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The Butterfly
Tornado Alley
This review may contain spoilers
The drunk, the cat, and the hammer
Near the end of Chia Ling's movie career, she starred in No One Can Touch Her. For a 1970's kung fu flick, she gave a nuanced performance as a grieving and vengeful daughter suffering from blindness after a brutal attack. Never giving up, she began practicing drunken kung fu and even kitty kung fu.
Chin Lin's father was murdered in front of her by a curious menagerie of bandits. She was blinded and became known as Brother Blind. Drinking copious amounts of mostly stolen alcohol, she and her only friend, a young boy with a sling shot, roam around as she continues to practice her kung fu. Along the way she is reunited with the man who had wanted to marry her and still does and becomes friends with a woman named Wong Mei Gwan (Sun Chia Lin). Also in town is a buffoon of a police inspector and a large man who does manual labor known as Brother Mallett. The Inspector takes an interest in Brother Mallett and soon the big guy is unknowingly practicing the Hammer Hand. The 14 bandits and 2 giants break up a wedding and the fighting and betrayals go to a new level.
The fights were plentiful in this movie, especially the last third of the film. These were fairly typical 70's strike, block, and lock fights. The final fights were more creative using a variety of weapons, even an opium pipe and a cat. Chia Ling did a good job with the drunken fist style and cat style (house, not tiger), so drunken cat style? She appeared to be the most athletic of the lot with Chin Kang, also one of the choreographers, right along with her. Her fight using two swords against a nameless bandit was the most fluid of all the fights. Chin Kang tended to play a lot of baddies so it was pleasing to see him in a more heroic role. With 13 or 14 bandits and 2 giants, there were a lot of opportunities for fights and not a lot of opportunity for character development. Despite her limited screen time due to the large cast, Chia Ling gave a rather complex performance for a 1970's kung fu movie. Director/Writer Ting Shan Hsi also wrote the script for one of my favorite old female led kung fu movies, Come Drink with Me and you can see his writing style shining through here.
Even with the solemn theme, there was plenty of levity, often focusing on Inspector Buffoon and Brother Mallett. Turns out the goofy inspector wasn't wrong about being smart and a kung fu genius. There's a nice little twist at the end even though most people will see it coming. NOCTH wasn't great cinema but it kept my attention and gave me a few laughs and fun fights to watch, I don't ask for much else from martial arts films from this era. I would only recommend for old kung fu movie buffs and Chia Ling fans. As always, I rate these niche, low budget movies on a curve.
3/5/23
Chin Lin's father was murdered in front of her by a curious menagerie of bandits. She was blinded and became known as Brother Blind. Drinking copious amounts of mostly stolen alcohol, she and her only friend, a young boy with a sling shot, roam around as she continues to practice her kung fu. Along the way she is reunited with the man who had wanted to marry her and still does and becomes friends with a woman named Wong Mei Gwan (Sun Chia Lin). Also in town is a buffoon of a police inspector and a large man who does manual labor known as Brother Mallett. The Inspector takes an interest in Brother Mallett and soon the big guy is unknowingly practicing the Hammer Hand. The 14 bandits and 2 giants break up a wedding and the fighting and betrayals go to a new level.
The fights were plentiful in this movie, especially the last third of the film. These were fairly typical 70's strike, block, and lock fights. The final fights were more creative using a variety of weapons, even an opium pipe and a cat. Chia Ling did a good job with the drunken fist style and cat style (house, not tiger), so drunken cat style? She appeared to be the most athletic of the lot with Chin Kang, also one of the choreographers, right along with her. Her fight using two swords against a nameless bandit was the most fluid of all the fights. Chin Kang tended to play a lot of baddies so it was pleasing to see him in a more heroic role. With 13 or 14 bandits and 2 giants, there were a lot of opportunities for fights and not a lot of opportunity for character development. Despite her limited screen time due to the large cast, Chia Ling gave a rather complex performance for a 1970's kung fu movie. Director/Writer Ting Shan Hsi also wrote the script for one of my favorite old female led kung fu movies, Come Drink with Me and you can see his writing style shining through here.
Even with the solemn theme, there was plenty of levity, often focusing on Inspector Buffoon and Brother Mallett. Turns out the goofy inspector wasn't wrong about being smart and a kung fu genius. There's a nice little twist at the end even though most people will see it coming. NOCTH wasn't great cinema but it kept my attention and gave me a few laughs and fun fights to watch, I don't ask for much else from martial arts films from this era. I would only recommend for old kung fu movie buffs and Chia Ling fans. As always, I rate these niche, low budget movies on a curve.
3/5/23
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