Duke Pingxi’s daughter is kidnapped by the notorious bandit Jin Tianlong and righteous swordsman Yue Zhenbei hand picks three heroes, later joined by a fan-wielding stranger, with skills uniquely suited to assaulting the bandit’s lair on Mt. Jinlong.

Proving that not all of the best Chinese swordplay films of the late 1960s were coming from writer-director Chang Cheh is Killers Five, an adventure classic with just the right mix of daring swordplay, romance and comedy from filmmaker Ching Gong (Cheng Kang), father of modern action directing master Ching Siu-sung (House of Flying Daggers).

Tang Ching, ably playing a character named Yue Zhenbei who is obviously younger than he is, is called upon by the region’s leading official Duke Pingxi (Yeung Chi-hing) in order to rescue his kidnapped daughter from the clutches of a near-invincible bandit leader named Jin Tianlong (Tong Dik). Yue quickly formulates a plan to break into Jin’s mountaintop hideout by recruiting three heroes. His first choice is Archer Ma to provide ranged cover as they scale the mountain, but he’s out of town. This leaves his equally skilled sister Ma Jin-ling (Li Ching), who is hell bent on going despite Yue’s reluctance to get a pretty lady involved in what will undoubtedly be nasty business. Next is “Water Rat” Li Xiaoqi (Guk Fung), a chronic gambler with a knack for swimming that’s needed to cross a treacherous river. For scaling the high cliffs surrounding Jin’s lair, “Climbing tiger” Niu (Cheng Miu), a simpleton drunkard with an axe tied to a rope, is recruited. Along the way, these four heroes encounter a fifth, the iron fan-wielding “King of Burglary” Liang Shengfei (Wong Kwong-yue), whose loyalties remain uncertain until they finally reach their destination. As the mission progresses, not all is as it seems and the heroes find themselves forced to confront an unexpected enemy.

This short movie is a lot of fun thanks to a fast-paced story that still allows the lead characters’ quirks to come out. Between Ma and Yue there is the typically subtle romantic current that is enlivened by Li Ching’s feisty persona. Writers Sung Hoi-leng and Ching Gong develop amusing repartee between Li and Niu that is very reminiscent of the relationship between the Monkey King and Pig from Journey to the West. Guk Fung, always one of of my favorite character actors at Shaw Brothers really gets to shine as a boatman who leaves his wife and child behind, but not his gambling habit or his interest in repeatedly tricking his simple-minded friend Niu. Some unexpected humor is saved for the main assault, particularly when Li is distracted by some bandits’ gambling or when Li Ching tickles a row of bandits in mid-fight to gain a bloody advantage.

There really isn’t a huge amount of swordplay in the film, at least not until the final twenty minutes or so. Then it becomes your standard Shaw Brothers feast of death with a couple heroes cutting their way through dozens of hapless grunts, before reaching the lead villains. The action here is good though. It gets desperate towards the end and features a number of slick moves, such as when Li Ching rolls over the ground to pick up a dagger with her teeth and in the same motion flings it into a bandit. I wouldn’t consider Li Ching or Tang Ching as great screen fighters, but they perform well enough under Ching Gong’s capable direction.

Once again, it’s also nice to see a healthy selection of picturesque outdoor locales used in the film. This is something that Shaw Brothers all but abandoned within ten years. The transition between location shooting and indoor sets is rough, as usual, but not in a way that heavily degrades from the viewing experience. Like most of SB’s movies, the soundtrack is unoriginal, but suitably mixed.

The title of Killers Five might be a little too harsh for the movie. While it gets pretty violent towards the end, it’s mostly a rousing swordplay adventurer with memorable characters and a fast-moving plot with a neat twist at the end. It should definitely be stated that although this movie works with tried and true storytelling conventions, it still feels a bit different from standard wuxia movies. I would credit Ching Gong and Sung with balancing out the recycled martial heroics with more universal and accessible elements that you could just as easily find in Hollywood classics like The Guns of Navarone.

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