This film, The Kid with the Golden Arm, is another classic Shaw Brothers film from the 70’s that has some very unique and colorful characters.
The movie is about a group led by Yang Yu Heng, who must escort a rather large load of gold to a village full of starving people. Luckily, the word is out so all of the evil Kung Fu masters can plot to capture the gold and spend it on head bands and fancy outfits for their next job.
The group, known as the Death Valley is filled with some powerful masters who plan to take this gold, and they are lead by the Kid with Golden Arms (I’ll just call him Goldy from now on). However, misleading this may sound, his arms are actually not made of gold, but rather arms, just very solid and seemingly invincible.
So Yang Yu Heng decides to get his best men to protect the gold, and even enlists the help of a drunk named Hai To, who is also incredibly skilled.
So naturally everything gets mixed up and we see lots of cool kung fu fights as each characters unique abilities come to surface leading to the inevitable match up between Hai To and Goldy.
Colorful characters fighting over Gold.
This movie is pretty standard when you look at depth of plot but it’s still pretty entertaining.
The value lies in the characters and their different abilities but Goldy is the real star, and he is played pretty well by Lo Mang – one of the more solid venoms actors. Goldy’s presence looms over the whole movie, as he is the unbeatable and most feared fighter in the land – he knows it too!
Overall things seem to naturally unfold nicely, but all the while we’re shown the abilities of Hai To, and even given the hint of a fighter some years back who was as powerful as Goldy but mysteriously disappeared. Naturally We’re kind of set up to think “maybe it’s Hai To”, but naturally things aren’t always as they seem.
Not to spoil anything – but there’s a classic twist ending!
The Action & Martial Arts
This movie has the same pace and quality in the fights as the other cool Venoms / Shaw Brothers films.
There is a nice variety, as we see Goldy use his invincible arms to fend off weapons attacks, while ‘Brass Head’ gets around head butting his opponents into oblivion. Meanwhile Hai To gets smashed (drunk) and starts beating up bad guys at his leisure.
It’s a movie where each fighter as a very distinct and unique style that focuses solely on a single concept. While it makes the fighters very ‘shallow’ as characters (in terms of fighting style), it creates the perfect ‘style against style’ match-ups. This is a pretty standard way of giving each character a unique identity outside of their persona but also their physical performance.
Overall the fights are pretty nice in that classic 70’s style. Perfect for fans of the classics.
Should You watch it?
Are you a new action martial arts movie kinda person? If so this film doesn’t seem to carry the same ruthless adrenaline charge a lot of newer films do.
This movie is a classic and will appeal to lovers of Shaw Brothers movies and the old fashioned rhythms and style of movement they’re known for.
Check it out if you like the classics!
