Eighty-some minutes of martial-arts inanity, an earlier, unearthed directorial effort by the fight choreographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yuen Wo Ping. No doubt we have the Ang Lee film to thank (if so inclined) for its exhumation, and perhaps also for its wide release with English subtitles in place of dubbing. The story tells of a Zorro-like masked vigilante in the mid-19th Century, a pretext to exhibit such mano-a-mano maneuvers as the Grappling Hands, the Shadow Kick (Chinese trash-talk: "I invented the Shadow Kick." Snappy comeback: "I'm going to kick you into the shadows"), the Buddha's Palm, and the Flying Sleeves. The nonlethal action is at once frenetic and futile, a bit like watching moths flinging themselves against a porch light. The final battle on wooden poles over a pool of flame produces a couple of fatalities only because -- what's to keep the combatants from flying away as before? -- the movie has to end sometime. Donnie Yen, Tsang Sze Man, Jean Wang. (1993) — Duncan Shepherd
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