Shaw Brothers Life Gamble (1979) Review

The Shaw Brothers’ Life Gamble (1979) is an oddity in having a recognizable ensemble cast but plagued by trying to accomplish too much at once. Along with Fu Sheng, Life Gamble has four of the five Venoms, Wang Lung-Wei, Kara Hui, Ku Feng and Li Yi-Min in a Wuxia styled period piece where the title ends up boiling down to a single scene near the late middle half of the film. I would not describe this movie as a true Shaw Brothers’ classic mostly because I do not think it’s all that memorable as well as being one of the more obscure titles featuring these cast members and certainly it did not make it to the US mainstream market on TV.

The movie does not truly have a single main character and is split by a colorful band of people, beginning with bombastic music that makes one believe that this movie ought to be more special than it is. We start off by meeting Lo Meng as a knife throwing tough man, Mo Jun-Feng. Besides throwing knives, he has a cool cape and a really bad hair do.

He seeks the town’s blacksmith, the skilled Qiu Zi-Yu played by Philip Kwok. These characters are presented as morally gray, if not shady to downright bankrupt. In Qiu Zi-Yu’s case, he is one of the only people in the movie who clearly is on the side of good. He has taken the stance to avoid making weapons, even though a variety of people request that he use his abilities to craft them something special. Here, Mo has lost his famous knives and wishes for Qiu to create him new ones after seeking Qiu out because of Qiu’s reputation for making the top weapons used by fighters around the country.

Qiu Zi-Yu tries to deny being this famous craftsman but Mo insist. After refusing, Mo threatens Qiu by grabbing his apprentice’s throat and strangling him. Qiu calls Mo’s bluff because famous fighters would consider such an act dishonorable (I’m sure Qiu’s apprentice wasn’t happy though not to mention it makes Qiu somewhat of a hypocrite here).

Chiang Sheng as Xiao Tang (or Whipper Tang) arrives before things can escalate between Mo and Qiu where ‘ol Whipper drives a buggy and has a bad wheel. He tries to get Qiu to fix his vehicle which Qiu says will take a day. In turn, Whipper lets out the occupant Xiao Qiang played by Lin Chen-Chi. Xiao’s main ability is her smile and she recognizes Mo off the bat. They have a discussion where she reveals how Mo is being hunted but knows he’s lost his knives (which is why he’s pestering Qiu). Also, she explains that she knows the famous Qiu because of how Qiu created a special sword for another shady character Yan Zi-Fei played by Lu Feng.

In a non-sepia flashback, Yan reveals Qiu’s policy of how the recipient of Qiu’s weapons must teach Qiu their special technique. Yan agrees but suddenly betrays Yan in cutting Qiu. However, Qiu manages to flee but that incident left him wary and forcing him to retire from making weapons. In turn, Xiao mentions that she can help Mo by giving him his special knives back as payment for a major favor/job.

Over at an inn, Mo talks in private with Xiao. In the neighboring room is an old thief named Cui played everyone’s favorite Shaw Brother creep Lam Fai-Wong. Without realizing it, Lam has stolen Mo’s daggers, fearing for his life. As he listens in on Xiao and Mo’s conversation, we learn that Xiao wants Mo to kill several people who have stolen a precious jade treasure. Dick Wei, Bruce Tong, Liu Hui-Ling and Suen Shu-Pei earlier ambushed a caravan and agree to gamble over the jade because of its high worth. In addition, they mention that the escort was headed by a famous fighter Master Nan (played by Li Yi-Min). They decide to target one Mao Kai-Yuan, played by Wang Lung-Wei, also known as the Golden Lion, to be whom they use for the gamble.

As Xiao and Mo continue their discussion, Mo believes that the four bandits will simply kill each other, which makes his help moot. However, Xiao points out that Mao will be the one remaining because of how he controls the gambling house. At the same time, Cui begins to believe that everyone else might simply end up killing themselves, which will allow him to obtain the invaluable treasure.

