China’s emperor tours Taiwan incognito with his loyal, yet mischievous eunuch and a bodyguard named ‘Iron Neck’ Li. The trio gets into serious trouble when a romantic tryst with two young girls draws the attention of an army of tribal fighters.

If you like classic kung fu, but get a little tired of the repetitive plots, then here is a pleasant change. Iron Neck Li is a mostly enjoyable, but improbable and uneven alternative featuring a road movie plot that turns into a massive fight against superstitious tribesmen.

In the 18th century, Emperor Chien Lung of China is touring his land with his faithful servant in secret when they come across a renown hero named ‘Iron Neck’ Li Yung (Chi Kuan-chun). He is so named for having ‘stuck his neck out’ to aid many people with his outstanding kung fu skills. The Emperor recruits him to be his personal bodyguard and the three head off to Taiwan to tour the island. They have a number of adventures and aid various people including a father who is desperately looking for a token son-in-law to marry his recently departed daughter. Chien Lung’s surprisingly girl crazy Eunuch also leads them into a brothel where a series of supposedly humorous hijinks occur. But the whole scene is a failed exercise in situational comedy.

With half of the film completed and no villain yet in sight, our heroes finally settle down in one spot long enough to stir up trouble worthy of a good kung fu battle. Chien Lung and Li meet a pair of local girls working on a tea farm. But a local clown desires one of them and begins to cause all sorts of trouble with his lackeys in tow. The situation suddenly escalates into a full blown bloodbath when the clown accidentally falls to his death during a failed attempt to kidnap the girl of his fancy. Li is blamed for the incident and the dope’s uncle, a kung fu master played by Choi Wang steps in. As if this wasn’t bad enough, he’s talked into recruiting a tribe of lunatic fighters to slaughter the tea farm residents. Li puts up a desperate and noble fight to defend the life of the Emperor as hordes of bow and knife wielding natives surround our heroes.

The adventurous tales of Emperor Chien Lung outside of his palace have been told on numerous occasions in film. Most notably, Shaw Brothers ran a series of four films directed by Li Han-hsiang. Iron Neck Li could be considered a poor man’s version, as it shares none of the lavish spectacle of its predecessors. Instead, it promises a heavier dose of kung fu action. The only problem is that the filmmakers tried to have it both ways and it doesn’t work very well. Aside from an opening fight featuring Chi Kuan-chun, there is very little action in the first half, even the first two-thirds of the film. This could easily spell its doom if not for a surprisingly fierce finale that recalls the best of Chang Cheh’s heroic bloodshed films. Chi Kuan-chun fends off dozens of what looks like Chinese poorly dressed as Native Americans. Its one of those over-the-top last stands where Kuan-chun is perforated with a handful of arrows and spears, and yet he keeps on going. He even does the Chinese version of ‘dying with his boots on’ by remaining standing after his death, while propped up by spears.

The presence of these ‘native’ fighters is weird enough, but when they are attacked by the spirit of Li, the film has lost any shred of credibility it probably never had in the first place. The end is anti-climatic in that the tribesman are scared off by Li’s ghost and Chien Lung reveals his true identity which causes Choi Wang to kill his accomplice and them himself in shame.

Iron Neck Li is an oddball production for an old schooler, with a light-hearted first half and a very bloody ending. This mix is difficult to reconcile and could easily lead to disappointment. Yet, Kuan-chun is a competent kung fu star with well-rounded skills that gets to ‘go nutty’ on several occasions. Even though the acting isn’t great and the dubbing is sillier than usual, I still found myself getting into the characters a little more simply because of their shared exploits over the course of the film. You will certainly find better examples of everything that appears in this film elsewhere, but its still worth a gander just to see Kuan-chun’s death struggle.

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