The Invincible Fist (1969)

Math Kills

Lo Lieh plays a local constable who is after a group of murderous bandits. Some of kung fu's heavy hitters play the four baddies. One villain uses a golden abacus and spins golden balls of death into his opponents. One bad buy uses geese shaped throwing stars. The Big Bad has a spinning umbrella of death and a rod with a chain that has a blade attached at the end so that he can reel an opponent in(killer fishing rod?).

No emotional depth to this movie. Lots of bloody sword fights. Lo's men always seem to be underprepared or vastly outnumbered. This movie will also help explain the old saying of, "I'll be waiting for you in the tall grass."

Lo's character wasn't terribly bright-- the bad guys had been hiding in plain sight for two years, but that's okay because eventually he is helped by the equally not too bright blind daughter of the Big Bad. If ever there was a couple made to be together these two pretty people are it. It's a kung fu movie so what could possibly go wrong?

Some of the reasons to watch are as always for me Lo Lieh. He's gorgeous, looks dangerous, and is adept at the fight scenes. Li Ching plays the beautiful and pure of heart blind daughter. A young David Chiang plays LL's brother and it's a who's who of supporting characters. With all this talent and Chang Cheh directing there is plenty of action to go around.

The music was fine, the cinematography wasn't bad and the movie was in pretty good shape. I say that because some of these movies have been edited to fit different screens and sometimes the subtitles either run off the screen or have two languages overlaid.

I wouldn't trip running to the TV or your computer to watch it, but if you have an hour-and-a-half to kill, it's never a waste of time spending it with Lo Lieh and friends.

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