Dirty Ho (1979)

Lau Kar Leung is one of my favorite martial arts directors and he did not disappoint with this movie. The story started out slow gradually building as the movie went along. LKL's fight choreography is always intricate, complex, and in this case, with very little wire work. The kung fu stars knew what to do with his direction and made the fight scenes shine.

Gordon Liu plays the 11th prince, and soon to be named Crown Prince, who has to hide his martial arts skills and his identity as he tries to find out which brother is trying to have him killed. He takes on a hot-headed thief named Ho, played by Wong Yu, through some subterfuge and trains him in kung fu and how to be a better man. The growth of their relationship from adversaries to friends is at the heart of the story. The movie starts out as a light comedy and steadily grows darker.

In Liu's initial fights he disguises his skills making it seem that what happens are accidents or like a puppet master fights through someone else. In two other "polite" encounters with killers, a wine tasting and antiques buying expedition, he fights calmly and intricately with the polite killers without damaging the products. Ultimately, there is a no holds barred showdown with Lo Lieh, playing the corrupted general along with his minions.

For fans of Shaw Brothers productions there are many familiar faces filling out the cast. The biggest star for me was the man behind the camera, Lau Kar Leung. His fight choreography, especially in the days before CGI, is amazing. Fortunately, for him, he had some actors well versed in kung fu to bring those scenes to life.

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