Wang Yue (not Jimmy Wang Yu), who played Li Pao-tung, the central character in this movie, in my opinion, was very good in playing comedy and kung-fu. I've seen him a couple of times in movies directed by Liu Chia-liang, one of my favourite fighting instructors, and I have always been impressed. He was very good in playing naughty and proud characters. At times, the way he delivered his lines seemed like he knew everything, dared to do anything and thought about the consequences later. He can be compared to several more popular young Hong Kong actors at that time like Jackie Chan and Yuen Piao.
Li Pao-tung was the son of Li Chang-jian, a cotton shop owner who had been in the business for 20 years. The father wanted the son to inherit his business, but Li Pao-tung's interest was only to learn martial-arts. He secretly learned kung-fu from a beggar. When the beggar was murdered, Li Pao-tung was there to witness it and he heard the murderer said that the man who had hired him was 'The Sword in the Cotton'. Who else 'The Sword in the Cotton' if not his father Li Chang-jian? - the only cotton businessman in town. Since then, he saw his father in a different light. For example, when his father took him to a expedition company to learn how to ship cotton, the son thought that his father were teaching him to learn the situation so he went back to rob the place at night.
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| Wang Yue piled up 3 benches on a table and climbed to the top... |
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| ...and jumped to the chandelier. |
He had an eagle tattoo on his chest, which he proudly showed to his friends. But when his father discovered it, he showed him that it could be erased because it was not permanent. Father - son relationship here was well depicted by Sun Chung, the director.
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| If you hit me again, I'll become a monk and you'll have no grandsons. |
The final fight between Wang Yue and Wang Lung-wei was enjoyable to watch. At first glance, Wang Lung-wei should have been able to win - if you calculate the strength, experience, skills; but with his naughty tricks, our hero won.
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