, many of whom have cool gimmicks.  My favorite was a badass named “One Man Army” whose sword splits in two.  He also lulls his enemies by hypnotizing them by waving his arms.  While they’re busy standing around watching him flail around, he runs in and cuts them to shreds. 

Fearless Fighters features lots of scenes where the bad guys shoot arrows at our heroes, who almost always catch them and throw them back.  Incredibly, the arrows always land into the chests of the archers who shot them.  This begs the question:  Why would you need a bow in the first place if you can just throw arrows so fast that they kill their intended targets?  No matter.  It’s just another reason to love this nutty movie.

If you’re looking for non-stop carnage and first-rate chopsocky goodness, Fearless Fighters is hard to beat.  It’s a film about loyalty, friendship, honor, and kicking lots of ass.  Kung Fu fans will undoubtedly eat this one up. 

James Hong helped prepare the American version and did some of the dubbing. 

AKA:  A Real Man.  AKA:  A Hero of Heroes.

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