This was a pleasant surprise. After nearly boring myself to death with the likes of Monkey Fist Floating Snake, Swordsman With An Umbrella, and Hero's Blood, my expectations for the generically-titled Lightning Kung Fu -- another 70's-era martial arts flick picked at random from Ant's vast collection -- were pretty low, but damned if this sucker didn't come through for me in the end. The editing and cinematography here are pretty lousy, and the dialogue isn't great, but the acting is decent and the overall story is strong. Unlike those other films, Lightning Kung Fu at least tries to be something more than a mere martial arts exhibition...even if, admittedly, it doesn't always succeed.





The story begins at the court of the corpulent Empress. Apparently, two million bars of gold were recently stolen from the royal vault, and she's keen on getting them back. One of her advisors recommends sending the redoubtable Leng Tian-Ying -- a local constable of great fighting ability -- after the thieves, and she agrees. Leng is given ten days to track them down.

Leng immediately goes about collecting allies to accompany him on the expedition. He asks his brother -- a similarly skilled swordsman -- to come with him, but the brother turns him down; he's sick of Leng always killing people outright, and doesn't want to see any more of it ("You stink of blood!" he complains). Leng shrugs and recruits a bunch of others in his stead: an older man who still prides himself on his fighting prowess, a man about to be married, and a small handful of anonymous soliders. His posse complete, Leng then proceeds to ride across China looking for the thieves. Unfortunately, the thieves are on to them, and even worse, most of them are skilled fighters. One by one, they come after Leng and his group. Their numbers dwindle, but our hero eventually manages to find the leader of the thieves -- who, as it turns out, has a shocking revelation in store for him (I won't give it away, but suffice it to say it's a pretty clever twist).

In stark contrast to most low-budget, badly-dubbed, 70's-era martial arts films (technically, the movie was released in 1981, but you know what I mean), Lightning Kung Fu actually has a bit of emotional depth (not a lot, but hey, it's better than nothing). Constantly having to deal with violent criminals all the time in the course of his job has turned Leng into a cold-hearted guy who kills first and asks questions later. He seems to want to change, but his desire for revenge against the thieves who have brutally slain his comrades keeps getting in the way of his attempts to reform. Part of the reason why the final shocking revelation at the end of the film works so well is because it ties into this aspect of Leng's character (I do wish the film had spent a little more time on this particular angle, but considering that most martial arts films of this era rarely bother to give their characters any pathos or emotional depth at all, I think I can forgive it). The film's grim climax plays on this as well.





The fight scenes are generally pretty good, although many of the early ones are very, very poorly lit. It's practically impossible to see what's going on in several of them; vague shapes in the darkness are all that can be made out (the first adequately-lit fight scene doesn't happen until about a half-hour in, and it's a pretty anemic fight at that). Later battles are much more impressive; Leng's fight against the leader of the thieves (in the middle of a downpour) is pretty good, as is Leng's final desperate assault at the end, which features him singlehandedly taking on about a hundred soldiers. Also interesting are the variety of weapons used in the film: characters fight with giant axes, poison darts, spears, and swords aplenty. Leng himself fights with an unusual oversized broadsword. That said, there's nothing too creative here; if super-energetic fights are all you're after, this one may not pique your interest. (I should note that the title, Lightning Kung Fu, is a deceptive one, since there really aren't any straight-up, bare-knuckle kung fu fights in here at all. It's mostly about the swordplay).

The dubbing isn't great (the guy who plays Leng gets the most out of his role), but it's not too distractingly bad or incoherent. There aren't any out-and-out ridiculous or incomprehensible lines at all, unless you count Leng's mildly amusing "don't give me crap!" which he utters to his brother early in the film.

The movie does have some problems, though, and many of them are serious. The cinematography is terrible at times, especially during non-action scenes. The dub acting is usually okay, but the dialogue itself is sometimes confusing, and it only makes matters worse that the film introduces some characters far too cursorily (personally, I thought the story managed to rise above these deficits, but there are probably others out there who would disagree). Further, the film regularly and annoyingly fails to live up to its potential: the majority of the secondary characters, for instance (and particularly the group Leng gathers to track down the thieves), aren't really as interesting as they should have been. The film could have made itself much more memorable, I think, by giving these characters a bit more personality.

Lightning Kung Fu isn't a great movie by any means, but it's not nearly as awful as the last few martial arts films I've reviewed here. I'll give it a C+.

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