From there, we go to the gambling house where we encounter Mao and Yun Xiang, played by Fu Sheng. Now, this is a very unusual scenario because of how Fu Sheng typically stands opposed to Wang Lung-Wei in Shaw Brothers movies. Here, he’s seen as Mao’s aid which one might think he could be a bad guy in this. Eventually, we learn that Mao has taken up Yun when he was homeless previously and Yun has loyalty to Mao. This setup gives Fu Sheng a rare instance where he effectively pairs up with Wang Lung-Wei, although his situation isn’t as clear cut because of his history.

Along with Mao comes Peng Shuang-Shuang played by Shirley Yu. She acts as a kind of special hostess and is clearly a manipulator. Her role is to manage Mao’s gambling house in terms of provisioning it with her “special” women. Because of her position, she gets privileged knowledge and has her own set of goals, namely involving the precious jade Han treasure. After Peng leaves, Mao goes into a secret room where Yun resides. He twirls his special knives and is shown slicing some flowers down. They discuss killing off Peng using a special order commanded by Mao.

Back at the blacksmith, Mo, Xiao and Whipper make another plea to get Qiu to forge new knives but Qiu remains steadfast. One of the things Xiao shows Qiu is Yan’s severed arm, which was removed by Whipper Tang. After the three leave Qiu, Yan appears to inquire what Xiao was carrying. Qiu mentions that it’s Yan’s hand/arm and Yan wonders if Qiu hates him still because of how close Yan came to slaying Qiu. Qiu doesn’t and probably pities him as Yan’s ability was neutralized by his maiming. Before they can speak more, Master Nan’s men arrive requesting him to go along. Despite identifying Master Nan as an honorable fighter, which makes his kidnapping ill advised for these people.

Soon after, Wu Hao (Bruce Tong) comes over and asks for a rake. Unprovoked, he kills Nan’s men then declares that the rake he uses is a deadly weapon. In turn, Qiu retaliates by using his hammer for which Wu accuses of being a deadly weapon as well in addition to Qiu’s fist. Eventually, Qiu asks who this character is and he guesses it’s Wu. The two fists each other (literally punching each others’ fist) and have a laugh (I would’ve laughed if they fisted each other in a different area) with Wu leaving as mysteriously as he arrived. But he does realize that Qiu is putting up a facade.

When Qiu goes to pick up his hammer, he spots Master Nan.

Master Nan holds a private talk about the jade with Qiu to show the stakes as well as mentioning the bandits that stole from him. Back at a tea house, Mo and Peng meet where Peng accuses Mo of being seduced by Xiao. Mo doesn’t deny the accusations but Peng reveals that they previously had a relationship. She returns to him out of loyalty and wants to meet in secret at the inn later.

Back at the blacksmith, Kara Hui (Xiao Hung) appears while Qiu repairs the carriage. Xiao Hung says that her father played by Ku Feng (Inspector Xiao) wishes to greet Qiu. Like others, Inspector Xiao already knows Qiu’s true identity and it’s apparent that Qiu knew Xiao Hung previously. In turn, Inspector Xiao comes to Qiu for a favor rather than arresting Qiu. The favor is to help retrieve the jade for Master Nan.

From there, Mo has his reunion with Peng, who promises to help get Mo’s knives back. Somehow, Peng knows that Ciu has Mo’s knives and confronts him, who pretends to be sick. Peng sees through Ciu’s chicanery and reassures Ciu that Mo has no idea who took his knives. In turn, Ciu pilfers the reward money from Ciu and retrieves Mo’s knives. Next, the missing Whipper Tang makes a surprise appearance at Peng’s to ward her away from Mo. Instead, Peng tells Whipper Tang that she still needs a man and chooses him. As Whipper Tang inexplicably gets seduced in an extremely uncomfortable and awkward love making scene (something you NEVER see Chiang Sheng do), Peng stabs him with her chain knife. In comes Inspector Xiao and Xiao Hung who witness the murder. Because Inspector Xiao has a higher purpose, he lets Peng off the hook on the condition that she take Xiao Hung to witness the big upcoming game.

