Killer Clans (1976)

[Drunk Monk]

Another sprawling wuxia style Shaw Brothers flick with way too many characters to follow, garish costumes, big sets and lots of ultravi. This one also has a lot of gratuitous topless scenes. Seeing it back-to-back with All Men Are Brothers was really confusing as the characters and story arcs started to melt together like nacho cheese - there was a romance, and an assassin had to kill his love's dad, and there was lots of clan feudin and fightin. Lots and lots of swordfights, as well as other exotic weapons. Lo Lieh has a cool hat trick - the brim detaches into a fat circle-saw shaped blade thingy. Lots of double-crossing, even nasty business like parents poisoning their kids (but those kids were super annoying). KC is based on a Ku Lung wuxia novel, Meteor, Butterfly, Sword, which was also the basis for the classic Butterfly and Sword (1993). I've not read the book (not sure if it's been translated into English yet) and tepid on B&S (felt it was overrated; it's 'classic' status hinged on Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung).

Another Flying Five Finger One Armed Eight Pole Shaolin Exploding Death Touch Thursday feature on El Rey.