The Killer Meteors (1976)

I wasn't sure if I'd seen this before or not - the entire way through I was thinking "Nope, haven't seen this", but then the very last shot was eerily familiar so I'm still not sure.

The film is a typically convoluted Ku Long tale of the jiang hu, unfolding with the dreamlike logic that was his style. Production values are surprisingly high for one of Lo Wei's independent productions. Jimmy Wang Yu does an OK job in a role that would probably have gone to Ti Lung if Chu Yuan were directing (or Derek Yee if it was a few years later).

Despite being featured prominently on most home video releases, Jackie Chan isn't actually in the film much, but he gets to bust a few moves when he is (and probably doubles Wang Yu for any acrobatics). It's a rare "bad guy" role for him.... though being a Ku Long story there are so many plots, schemes and betrayals it's hard to say who's a villain or not much of the time.

I went in with super low expectations, so the fact it exceeded them probably isn't that impressive, but it was more fun than I thought it would be and often looks very pretty. It would be a stretch to call it "good", but with Lo Wei in the director's chair it could have been worse!