At the in, a doctor inspects Ciu as Qiu enters the dining area for a drink. The doctor tells Qiu that his patient is extremely fit, despite how Ciu has been hiding away in his room and claiming to be sick. That makes Qiu suspicious of the older man. Shortly following, Xiao appears to request a favor from Qiu. Qiu tells her that he does no favors for anyone (where he uses his name in 3rd person). That signals to Xiao that he just has given up his true identity for which he remains quiet. Then Yan comes downstairs to join Qiu for a drink as he unveils that Whipper Tang has been murdered, which is good news to him. Afterwards, he asks Qiu for a private conversation where he implores Qiu to make him a new hand. Qiu agrees on the terms that Yan do him a favor.

At the gambling house, Peng begins preparation for the upcoming game in training her women. Amongst them is Xiao Hung who is in disguise.

Eventually, she wanders into the garden area where she encounters Yun. At this point, Yun has no idea of Xiao Hung’s true identity and becomes enchanted at her appearance. On the other hand, Yun admits that he’s a paid killer and thus a bad man. Xiao Hung disagrees and believes that it’s a point of view. In turn, Yun feels protective over her, knowing full well of the impending dangers for the game. Xiao Hung provides Yun with a red flower from her hair and takes a quiet leave to let him ponder.

Mo shows up to the gambling house to speak with Mao. Earlier, Mao instructs Yun to kill Mo when he throws a cup. However, Mao does not proceed and Mo leaves. That incites Yun to confront Mao. Mao believes that Mo exceeds Yun’s ability with knives. Later, they have a small confrontation and Mao intercedes. But it does create tension between Yun and Mo as who is the best knife thrower. Later, Mo approaches Qui again to demand him to make his knives. Qui tells Mo to go to tell and Mo assaults Qui with a few knives. However, Qui uses the new glove he’s building for Yan to catch Mo’s knives and leaves him with three remaining. Calming down, Mo simply wishes to be Qui’s friend where Qui tells him in a strange philosophical way, “There are no long friends nor enemies.”

Over at Xiao’s place, Jamie Luk makes an extremely brief cameo and gets his ass kicked by Xiao. When she interrogates him, Mao shows up and says that he wanted to test her kung fu. Xiao wonders what Mao’s angle is where he says she can have it all, including the jade and his gambling house in exchange for her. But he warns Xiao of Mo and they speak in secret but plot for her to meet him at the gambling house to handle the four bandits. After Mao departs, Mo shows up and tells Xiao that two of the bandits have arrived. With the information Mao gave Xiao about Mo, Xiao is suspicious about Mo’s motives, discovering he has medicine for his stomach. Then she uncovers that Peng has returned his knives so she uses a pressure point attack to knock Mo out.

At any rate, just about everyone converges on the gambling house. Peng finishes her preparations and leaves with a bonus while Mao instructs Yun to finish Peng off. Yun shoots the red flower at Peng, sparing her life and reminding her that he could’ve also thrown a knife at her (which probably was Mao’s way of warning her not to double cross them).

With the four bandits, Xiao Hung and Mao are the main ones in the room. The first die is cast where Tiger is shown. Dick Wei (Jin Ban) wins while Cheng Zhang-Po becomes suspicious that Jin rigged the game and kills him. A new bet is made where Mao has the remaining three agree to the house rules. The three bandits choose the losing tile and Mao declares himself the winner since they agreed to the house rules. Jin’s guards are killed by Cheng’s men and Mao tells him that he won’t leave the house alive. They fight with Mao killing Cheng and his men. The two remaining bandits attempt to make off with the jade as Xiao enters with a special ring. She uses a dart to wound an unsuspecting Cheng while Mao finishes him off.

