Cheap Fatal Needles Vs. Fatal Fists (Video) (Tso Nam Lee) Price

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Customer Reviews of Fatal Needles Vs. Fatal Fists

Above-average kung fu film with good performance by Wong Tao
FATAL NEEDLES VS. FATAL FISTS (1980) is a worthy effort that marks the fourth collaboration between star Wong Tao and Taiwan-based director Lee Tso Nam, who'd previously teamed for THE HOT, THE COOL AND THE VICIOUS, EAGLE'S CLAW and CHALLENGE OF DEATH. It has fewer fight scenes than usual, but compensates with a stronger storyline and a much more intense performance from Wong Tao.

The plotline may seem familiar to western fans since it takes the standard formula of the gunfighter hanging up his guns until he's inevitably provoked back into action and transposes it to the kung fu genre. Here Wong plays a constable who'd caused the death of his partner in a battle with the notorious Four Devils and, after wandering the countryside drunkenly, takes up a new identity and a new job in a faraway town. He is so committed to nonviolence that he allows himself to be beaten and stabbed and derided as a coward when he refuses to stand up to a group of bandits taking over the town to ensure the security of their opium route. Only one new friend sticks by him through thick and thin and when that friend is brutally beaten, only then does our hero intervene.

The chief villain is played by Chang Yi, also the villain in EAGLE'S CLAW and CHALLENGE OF DEATH, among many other kung fu films of the era. Chang uses the needles of the title in a clever acupuncture-style kung fu maneuver that hero Wong finds tough to beat. Chang's chief henchman is another great kung fu opponent, Tommy Lee (aka Kam Ming), who also directed the fights for this film. Overall, this may not be as consistently imaginative and exciting as the star-director team's earlier collaborations, but it still offers enough good scenes to please even the most jaded kung fu buffs.