Dirty Ho (1979)

Solid piece of old-school from Lau Kar-Leung, starring Gordon Liu and Wong Yu in a plot that doesn't really go anywhere, but provides an excuse for Liu to train Wang so that he can fight for him.

There is some very inventive choreography, but it is mostly rather gimmicky, with Liu and rivals engaging in kung fu battles where they are both pretending that they aren't (e.g. a wine tasting session becomes an assassination attempt)... quite why they don't just say "Oi I'm going to kill you now" and get on with it I don't know. Etiquette perhaps.

Another interesting fight has Liu pretending to be terribly afraid of an assassin and hiding behind his female bodyguard. Said bodyguard is actually a waitress with no kung fu, so Liu manipulates her limbs under the guise of hiding behind her to fend of the assassin. Presumably he's hiding his skills because he's "undercover", but the assassins obviously know who he is so why doesn't he just kick their heads in?

Overall it's another enjoyable Kung Fu film from the Golden Era, but the gimmicky fights and lack of any particular tension or intrigue in the story mean it can't get more than a 7/10.