As Xiao approaches Zhen, Zhen agrees to relinquish the jade but retrieves her infamous hair needle and tosses it into Xiao. Then it’s Mao’s turn to grab the jade where Zhen’s accomplice Wu Hao tries to prevent Mao from escaping. Zhen gloats over the dying Xiao but does not see Mo enter and receives one of his knives in her back as he’s accompanied by Peng. Mao orders his men to attack anyone not on their side. Mo beats up Mao’s men. Just before Xiao dies, she hands back Mo’s daggers and he goes on a killing spree.

After Mao’s men are dead, Yun shows up to confront Mo. He challenges Mo to a contest now that Mo is rearmed. Mo agrees and Mao tries to get Wu Hao to attack Mo for killing Zheng. As Mo and Wu Hao start fighting, Yun stands next to Xiao Hung protectively, allowing Mao to retrieve the jade. Xiao Hung asks Yun to have him stop Mao but his loyalty prevents him from assaulting his benefactor. Instead, both Qui and Yan appear with Yan wearing his newly made gauntlet. He goes on the attack on Mao so that Qui can be resolved of his conflicting feelings.

We then proceed to an extremely rare fight between Wang Lung-Wei and Lu Feng. I mention this because in most cases, these two commonly appear as the villains in their movies and share the same side. On the other side, Mo attempts to use his knives against Wu Hao whose iron skin deflects the weapons. As Mao retreats towards Wu Hao, Wu Hao tries to deflect Yan’s hidden spring loaded darts which pierce through his iron skin. Qui denounces Wu Hao’s greed as the reason for his demise (beyond the fact that it was inevitable Bruce Tong would die yet again like Sean Bean)

With the other eliminated, it’s down to the remaining participants. Here, Qui asks Mao to gamble with him on his life. Mo, Yan and Yun bear witness with Yun leaving the matters strictly between Mao and Qui as requested by Xiao Hung (because Qui is the only good person in the room). Qui gives Mao a special metal plate that has life and death written on it. Qui outwardly suspects the gimmick Mao uses is rigged but with the witnesses around them, he reassures Mao of his honesty. Mao feels confident and accepts the bet as Qui without taking his eyes away from Mao places the plate with the word death inscribed face up on the gimmick. Mao takes the gimmick, shakes it a few times and presses a hidden button that normally would ensure his victory. Unlike other times, he does not hear any noise rattling from inside. Suspicious, his arrogance erodes and when Mo calls Mao out Mao tries for an attack. Instead, Yan fires off a dagger that pierces Mao’s forehead and he dies.

With Mao dead, Qui explains his own gimmick to the others where he placed a tiny nail on the plate to ensure that it would come up on the same side no matter what. From there he tells Yun that the jade should go to Master Nan but allows Xiao Hung first dibs. As Yun is about to reach for the jade, it’s Yan’s turn to make a heel turn. Qui is not afraid of Yan and Mo tries to counter Yan with his knives. However, Yan’s glove can catch most of Mo’s knives except his last ones which hit. However, he still has another trick up his literal sleeve that ends up backfiring because of a mechanism Qui kept secret. Yan kills himself and Qui thanks Mo for saving their lives.

Of course, things aren’t so simple as Yun makes his move to grab the jade to give to Xiao Hung. Xiao Hung is about to reveal why she wants the jade to Yun, who doesn’t care. However, it’s Peng’s turn to enter the fray where she uses her chain to grab Xiao Hung and takes her hostage. Peng promises to keep Xiao Hung alive and leave her at the inn. Then Peng betrays Mo in not agreeing to share in the wealth of the jade since he has his knives returned. As a result, Mo tells her that he doesn’t care if Xiao Hung lives or dies, which draws Yun back out to make good on that promise of a duel. Peng retreats with the jade and Xiao Hung, leaving the three. Qui referees the duel where Qui wins because his weapons are magnetized.

