Even with fight choreography by Liu Chia-yung, "The Savage Killers" marked a steep plunge into mediocrity for former superstar Wang Yu. Having been the top banana in Hong Kong's first million-dollar grossing film ("The One-Armed Swordsman") for Shaw Brothers Studio and then putting its emerging rival Golden Harvest on the map, Wang was directing himself in independently-produced Taiwanese cheapies by the middle of the Me Decade. This film, a standard revenge melodrama in which practitioners of the tiger and crane styles join forces to defeat a common foe, is representative of the downward trend of its star's career: the fight scenes are competent but short and uninspired, and Wang looks like he'd rather be somewhere else. Liu Chia-yung does double duty in a supporting role, while Lung Fei's broad, mustache-twirling portrayal of the villain is the film's only real bright spot. (Future "Five Deadly Venoms" star Kuo Chui, aka Philip Kwok, has a very small bit part; blink and you'll miss him.) Four and a half stars.
Review of The Savage Killers
