Moonlight Sword and Jade Lion (1977)

"Sorry, you're just making me more confused" Buddy, you're not the only one

Angela Mao starred in Moonlight Sword and the Jade Lion. This script was one of the biggest messes I’ve seen in a while. I tried to attribute the problems to translation issues as the only available version I could find was dubbed in English, but even at that there were serious issues with it. Angela was the only redeeming part of this kung fu flick.

Chu Sau Yin leaves to find her master’s brother. Why? Good question. She spends a month running into dead ends, dead people, or simply getting the run around. Don Wong inexplicably picks fights with her when masked men aren’t attacking him. Then he makes like Houdini and disappears for most of the movie. Anyone who is about to give Chu a clue is murdered by a dagger throwing assassin. She ends up fighting everywhere she goes, sometime even with the “good” guys. Why is it so important for her to find Liu Chan? You’ll have to wait 75 minutes into a 90-minute movie to discover that underwhelming tidbit.

This story was just about as thin as a story can get. Chu searched for her master’s brother for whatever reason her master wanted and she also wanted to know what happened to her parents. Apparently, only Liu Chan knew and he never told anyone, not even his brother for over 20+ years. Meanwhile an assortment of baddies were stealing and trafficking in what appeared to be well-to-do women. Doris Lung trained dancing girls and assassins all while romancing the Big Bad. Don Wong, well, I have no idea what his role was in this movie. He didn’t even warrant a name. He attacked Angela Mao’s character for seemingly no reason other than to show off his food fighting skills. Then there were times the two acted like buddies and fought together against whoever might be attacking them. Wong disappeared for over 40 minutes in the middle of the movie. Maybe he had another acting gig he had to work on simultaneously. People appeared and disappeared, said they were going somewhere-but never showed, and motivations were never given for random actions. Chung Ren wrote the script, the only one I could find he was credited with. Even in the bare bones stories of kung fu films, this movie would win a prize for one of the top three most poorly written and poorly edited films I’ve seen.

But how were the fights? Angela made the most of her fights using a spear. She moved quickly and was quite agile. Her stuntman did a great job filling in with the more complicated gymnastics moves. Whenever her character wore the pink pantsuit, it meant she was about to open a can of whoopass. The fights employed reverse filming, trampolines, complicated weaponry, wire-work, and often stilted action. One fight with lethal dancers and their explosive flowers was at least unique. The film might have been called Moonlight Sword because most of Don Wong’s fights were filmed in the dark which made the action difficult to see. There were also fights between characters who were largely inconsequential to the story. Since there wasn’t much of a script, they had to fill the time somehow.

Angela Mao was the absolute best thing about Moonlight Sword and the Jade Lion. I admit to giving the film a slight ratings bump merely because she is one of my favorite martial arts actresses. The film was a mess right up to the very end when certain characters made perplexing decisions, but by that time all I could think was, “why not?” Only for dedicated fans of Angela.

6 March 2025

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