Released by the notorious gray market DVD label Crash Cinema under the name Ninja Fist of Fire and mis-labeled (perhaps intentionally) as a Godfrey Ho picture, The Fist That Kills, not surprisingly given Crash Cinema's track record, doesn't feature one singular shuriken, much less a fully-fledged black-suited ninja, displayed onscreen during the entirety of its' running time.

Despite the lack of ninjitsu and Godfrey Ho schizophrenic madness, The Fist That Kills is actually a decent period martial arts film originally released in Taiwan directed by Wong Tin-Lam, the recently deceased director who, despite helming 129 movies during his life, is probably better known to modern audiences for his cameo appearances in Johnnie To films and being the father of the extremely prolific and controversial film-maker Wong Jing.

Even though there are over 1300 reviews on this site, The Fist That Kills is the first Wong Tin-Lam picture that I've watched, so I can't say how it stacks up against the rest of his filmography. But compared to Chinese martial arts pictures released during this time period, this film, like many similar movies put out in this time frame, seems to find itself stuck in the middle between the traditional methods espoused by long-running studios like the Shaw Brothers and the more realistic and hard-hitting style brought forth to audiences all over the world via the cinematic one-inch punch that was Bruce Lee.

Overall, the film-making and the fights are a little on the sloppy side, and the story and acting isn't anything notable. But there is a charm to the proceedings that keeps the viewer entertained. Most of the charm comes via Cheung Ching-Ching, who plays a spunky and tough female kung fu expert and lights up the screen each time she's on, even through the miasma of the terrible dubbing job present on the Crash Cinema DVD, which makes her sounds like a coked-out C-list 1970's actress.

RATING: 5