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As two swordsmen,
Fu Hung-Hsueh (Ti Lung) & Yen Nan-Fei (Lo Lieh), are about to duel
each other to the death, 2 killers with the beautiful names of Earth
Evil & Wood Evil (which describes their respective fighting styles,
by the way) show up who also want to kill Yen. But Fu, instead of
leaving his work to the 2 killers, instead defends Yen & defeats the
2 killers. The 2 former adversaries Fu & Yen now embark on a mission
together to uncover who's behind the attempted assault. Soon it becomes
apparent that Master Yu, one of the leaders of the martial arts
world is behind it all, because he wants to get his hands on Peacock
Dart, the most powerful weapon, & it seems only Yen & Fu can
prevent him from it. But when the duo comes to Peacock Mansion, to ask
this mansions master, Chiu (Cheng Miu) for said weapon - a disk emitting
lethal rays & causing deadly explosions - it might be they have run
into a trap themselves for one of Chiu's servants is actually one of
Yu's henchman who just waited for an opportunity to get his hands on
Chiu's weapon. Chiu of course is one step ahead of the competition,
since the weapon was not in the heavuily guarded safe of his after all
but in his mansion's hall, easily accessible to ev eryone, disguised as
an ornament. Still, he dies fighting his renegade servant (but so does
the servant), leaving our 2 heroes not only with the Peacock Dart but
Chiu's beautiful daughter Yu-cheng (Ching Li) to take care of. More
determined than ever, they decide to journey to Yu's place to solve the
mystery of all the killings in the martial arts world once & for
all, but Yu has taken precautions, having our heroes face 5 master
killers in increasingly bizarre duels - among others they fight the
cannibalistic Devil Grandma (Ha Ping) & Ku Wu Chi (Norman Chu), who
directs his fighters like figures on a giant chessboard. During this
fight though, Yen disappears & Fu (still in possession of the
Peacock Dart) is poisoned. Only his years of training prevent him from
dying & coming to strength again just in time to defend both the
weapon & Yu-cheng. When he later wants to stay at a friend's place,
he instead witnesses only traces of bloodshed, learns of Yen's death
& even loses Yu-cheng. Still he does not give up his quest &
finally gets to Yu's mansion, where Yu's wife wants to seduce him &
promises him everything for the Peacock Dart. Surprisingly, Fu
agrees, but wants not Yu's wife but a night with Yu-cheng & a chance
to fight Master Yu - both wishes are of course granted, as soon Yu-cheng
comes to his room & starts to disrobe ... The next day Fu is
presented with a masked man as Master Yu, who of course turns out to be
none other than Yen who hasn't been killed after all, but whom Fu
defeats. Fu though realizes that man couldn't have been Master Yu for he
didn't use the Peacock Dart to defeat him & is presented with the
real McCoy, an old man who always needs new swordsman to be the official
Master Yu but who he can guide as puppeteer, & now Fu shall become
the new Master Yu - he refuses of course & challenges the old man to
a duel - which is of course granted. The old man of course uses the
Peacock Dart in an attempt to kill Fu, but Fu - having spent the night
with Yu-cheng, learned a few of the secrets of the Peacock Dart from
her, among other things how to defend oneself from it - can escape the
lethal power of this ultimate weapon & finally beat Master Yu.
The world of Hong Kong martial arts was thankfully never one that had
much to do with realism (let alone reality), but even within the logic
of the martial arts-movie, Magic Blade goes far-out, always
bordering the fantasy-genre (& occasionally even crossing the line),
& presenting us with a bizarre world of highly formalized
swordfights (done on occasions as games of chess or ensemble dance
routines), futuristic-fantastic weapons, cannibals, explosions, hidden
doors & secret panels, which, in the context of the movies
narrative, makes perfect sense, presenting the audience with a highly
entertaining, fast-paced & colourful piece of otherworldly Kung Fu
cinema.
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find Magic Blade at adultvideouniverse.com
