100
364
13
1
4
2
4
6
1
7
1
2
2
4
9
Melodramatic tale of love, honor, and betrayal
Twelve Deadly Coins was a melodramatic tale of honor, duty, betrayal, and love at first sight. A fairly typical 1960s wuxia with the exception of more buckets of rain-soaked melodrama than blood.
Chief Yu runs a successful escort service and is the famous Twelve Deadly Coins Master. His son, Yu Hua, is an overly entitled idiot who is often helped behind the scenes by poor born Chiao Mao. When Chief Yu gives Hua the job of escorting 200,000 taels of silver for the military, Chiao begs the Chief to let him help. Hua takes it as an insult and orders him not to show his face. Chiao follows to make sure the drive goes well, but the notorious one-eyed bandit Yuan Cheng Lieh and his band of thieves’ attack, leaving few alive and absconding with the loot. Chiao follows the bad guys to try and recover the silver, unaware that Hua is spreading the news that Chiao is a spy and caused the theft that ruined the family. No good deed goes unpunished…
This was one of Lo Lieh’s early films when he played the hero before being relegated to villain roles. Chiao Mao was overly earnest and duty bound, completely accepting of his low status. He and the adopted daughter of the Iron Thorns fell hopelessly in love during a heated moment in battle. Lo always gave a strong performance even when it bordered on treacle. Ching Li as Yuan Rung was the gorgeous swordswoman who fell in love with Chiao at a glance. The two young people suffered for their love and their clans’ hatred of each other.
Fang Mien and Tien Feng played the two warring masters with expert aplomb. Poor Fang had the worst and yet funniest prosthetic eye I’ve ever seen. A young Wu Ma played Red Hair Bear wearing a horrendous crimson wig. The martial arts directors got in on the fun as well. Tang Chia played one of the bandits and Lau Kar Leung was a quickly killed off Coin escort. The fight choreography was solid and typical of the late 60s. There was copious use of low-tech wires and trampolines. Aside from the airborne coins and iron thorns, most of the fighting involved swords and other pointy weapons.
Twelve Deadly Coins was entertaining despite the ham-fisted melodrama and deadly misunderstandings. Pretty sure it had one of the longest death speeches I’ve ever heard. Are we sure he’s dying? The sets and scenery helped sell the story though the minute I saw the long set of stairs I wondered who would be tumbling down them. The noble honor idiocy was laid on as thick as a mason’s mortar which lowered my score. Though I almost bumped it back up when one character that was annoyingly wearisome received his due. I was actually pleased about the hero who literally walked off into the sunset. Only for fans of old martial arts films and as always, I rate them on a curve.
2 March 2026
Trigger warnings: One person was un-handed. The body count was high with people dying from a wide variety of bloody wounds though no Chang Cheh blood spewing wounds. Attempted sexual assault.
Chief Yu runs a successful escort service and is the famous Twelve Deadly Coins Master. His son, Yu Hua, is an overly entitled idiot who is often helped behind the scenes by poor born Chiao Mao. When Chief Yu gives Hua the job of escorting 200,000 taels of silver for the military, Chiao begs the Chief to let him help. Hua takes it as an insult and orders him not to show his face. Chiao follows to make sure the drive goes well, but the notorious one-eyed bandit Yuan Cheng Lieh and his band of thieves’ attack, leaving few alive and absconding with the loot. Chiao follows the bad guys to try and recover the silver, unaware that Hua is spreading the news that Chiao is a spy and caused the theft that ruined the family. No good deed goes unpunished…
This was one of Lo Lieh’s early films when he played the hero before being relegated to villain roles. Chiao Mao was overly earnest and duty bound, completely accepting of his low status. He and the adopted daughter of the Iron Thorns fell hopelessly in love during a heated moment in battle. Lo always gave a strong performance even when it bordered on treacle. Ching Li as Yuan Rung was the gorgeous swordswoman who fell in love with Chiao at a glance. The two young people suffered for their love and their clans’ hatred of each other.
Fang Mien and Tien Feng played the two warring masters with expert aplomb. Poor Fang had the worst and yet funniest prosthetic eye I’ve ever seen. A young Wu Ma played Red Hair Bear wearing a horrendous crimson wig. The martial arts directors got in on the fun as well. Tang Chia played one of the bandits and Lau Kar Leung was a quickly killed off Coin escort. The fight choreography was solid and typical of the late 60s. There was copious use of low-tech wires and trampolines. Aside from the airborne coins and iron thorns, most of the fighting involved swords and other pointy weapons.
Twelve Deadly Coins was entertaining despite the ham-fisted melodrama and deadly misunderstandings. Pretty sure it had one of the longest death speeches I’ve ever heard. Are we sure he’s dying? The sets and scenery helped sell the story though the minute I saw the long set of stairs I wondered who would be tumbling down them. The noble honor idiocy was laid on as thick as a mason’s mortar which lowered my score. Though I almost bumped it back up when one character that was annoyingly wearisome received his due. I was actually pleased about the hero who literally walked off into the sunset. Only for fans of old martial arts films and as always, I rate them on a curve.
2 March 2026
Trigger warnings: One person was un-handed. The body count was high with people dying from a wide variety of bloody wounds though no Chang Cheh blood spewing wounds. Attempted sexual assault.
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