Heads For Sale (1970)

Directed by
Great title
Reviewed by Simon on 2008-04-12

A swordsman and swordswoman want to get married, but fall out over something that's never adequately explained, leading one of them to cross some bandits and get falsely imprisoned, falling sick in jail. The other concocts an outlandish scheme to get him medical treatment, leaving them both in jail, and requiring a family rescue. Although essentially a simple plot it's not easy to summarise, since so much of it is generic (only the outlandish scheme is novel, and therefore gives the film its name despite being a minor plot point in the grand scheme), yet not especially coherent.

The production is fairly typical for a Shaw Brothers wuxia of the era, featuring a mostly b-list cast. Director Cheng Chang Ho does a reasonable job, but shows little of the distinctive style he would develop with his next film, King Boxer, though the action scenes do show a higher than average attention to camera placement detail. There's not much else to make the film as memorable as its title though.