Hu Wei Security, headed by Yang (Chien Sun), is tasked with taking 200,000 taels of gold to a famine-stricken area. Needless to say, every wanna-be thief worth his weight in taels wants to get his hands on the loot. Chief among them is The Deadly Valley gang, led by Lo Mang, the titular Golden Armed Kid. (His arms, it seems, are nigh invulnerable, allowing him to take on armed opponents with his bare hands.) Unfortunately for fans of Lo Mang, he doesn't have a whole lot of screen time- but when he's on stage, he's "on," as they say, and his final battle with Kuo Chui alone is worth the price of admission. It's Kuo Chui, in fact, as the "sheriff," Hai Tao, who once again steals the show (a common occurrence in Chang Cheh films, simply because Chui was THAT good- at everything): he's a heavy drinker- lending real meaning to the term "drunken master"- who seems to inadvertently intervene whenever members of the security force are attacked by bandits. "We always get what we want," Copper Head boasts at one point: "That's our motto." The road to the famine-stricken area is paved with poison and booby traps and the sinking suspicion that someone among the security force isn't who he pretends to be- but who could it be...? THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM is a great deal of fun, with some outstanding performers performing outstandingly- and all under the artistic aegis of one of the true masters of the genre. A very solid ten.
Review of The Kid with the Golden Arm
