Rating: ***
Director: Ronnie Yu
Cast: Yu Rong Guang, Cynthia Khan,
cameo by Dale Cook
A period kung fu piece that has the look and feel of a 70's chop-socky flick with a musical score lifted straight from a 1950's Ray Harryhausen film. Kinda lame, but highlighted by some well executed displays of Chinese and Japanese fighting styles. Yu Rong Guang fights well as a Japanese pirate who wants to learn "Dog Style Fist" from Cynthia Khan. It's good to see Ms. Khan in period dress (and she looks great) and for the most part she performs very well. A couple of fight shots seem sluggish, but her swordplay is fantastic. Production-wise, not big budget, but the scenery and vistas are great. Unfortunately several fight scenes were shot under really low lighting so you can't see what's going on at all (however, the DVD is much better in this regard). And finally, American Dale "Apollo" Cook shows up to fight Yu Rong Guang - maybe as part of an exchange program with Ms. Khan to do "Fist Of Steel" (1991)?