Review of The Magnificent Ruffians

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** As a fan of Shaw Brothers films, especially the director, Chang Cheh..it's a pretty good movie. It has the Venom Gang, comic relief and good fighting sequences. A brief synopsis on the film if I may. A business lacking escort service ran by a rich martial artist, Feng Lu(Centipede and Silver Spear fame)needs to feed his hunger for Kung Fu, traps martial artists and fights them to the death. As his business is decreasing he looks to expand and targets an escort service inhabited by a mother, daughter and son(Meng Lo: Toad, Golden Arm). As he tries to buy his business, Meng Lo is stubborn and refuses to sell the escort service. The brash and abrasive Meng Lo seeks to fight all the time but his sister and mother always calling on him to return back to the house(mommas boy). During all this, four vagabonds (Shen Chiang, Chien Sun, Philip Kwok and Li Wang)looking for food and shelter actually go to restaurants, eat their and get beaten for having no money(quite funny). Funny thing, all four vagabonds are Kung Fu expects. Anyway, Feng Lu finds out about these vagabonds and befriends the fighters to indulge in his kung fu kicks. As their provider, he bathes, feeds and shelters them. All this, the four vagabonds meet Meng Lo and develop a psuedo friendship. Meng Lo challenges all four to contests(friendly but intense-good fighting scenes). Their bond grows stronger and all this suits Feng Lu. He masterminds a plot to get them all killed by having all five turn on each other. One scene is when Meng Lo and Philip Kwok are fighting and decide to not pull any punches...so Philip(who uses a pole and Lo as always uses his bare hands)lands his pole on Meng Lo chest..Philip taps the pole and it explodes, killing Lo. To his surprise, Philip can't believe what happened and the other three vagabonds try to kill him. The pole was switched and contained explosives. They bring the dead carcass to the mother and daughter for their viewing. Feng Lu seizes the opportunity and fights with the three vagabonds...great fight scenes. Feng Lu disposes of Chien Sun and Li Wang with his famous sword by using some styles named clouds come down, cloud goes up, sun through clouds, etc..... Sheng Chiang escapes the slaughter and hooks up with Philip and both strategized a plot to kill Feng Lu. The ending is quite good, Philip and Sheng work well together as a team. Suffice to say...the good wins over evil. Works for me.