Archive for May, 2005
Killer Darts
“You dare use the Killer Dart to kill?!” screams incredulous swordplay master Liou Wen Lung (Fang Mien), horrified that his student, Hu Chi Feng (Chang Pei Shan) has just used the clan’s secret weapon to kill a peasant woman. While I’m sure that he was mostly upset over Hu’s unchivalrous behavior, the statement still drips with irony. Why else would you call it the Killer Dart?
The angry relics of Liou’s violent but honorable past envelop the story of Killer Darts. After his evil student goes AWOL and his arch-rival, Chou Chiao (Ma Ying), vows revenge, swordsman Liou decides to settle down for a peaceful life with his son, Yu Long (Yueh Hua), and his adopted daughter, Yu Sien (Chin Ping), lone survivor of Hu’s murder spree.
The past, of course, never evaporates. Hu and Chou reappear, the latter sporting a sweet dart-shooting prosthetic arm, and cloud Yu Sien’s mind with thoughts of misguided revenge.
Director Ho Meng-hua never fully capitalizes on these themes of past transgressions and debts of violence. Only one or two scenes really capture the sense of ongoing tragedy that I think the film needed. Instead, the film is mostly a boilerplate swordplay revenge film, mixed with an occasional love story, that never really decides who its main character is.
But Ho does put his special effects experience, gained while directing the four “Monkey King” movies, to good use. The film’s well-choreographed fight scenes feature levitating bowls, lethal steak stakes and a plethora of killer darts, coins and arrows. Mix in some unique weapons—the film’s deadly prayer cymbals herald Ho Meng-hua’s 1975 film The Flying Guillotine—and the result entertains, even if it never really satisfies.
Killer Darts
Dir: Ho Meng-hua
Released: May 9, 1968