I’m going to be completely drunkenly honest here. This is not a great film. It is not even quite an average film. But it still is a fun romp through kungsfuville. A nice mix of martial arts choreography, campy dialogue, and mediocre crime boss shenanigans makes this a pretty harmless escape into a somewhat entertaining South Korean ripoff of a good Hong Kong Kung Fu Flick.
Traveling “pharmaceutical” salesmen (read: hucksters) go from town to town with their little minstrel-like show to entertain the masses and sell them a cure. Amazing that it can solve everything from the constipation to the clap! That’s some good stuff right there! But they find themselves in a town where the local Protection Apparatus ain’t too keen on letting them sell goods without a little kickback, and things get a bit hostile-like. Throw in the son of the local Boss who has some criticisms of the direction his dad is taking the town and a cute little waitress just wanting to escape the madness and you have yourselves a true kung fu legend! Or at least a kung fu tale. Maybe just a story, bordering on a recollection. Fuckit, at least there weren’t any goddamn attack birds.
Main shit-kicker here is Hwang Jang-Lee, who actually does a great job with the face kickins, head slappins, arm-twistins and all-around ass kickery here, though mostly fighting off what appear to be a bunch of gimped monkeys. The english voice dubbing is, for lack of a better term, goofy. But it ain’t exactly Shakespeare so does the job and makes the funny moments that much more amusing, intentional or not. And I do not think I have ever seen a movie with such a high percentage of Bastards involved. There are a LOT of Bastards in this movie, if the dialogue is to be believed. But there is only one Hard Bastard. Respect.
