The Brave Archer

The start of Chang's infamous Brave Archer tetralogy. It's a rather messy film, that still feels a little too short at two hours long, but it's nice to see an ambitious film like this come out of the Shaw Bros studio. It's not one of Chang's very best, but it sure is one of his more intriguing films.

A young orphan finds shelter with five martial arts masters. They try to teach him their skills, but the boy just isn't very good at martial arts. Unsure of what to do with him, they send him out into the world to gather experience. On his quest he bumps into a peculiar beggar, who turns out to be a skilled, young girl.

The plot is all over the place and the lengthy introduction is a bit much. But there's lots of action, the performances are spirited and sets do look better than usual. The film feels like all Shaw Bros films wrapped up into one. The ending is a little unfulfilling, then again that's why there are three more sequels. Good fun.