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Perfect cast and a good story

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

6/1/1972 – with Yueh Hua, Wong Gam-Fung, Fan Mei-Sheng, Paul Chun Oui, Go Ming, and Yeung Chi-Hing Yueh Hua is a good guy, too good, naïve for his years, and easily taken advantage. That's the whole problem with the plot. Fan Mei-Shen is his brother in arms and his opposite. Though not a bad guy he distrusts everyone and considers mercy a weakness. There is a historical basis for both characters but they are loosely represented here. For me the lead character came across as more pathetic than sympathetic though. Father and son action directors, Bruce Leung and his dad, created the fight sequences here and I wish I was there for that. Yeuh Hua has my respect as he is an actor and not a martial artist because he has certainly been practicing. In fact, I think he could have done better personally. Some of the strikes were about a meter off target but overall good, still lacking in 16 plus move sequences by my count. Fan Mei-Sheng is an easy target to criticize but this role was made for him and he gloried in it. Basically a one trick pony as the dumb guy who solves all his problems with a fight, I totally enjoyed every moment he was on the screen in this movies, especially his fights. Overall just slightly above average because of not enough action and totally depressing story line.

When Gao decides he wants the wife of Instructor Lin (Hua Yueh), he enlists the aid of Lin's best friend, Lu Chien, and frames Lin. Lin submissively allows the "authorities" to haul him away in a cangue (a free-floating stock). He is tormented every step of the way to a nearby village by Dung and his assistant. At one point, Lin even saves them both, only to have them stick his feet in boiling water (whereupon he's forced to march on blistered feet). Chien and Dung plan to behead Lin at some point en route to prison, but their plans backfire when Lin's old pal, Brother Lu (weilding a spear with an axe head at one end and a crescent blade on the other), intervenes (which he does a couple of times throughout the film). Lin submits to jail time (his family "safely" hiding out in another village). In time, he becomes the trusty of the "fodder depot" at the prison (the food storage building), but his new "pal," Dung, betrays him yet again (setting him up for an execution for destroying all the food- a serious crime, indeed, in a country where starvation sometimes reaches epic proportions). Lin's family is found and murdered, but Brother Lu arrives in the nick of time to help Lin FINALLY fight back against the Gaos. It's hard to believe that a character- especially one in a story set in "the Martial Arts World"- would accept so much abuse from "authorities" so determined to do him wrong and that's the movie's greatest weakness: it's just not plausible; nor is it believable that Lin would be so dense that he wouldn't pick up on what's happening. Duty is one thing: just plain stupid is another. PURSUIT should've been titled KICK ME.

Cheng Gang (or Nang) is on of the Shaw directors who are mostly unknown outside of China. A maker of films mostly before the Bruce Lee craze introduced a market for HK action, Cheng Gang is one of the more refined directors at Shaw. With a good eye for image and editing, his films are very well produced and stand above some of his more well known compatriots in some ways.This film follows Instructor Lin who is home from training the imperial troops for several years. He is a kind and honorable person to a fault. He meets his wife and runs into his brother who has become a monk at the local temple. His superior Lord Gao, the son of the Imperial Commissioner, strangely decides to rape Lin's wife in the temple but Lin interrupts the crime. His brother, the monk, is enraged and tries to kill Gao but Lin stops him with the help of Lin's training brother and old friend Lu who works for Gao. Lin is loyal to the Commissioner and will not do anything to harm his son. Once back at the Commissioner's house, Gao and Lu hatch a plan to discredit and eventually kill Lin all with the Commissioner's approval. The plan is put into motion and Lin is unjustly arrested for trespassing on imperial property. Lin is tortured to confess but he refuses and is sent to the Royal Court in chains, beaten and tortured all the way by two of his students who have been paid off. Lin hopes that the Royal Court will hear his story of betrayal but it's not certain that he'll make it alive. Fortunately, the monk is not far behind and he is much more willing to kill corrupt officials.A very cynical film where almost all the officials are corrupt and willing to do anything with the promise of money. There's an interesting commentary on ethics here. The character of Lin and the Monk are the only noble people besides the helpless wife and her family. The film is very well made with good pacing. The acting sometimes goes into traditional Chinese stage style but is good. The film is shot in a combo of real locations and some very obvious sets. The martial arts are well done but frequently also revert to stage style. Mostly Cheng Gang keeps the film moving and entertaining so that the occasional plots holes don't matter much. The repeated tortures might be hard to watch.Very entertaining and good example of Shaw action from the early 1970's.