Kid with the Golden Arm

Chang Cheh's 1979 Shaw Brothers film is one of the few productions featuring all six of the actors known as the Venom Mob. A group of escort guards is charged with moving a shipment of gold to a famine-stricken area, and on the road a gang led by a fighter called the Golden Arm is waiting. The story is simple and needs to be: the film is built entirely on fight choreography. Chang Cheh's method in this period was to define each character by a distinct fighting style and weapon; the audience tracks who fights with which technique and the confrontations become a kind of puzzle. The physical skill of Kwok Chui and Lo Meng shows the limits of an era without wires or effects. The story has no emotional depth and the film never claims otherwise. Who it's for: viewers who like Shaw Brothers martial arts cinema and choreography-driven genre films. Who it's not for: anyone wanting character depth and plot, or who will tire of continuous fighting.