The Eighteen Jade Arhats (1979)

Polly Ling Feng Shang Kuan was stuck with a ML who was as stiff as the statues he carved in this deadly murder mystery. The mystery gave Polly and Li Lung Hua a reason to traipse over the country side and get into almost continual fights with people. An added complication was that someone kept sending assassins to kill Li as the two searched for the killer.

The story had a nice mystery thread running through it, but the main plot tended to get lost in the weeds in the telling of it. One of the huge problems was that the fight scenes were often shot in the dark or had choppy editing. The director loved to have intense close ups and pull back--repeatedly. Polly and her double kept the action moving and it looked like fists and feet were landing shots. Li's kung fu looked like he was fighting three feet away from his opponents much of the time. Li Lung Hua was only in 8 films and if this film was any indication of his acting and kung fu talent he probably did need to find another career. I have to say, I laughed a lot while watching this movie, though I'm sure the filmmakers didn't intend for the audience to do so.

Lung Fei made a guest appearance as an assassin and a personal favorite, Lo Lieh, played one of the suspects in the murder case. These two helped make the movie more interesting for me, especially Lo Lieh. If Polly seemed overly animated it might have been because she was trying to infuse energy into her scenes with her lethargic co-star. Unfortunately, in the dubbed version I had to watch the voice over actress gave her a whiney voice. I'm pretty sure one voice actor must have voiced all the men and he made some curious choices at times to try and differentiate the characters.

A few of the fight scenes were creative including a contest on large iron balls. There are a couple of twists in the story to make things more interesting. Overall, it wasn't enough. In a kung fu film if the fights are not inspired and the actors are lacking in charisma no amount of jade arhats can save it. Only for fans of Polly or hard core kung fu fans.

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