Qui tells Yun the truth of Xiao Hung’s motives as Inspector Xiao’s daughter and how she was spying on the operation. The two split with Qui intending to chase Peng while Yun goes to find Xiao Hung. At the inn, Peng escorts Xiao Hung up to her room while Cui slips by them and pilfers the jade. As Peng tosses Xiao Hung into her room, Inspector Xiao comes out and figures that she already has the jade only to discover its gone. Also, Yun arrives to prevent Peng from escaping. However, she did notice Cui bumping into her by the stairs, which puts them on alert for his presence.

Oddly, Qui already knows that Cui has the jade and locates him in his hiding spot. Qui admonishes Cui and basically describes the jade as a kind of cursed item that brings trouble to the bearer. Cui relinquishes the item so that Qui can return the item back to Master Nan. In the morning, Cui packs up empty handed but still is confronted by Inspector Xiao, Xiao Hung and Yun. Truthfully, Cui admits to having stolen the item but gave it up to Qui. Yet Inspector Xiao charges Cui of finding Qui since the owner of the jade reported it stolen which makes Inspector Xiao responsible for directly handing back the jade rather than to Nan. As Cui leaves, Inspector Xiao becomes friendly with Yun and offers him the opportunity to change his life around and arrange a more formal discussion about Xiao Hung.

The three talk over tea in the inn but Peng is murdered by a masked person in gray. Inspector Xiao speculates on the assassin’s identity and tells Yun to hold off, realizing that the real boss is one step behind. Inspector Xiao goes off to fetch men as this latest figure is assumed to be powerful and possibly a good fighter. He also tells Yun that if he does not find him back at the inn then he’ll assume Yun has gone to east point to handle the situation on his own.

Over at east point, Master Nan is with his men and preparing them for their upcoming encounter with Qui. He describes Qui’s mastery of martial arts. Cui hides in the bushes and witnesses Nan’s instructions. Thereafter, he runs back towards the inn where Yun and Xiao Hung speculate on this mysterious assassin. Yun has a hunch but doesn’t say as Cui shows up to report his findings. Yun wonders why Master Nan would want the jade on its own for which Xiao Hung mentions that Nan only insured the protection for 100k whereas its real value is 5x that. So killing Qui would allow Nan to continue to cover up the fact that the jade is stolen so he could sell it off for full value. That motivates Yun into finding Qui before something bad happens.

Qui is ambushed by Nan’s men, getting hit by arrows but managing to fend them off as well as using acupuncture/nerve points to prevent himself from bleeding to death. Nan appears and tells Qui that Qui’s ability to stop the hemorrhaging won’t be enough to keep him alive. However, Qui says it will be enough to kill Nan. A fight breaks out where we get to see Qui use his full abilities here using some sort of chain weapon. Nan’s men specialize in flags on their poles while he has miniature versions. They kill Qui through the confusion of their silken flags.

After Qui passes, Yun shows up and a smaller fight breaks out where Yun futilely hurls his knives at Nan only for Nan’s flag bearers to catch them within their flags’ billowy material. Yet Yun has two more tricks where he uses his more solid metal holster to pierce through the layers of flags and end Nan’s existence. Again, it was one of those rare moments where the typically good Li Yi-Min had the opportunity to confront Fu Sheng (whereas most times they were on the same side) but the fight here was so brief you didn’t get much of a chance to see anything special.

Nan’s men tries to retreat but are surrounded by Inspector Xiao’s forces. Yun grabs the jade and mournfully glances at the dead Qui while Xiao Hung goes to greet him while the end credits show.

So this movie seems very convoluted partly because of the ensemble cast where the cast had varying degrees of screen time. It was almost like a Game of Thrones type of plot where slowly the people were eliminated until only the last few remained. Without hkmdb as well as the English dubbing though, I would have been thoroughly confused by the enormous number of characters with similar names. Because I recognize the majority of the main and minor supporting cast, the movie wasn’t as hard to follow on subsequent viewings. I do realize that as I wrote up this review, it was the only way I could get the story straight.

