The Kid with the Golden Arm (1979)

The Five Venoms team up again to battle each other in a twisty-turny fight over a gold shipment being escorted to famine starved villagers. When you see bare male chests and fighters in silver lamé you know you are watching a Chang Cheh extravaganza.

The Venoms are likeable enough. Sun Chien plays the inexperienced head of the escort crew. Phillip Kwok is the drunken sheriff who stumbles in and out of the fights helping the escorts. The bad guys were quite the colorful group as they dressed to match their names-Silver Spear, Iron Armor, Copper Head, and Golden Arms. Lo Meng, as the Kid with the Golden Arms, is the head bad guy with stacked golden bracelets and boots and vest to match. They may have been lethal but they were a stylish bunch.

It's a Chang Cheh movie which means there are double-crosses, big body counts, blood, and plenty of fighting. There were far fewer dismemberments and spurting arteries this time thankfully.

I had hoped I would enjoy The Kid with the Golden Arm more than I did, but for me it always comes down to the fights. I don't expect much out of the story or the acting. The fights in TKWTGA were the slow, staged, dancy, posing fights I don’t enjoy much. Sometimes Chang Cheh makes the fights so outlandish that they are entertaining in their own way in his movies. Not here. I found myself looking at my watch. Never a good sign. The movements were slow, over and under shooting their marks regularly as if they thought their opponent was taller than he was. The timing was often off in jumps and ducks. Philip Kwok and Chiang Sheng (Short Ax) are spectacularly acrobatic fighters though too often the back and front flips were pointless in the duels.

If you love The Five Venoms or Chang Cheh movies or slow stop action fighting, this is one to give a try, other-wise let the buyer beware.

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