MANTIS COMBAT is typical and average kung fu film from Taiwan. Chen Sing is the guest villain of the piece and as usual the best thing in it. He plays a former convict, intent on murder, who goes hunting for a missing treasure map which becomes the film's MacGuffin. Our wooden hero Barry Chan has possession of the map so the film chronicles a kind of running battle between the two factions. Oh, and there's a quasi-romance with a girl who has nothing to do with the main story. The problem with this film is that it's cheap and unappetising for the most part, although the various fight scenes just about pass muster. There's little to get excited about and the film pales in comparison to the likes of Shaw and Golden Harvest being made during the era. Oh, and the 'mantis' style combat is half-hearted and extraneous to boot.
2 Reviews
Chan Sing is out of prison and that means big trouble for someone
ckormos16 March 2016
Chan Sing has just broken out of prison and in these movies that means big trouble for somebody. It seems he has been double crossed over a treasure map. He kills the family but the son has the map. He tries every unbelievable trick in the book to get the map plus a few fights. Barry, the son, and his buddy and big fat servant follow the map to the alleged treasure.
For no reason at all except perhaps to fill the movie runtime they encounter a girl along the way. Feel free to fast forward through every scene with a girl as she has nothing to do with the story at all.
The fights are really good. There is an attempt at mantis style in the fighting and in the title. In real life, Barry Chan does Tae Kwan Do and Chan Sing is a karate expert. Both did a pretty good job of faking a few mantis style moves though I don't see why that was needed. Overall, the movie was too long, with a strangely edited storyline but the movie had really good fights.
The movie was written, produced, and directed by South Koreans. Aside from Yeo Su-Jin, the lovely lady from "Secret Rivals", the cast is all Chinese.
My copy is the Tai Seng DVD. The video plays as wide screen but is cropped a bit on all sides. The colors are bright without wash out. It is dubbed English and the voice overs are not the A team but good enough. I rate it above average for the year and genre of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.
For no reason at all except perhaps to fill the movie runtime they encounter a girl along the way. Feel free to fast forward through every scene with a girl as she has nothing to do with the story at all.
The fights are really good. There is an attempt at mantis style in the fighting and in the title. In real life, Barry Chan does Tae Kwan Do and Chan Sing is a karate expert. Both did a pretty good job of faking a few mantis style moves though I don't see why that was needed. Overall, the movie was too long, with a strangely edited storyline but the movie had really good fights.
The movie was written, produced, and directed by South Koreans. Aside from Yeo Su-Jin, the lovely lady from "Secret Rivals", the cast is all Chinese.
My copy is the Tai Seng DVD. The video plays as wide screen but is cropped a bit on all sides. The colors are bright without wash out. It is dubbed English and the voice overs are not the A team but good enough. I rate it above average for the year and genre of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.
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