Legendary Weapons of China (1982)

Original title

十八般武藝

Directed by

Lau Kar-leung

Genre

kung fu film

Country

Hong Kong

Runtime

1h 49m

Rated

15

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 52 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

During the late Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager sends agents to the Boxer Rebellion to find martial artists who claim to be bulletproof. When a faction leader disbands his group, assassins are sent to kill him for treason. The story features many fights using a variety of legendary Chinese weapons.

fast-pacedaction-packedlightheartedwhimsicalenergetictheatricaltongue-in-cheek

What happens

Legendary Weapons of China (Chinese: 十八般武藝; pinyin: shí bā bān wǔ yì; Jyutping: sap6 baat3 bun1 mou5 ngai6, lit. 'Eighteen Martial Ways'; a.k.a. Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu) is a 1982 martial arts wuxia film or wuxia pian directed by Liu Chia-liang. It takes place during the late Qing Dynasty when Empress Dowager Cixi dispatches her agents to various factions of the Boxer Rebellion in order to find supernatural martial artists that are invulnerable to western bullets. When one of the leaders of these groups disbands his forces, assassins from the remaining factions are sent out to kill him for his apparent treason. As the title of the film suggests, a great variety of fights take place involving the "legendary weapons." Although Liu Chia-liang is known for showing "real Kung-Fu" in his films, he does take some artistic license by incorporating elements of Taoist Maoshan folk magic with hand-to-hand combat. This is similar to what he did in another of film of his, Heroes of the East (or Challenge of the Ninja). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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