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Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

SHAOLIN HAND LOCK has one of the worst plots I've ever seen in a Shaw Brothers movie, and it's only thanks to the efforts of a sterling cast that it stops from becoming complete nonsense and is in actuality a watchable little movie. It's unlike any other Shaw movie I've watched, a contemporary story set in Bangkok for the most part, with the usual travelogue footage added to the mix.The story is a small-scale family drama involving two rival families with huge lashings of martial arts. The great opening has veteran star Dick Wei being visited by secret assassin Chan Shen, who proceeds to murder him and daughter Kara Hui. David Chiang arrives home, finds out what happened, and heads off to Thailand to get revenge on the man responsible, none other than screen veteran Lo Lieh.There's enough plot here to fill a half hour short, but the film is ludicrously padded for another hour by having Chiang go undercover as Lieh's own bodyguard. Seeing Lieh put all of his trust in Chiang and not working out that he's also the guy who makes repeated attempts on his life requires a huge suspension of disbelief, let me tell you. Still, the fight scenes are fine and the familiar faces are all solidly entertaining. Real-life Triad Chan Wai-Man is also present in the cast and appears in the thrilling three-participant warehouse fight climax.

This film by director Ho Meng Hua has a lot going for it. David Chiang in great form, backed up by Michael Chan, Lo Lieh and even Kara Hui (very briefly as a doomed pupil). The background is a beautiful Thailand for a change and several of the fights, particularly at the end are imaginative and pretty brutal, especially in the old warehouse where David and Michael have to defeat every trick Lo Lieh can throw at them (some obvious wire work though). But the let down is the ludicrous plot with more coincidences than a Dicken's novel and some real over acting, especially by Karen Yip playing the blind mother. It was Shum Lee Mei's only film and to be honest you can see why! It seems to be set in the 60's (though made in 1978) but its hard to tell as anomalies abound. Watcheable if you skip to the end scenes. There is a brief full nude scene near the beginning - for no good plot reason that's for sure - though the actual prostitute appears again later to reveal David Chiang's double nature.