The plot itself is logical enough where the characters and actions are linked. The problem I have with this movie is that it was very contrived and felt more like a play than a movie. For instance, when Qui is working, all these oddball characters appear out of the blue. Some men destroy his workshop without any consequence. Next, he’s talking to Master Nan as though nothing happened to Nan’s men. Then during the gambling hall section, it was nothing but turns one after another. It was almost on par with the number of face/heel turns during the late 90s WWF Attitude Era. If you weren’t following along close enough, it would be easy to miss why someone would suddenly switch on another person or why someone might show up to defend another person.

Not surprisingly this movie did not come on during the 80s for Black Belt Theater. I think the issue was more discretion where the plot was so convoluted that even the dubs barely made any sense. Also, the action itself wasn’t really great. There’s a lot of talking to get to the better parts. And the only fight scene worth watching is when Qui confronts Nan and his men. The rest of the fights are bland or weird with bizarre weapons like the mini rotating shield.

Around this time though, the Venoms were starting to establish their identity as main stars. The only one missing was Sun Chien, who should’ve been around this period. But this movie felt like leftovers from Brave Archer I in terms of the cast choices and even some of the wardrobe. My theory is that this movie was partly being used as a vehicle to help move the Venoms into the forefront of Chang Cheh’s pictures but used Fu Sheng and to a lesser degree Li Yi-Min to help bolster the star power here. But if you notice, Fu Sheng and Li Yi-Min don’t appear until around 9-10 minutes in. And Li Yi-Min only appears in three major segments.

Most of the story revolves around Philip Kwok’s character and he’s the only person that has a moral center, which leads me to believe he was being pushed as the actual star here. Lo Meng also had a big role here while Lu Feng got to play another crazy character (similar to his beggar character in Brave Archer II). Poor Chiang Sheng was just a minor character and he looked ridiculous slobbering over Xiao.

Another major part of the movie is the way it allowed certain people to have fights that you normally wouldn’t see. Lu Feng vs Wang Lung-Wei, Philip Kwok vs Li Yi-Min and even a brief fight with Fu Sheng and Li Yi-Min. Then there was Fu Sheng’s more ambivalent character which evolved into a good guy role by the end. After all, he still received top billing here. But my comment is that certain people like Chiang Sheng, Fu Sheng and Li Yi-Min didn’t really work well in their roles here. Possibly one fault was the lousy voice acting. But these three were quite emotionless compared to their normally playful selves. Li Yi-Min in later years with the Shaw Brothers occasionally had a bad guy role but he seemed more muted than anything. And while Fu Sheng is threatening because he’s cocky and possesses deadly knives, he doesn’t show any emotion or appear menacing compared to how Wang Lung-Wei normally is as the chief villain.

Next, I think because this is a piece that really isn’t interesting in terms of having any kind of relevance to a relatable theme, the TV networks out here didn’t bother to try picking it up even with the English dubbing. I think the movie falls a little flat when it comes to themes.

There are some themes that they try to mention like the notion of how good/evil are in the eye of the beholder. Fu Sheng’s swap to good guy by the end I think is supposed to make light of this but there’s not much emotional weight that carries it. Then there’s the typical motif of greed where virtually everyone dies who wants the jade for the wrong reasons (except poor Qui) Another theme that they try to bring up is honor as characters like Yan prove the contrary. But they also attempt to highlight hypocrisy in honor where Qui’s usage of his tools at his shop and even his fists imply he is a danger because of whom he is.

Ultimately, I think this movie is a real mixed bag where you start seeing more bizarre themes and plots appear as Chang Cheh approached the 80s. The ensemble cast is notable mostly in watching how they react with one another. I would’ve preferred a more focused plot. The idea of the gamble felt as though it should have been the climax of the movie rather than the lame flag fight that fell flat. As with a lot of the later Chang Cheh movies, this one seemed to use any excuse to setup a fight. Again, it’s a movie worth seeking if you like these particular people. But I think there’s better from the Shaw Brothers.