poe426
I must agree with the reviewer who said that this one's ABOVE criticism: you either sit through it or you don't. I did, and I found myself feeling the kind of affection for it that one feels for that Special Child who tries really, really hard but who just doesn't have what it takes to make it to The Special Olympics. When one "gets the finger" in this movie, it means you've been zapped with a finger that fires laser beams; when you have your legs thus removed (by the man who's cheating on his wife with YOUR wife), you end up living in a cave with metal chicken legs and breathing fire (and living with a fanged roommate with lobster claws for hands); when you run into The Red Python and drink his blood (shades of THE BRAVE ARCHER), you acquire super and magical powers and "The Red Dragon Soul"; when you decide you want to marry the comely Miss Mu, it turns out she's your sister; when you find yourself thrown into a bottomless pit, you find yourself face to face with- that's right- a Kong Fu gorilla! It's at this point that THE BATTLE WIZARD proves its worth, that it finally lives up to its promise. If you don't mind some cheese with your corn, if guys in bulky gorilla suits and rubber snakes are your cup of tea, THE BATTLE WIZARD's right up your alley.
phillip-58
This film has it all. Good acting, strong leading ladies and a general weirdness that works well if you just go with the flow. Based on Chin Yung's novel THE DEMI-GODS AND SEMI-DEVILS it features Danny Lee in the lead. He is a good actor and has to display here superhuman strength rather than fighting skills which are left to the two main leading ladies, Lam Jan-kei and her snakes and the masked mystery girl Tim Lei, who wields one of the strangest weapons in any film. The main villain is Yellow Robe Man who is understandably angry after his legs were cut off with a Yi Yang Finger technique (imagine Star Wars, made in the same year) and replaced with extendable well chicken legs best describe them! His main henchman is a man-beast (played well by Kong Do) with a metallic skull and shooting claw hands who likes pretty girls. Throw in lots of snakes, a red Python with blood that makes you superhuman, a very, very fake Gorilla and lots of 'special effects' and you have a mixture that is both exciting and quite frankly funny all at the same time. You could never imagine Hollywood making a film like this. And I haven't even touched the incest theme, great photography (though less good editing) and sets. Only pity is I wish the Celestial release (though a great print) had had more extras explaining the background and making of this film.
Chung Mo
Definitely along the lines of "Anything Goes" HK cinema, Battle Wizard starts crazy and remains that way to the very end. Convoluted story, strange characters, garish special effects and a snappy pace keep this film entertaining, that is if you go for this sort of thing. This is the sort of movie that is immune to most commentary just by the obvious disregard the film makers have for normal movie making. Either you watch this sort of film or you don't. The only comment I can make is that whoever edited this film should have been sent back to the butcher shop to resume slicing tripe. It's some of the worst editing I ever have seen in a Shaw production. Fun for an afternoon with friends.
David Austin
This is one of the crazy ones, along the lines of Buddha's Palm or Holy Flame of the Martial World, though not as fun or inventive. Danny Lee plays a scholar who is uninterested in kung fu, who pursues the "Red Python" which can grant great power. His task is complicated by his philandering father, the cute Lin Chen-chi and her magical snakes, and angry Tanny Tien-ni and her dagger-shooting leg bone.The movie is filled wacky costumes, fake monsters, goofy visual effects, and kung fu "laser" beams. As short as it is, it still gets a bit bogged down in dialogue and exposition. Still, there's enough craziness along the way to hold you until the mind-blowing ending , which features Danny Lee fighting a kung fu gorilla, and a man on retractable metal chicken legs who fires flames out of his mouth. Worth watching, at least for the ending.
AD
