72 Desperate Rebels (1978)

Directed by Lin Bin, Seventy-Two Desperate Rebels centers around the infamous pirate Pu Ho-nien's effort to topple the Ming Dynasty. When Pu employs 72 seasoned kung-fu fighters to help achieve his goal, the situation looks bleak for the reigning imperialists. However, among the intricately rated fighters -- younger members wore headbands indicative of how many men they had killed -- exists a spy, a blind swordsman, and the mysterious Ghost Killer, all of whom threaten Pu Ho-nien's plans.

Check out the DVD cover above..."an unstoppable army of ninja".  There's not one fucking Ninja in this movie.

This film is sort of a rip off of ideas from many other kung fu flicks. You have the "Ghost Killer"...obviously a copy of the "Ghost Face Killer".  You also have a blind swordsman and a one armed swordsman...themes from other flicks. One part that's original but not very cool, is the giant monk that runs around and obviously can't be killed.  They threw that mother fucker off a cliff and he just rumbled up later out of the ocean.  Let me take that back.  The bastard can bite through metal which is a rip off of "Jaws" from the James Bond movies.

I'm not scared of that big fucking Monk.

However if you watched Kung Fu theater on Saturday's and enjoyed it, this is a good movie for you.
It has all the intangibles for a good Kung Fu movie--unbelievable Kung Fu action, bad sound effects, bad editing, and bad overdubs. A large band of fighters terrorize China during the Ming dynasty. Through their terror, they end up killing some one's father, and as we all know in Kung Fu, that means sworn revenge.  There's tons of fighting and some of it is a little better choreographed than others.

I did enjoy the different rooms our heroes had to fight through to get to the evil bandit leader. They pass through some rooms of a sort of magic causing them visual disorientation, dizzying flag twirling, and a bizarre contraption of small, deafening bells attached to an overhead bamboo framework. Not terribly believable, but interesting to see.

The stars are not terribly charismatic. The female fighters are not memorable and not particularly skilled, although they are attractive. The only names in the cast are Tien Peng as one of the heroes; Pai Ying as villain Po Ho Nin; Lung Fei as the Blind Swordsman; Tsai Hung as one of the lead villains; and Chen Sing in one short fight scene as one of Po's warriors.  Ying is excellent as the villain and a stand out but he doesn't fight enough.

Overall fans of cheesy kung fu flicks will find this enjoyable.  I was entertained.

Our heroes are trapped....time for some vicious Kung Fu