Popular independent kung fu movie stars Angela Mao Ying and Don Wong Tao take a turn at the swordplay genre in MOONLIGHT SWORD AND JADE LION. This modest Taiwanese movie is threadbare, both in plot and production. The sporadic screen fighting is an odd mixture of Chinese boxing and fantasy weapons combat. Dismally slow pacing and routine choreography hinder an otherwise unique opportunity to see two talented screen fighters dabble with some different moves.

It’s really hard to get into the story and not because it’s complicated or convoluted. On the contrary, it couldn’t be simpler and that’s the problem. The fiery-eyed Angela Mao is a boxing swordswoman on a quest to find her missing master, who is locked away by some dastardly villains. When she comes snooping around, they try to stop her. Don Wong is the typical enigmatic warrior who shadows our heroine, remaining somewhere between being a rival and ally. There are some other elements such as Man Kong-lung playing a poisoned swordsman forced to fight for the bad guys to gain the antidote and the villain’s desire to get his hands on Mao’s “Jade Lion” figurine so he can somehow rule the martial world with it, but it’s all just lame filler.

Fu fans may get excited by the prospects of seeing Mao and Wong tangle onscreen. Both possess equal parts screen fighting skill and charisma. They do go head-to-head, but it’s a letdown. The action choreography favors fantasy fighting, with emphasis on a lot of trick editing, stunt-doubled acrobatics and cheap Ed Wood-style wire-work with hurling props. There’s nothing wrong with having these stars, who more commonly appeared in traditional kung fu movies, do a wuxia pian. However, the action directors fail to adapt their abilities to it.

Another problem with the choreography is a complete lack of creativity. Most of these independent movies copy one another, but the set ups and executions in this one are painfully redundant for a 1979 movie. Mao and Wong square off in the typical teahouse encounter that begins with tossing bowls and teacups to size up ability. A finishing move shown towards the end looks exactly like a routine in MILITANT EAGLE (a superior wuxia pian minus big name stars), where a fighter leaps back and forth over the head of his opponent repeatedly before delivering a killing blow. Just as derivative, but more enjoyable is a scene where Mao battles Doris Lung and her fighting formation army. Like the ubiquitous training sequence, formation fighting is a genre staple and often a highlight of films. Here we have a group of “female” fighters (mostly made up of male stunt actors with wigs) wielding identical ball and chain weapons. The “ball” looks like a plastic flower bulb or shower head. Initially, they look quite harmless until spikes and sparks begin to shoot out from them.

Later, Lung makes more trouble for Mao when she unleashes a series of booby traps on the heroine as Mao attempts to infiltrate the baddies’ lair. Typical nonsense like flying discs of death and shooting acid is thrown at Mao, until she’s captured and forced to wait for someone to come along and save her.

Mao’s weapon of choice throughout the film is a short spear with a handle that collapses for use in both close and mid-range fighting. It has to be one of the flimsiest-looking weapons I’ve seen on film. It always appears bowed, as if made of cheap plastic or rubber. I expect that from a long bamboo or wooden spear, but not a short weapon painted silver to look like it’s made of metal.

The bigger problem with MOONLIGHT SWORD is the direction. The camera work is solid, but Karl Liao Chiang-lin doesn’t know how to handle his stars or make a fun movie. His previous film THE STORY IN TEMPLE RED LILY was another wuxia clunker that misused talented stars Dorian Tan, Chia Ling and Lung Fei. If ever there was an example of shooting a martial arts movie from the hip, this is it. It misses time and again with sluggish and pointless transitional scenes that fill up places that should contain action or least some comedy, anything to maintain a modicum of interest.

So while Sammo Hung, Yuen Wo-ping and Lau Kar-leung were creating kung fu movies that were actually creative and pushing genre boundaries with their action and comedy, Karl Liao was stuck in a ten-year-old rut and trying to put a square peg into a round hole with his kung fu stars miscast in a dull swordplay yarn. Fans of Angela Mao and Don Wong may want to pick up this title just to see them doing something a little different. Beyond that, there is little to recommend.

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