Using the old, Bandits versus Heroes storyline, The 72 Desperate Rebels is a pretty decent, late seventies kung-fu flick from Taiwan that features a 7 foot tall monk with gold teeth as one of the villains, some nice costumes and sets, and plenty of good kung fu action!
King Hu regular, Pai Ying (Royal Warriors, A Touch Of Zen) is the big chief who has his 72 fighters protecting him at all times. As narrated at the beginning, each of the fighters is ranked by a different coloured hood in regards to how many people they have killed. It's corny, but it looks good. The Emperor's spy, a vengeful daughter and a mercenary team up in a bid to stop the army of bandits, no matter what it takes...
The fight choreography is done by Ling Kao (Ge) who, although having done a pretty good job in what was seemingly his first film, only did one or two afterwards. The fights aren't anything spectacular, but do keep moving and have plenty of nice acrobatics and swordplay to keep things interesting. Wang Yu regular Lung Fei co-stars as the blind swordsman, in a good guy role for a change.
Although it does have some imaginative moments, 72 Desperate Rebels never really gives us anything to hit the rewind button (so-to-speak) which is quite a shame really. The ending, although anti-climatic as a final battle in a wu xia movie, definitely says, 'it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...'
Overall: Somewhat imaginative, but nothing amazing with plenty of fight action!
King Hu regular, Pai Ying (Royal Warriors, A Touch Of Zen) is the big chief who has his 72 fighters protecting him at all times. As narrated at the beginning, each of the fighters is ranked by a different coloured hood in regards to how many people they have killed. It's corny, but it looks good. The Emperor's spy, a vengeful daughter and a mercenary team up in a bid to stop the army of bandits, no matter what it takes...
The fight choreography is done by Ling Kao (Ge) who, although having done a pretty good job in what was seemingly his first film, only did one or two afterwards. The fights aren't anything spectacular, but do keep moving and have plenty of nice acrobatics and swordplay to keep things interesting. Wang Yu regular Lung Fei co-stars as the blind swordsman, in a good guy role for a change.
Although it does have some imaginative moments, 72 Desperate Rebels never really gives us anything to hit the rewind button (so-to-speak) which is quite a shame really. The ending, although anti-climatic as a final battle in a wu xia movie, definitely says, 'it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...'
Overall: Somewhat imaginative, but nothing amazing with plenty of fight action!