“Hitman in the Hand of Buddha” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Hwang Jang Lee
Cast: Hwang Jang Lee, Fan Mei Sheng, Eddie Ko, Tino Wong Cheung, Meng Hoi, Corey Yuen, To Siu Ming, Yeung Wai, Bruce Cheung Mong, Kim Yu-Haeng
Running Time: 90 min.
By Perkele
Wong Jing and his brother work in a rice trading company but their competitors discover that they are cheating the public. These competitors hire a top fighter to deal with the brothers.
A rare chance to get to see the ultimate kung fu villain Whang Jang Lee play a good guy. This film is also his only self-directed pictured. Not bad, so to say. Lee shows off his impressive kicking skills but also uses his hands, staff and chopsticks. Actually the brilliant footwork is only showcased during the opening credits [he uses his whole kicking repertoite here, which might be the best fight of the film] and in the last fights [finishing the evil Eddie Ko with an incredible, real [no wires] version of Wong Fei Hung’s No Shadow Kick].
So there’s fighting aplenty, but the ones in the middle are nothing special. And as usual, the story is basically the boring and over used dude-gets-defeated-and-then-avenges-after-the-training-at-the-Shaolin-temple thing. Lee and Fan Mei Sheng are the good people, while Eddie Ko and Tino Wong are the villains.
Recommended.
Perkele’s Rating: 7/10
