The Bravest Revenge (1970)

The Bravest Revenge is amazing!

Please note: that word was not "good".

The plot... err, an evil villain kills a martial arts master so his pupils (one of whom is his daughter) train with other masters for five years to take revenge... but they're still not good enough to beat him, so some other guy they meet in a bar goes off to find a legendary sword.

Something like that anyway - stuff happens, for reasons, you know the drill. This Taiwanese wuxia clearly didn't have the resources of Shaw Brothers to draw on, but it did have Taiwan's natural beauty and a whole heap of enthusiasm.

The film is action packed to say the least, with fights every few minutes building up to a finale that's basically 25 minutes of carnage. There is some really creative action design, and even more creative camerawork - there are shots reminiscent of King Hu's The Valiant Ones five years later, which in turn inspired the final fight in Tsui Hark's The Blade two decades on. I can't think of anybody else doing action quite like this in 1970.

Otherwise the film is... kind of bad, I guess, especially the acting - but for deranged wuxia action it's up there with the best!