The Hell's Wind Staff

Rating:
Summary: Great Version of A Great Film - Bummer Ending
Review: Spoiler Alert Below:

Hell's Windstaff is a great movie. It's probably one of the best kung fu movies of the late 70's. It's not great because it has a good storyline. It's selling point is the fighting. And there are lots of them. The choreography is top notch, with guys like Mang Hoi, Hwang Jang Lee and Jason Piao. Mang Hoi's buddy in the film is Tiger Wong, who is played by Yuen Man Meng. I had never heard of this guy before, but was pleasantly surprised at how acrobatic he was, in addition to the quick speed with which he performed the moves. Sadly, he would be forced to retire from the HK action film seen after suffering a heart attack. In this film he looks like someone who could have gone to do bigger and better things. But enough about that. Now to the SPOILER, which is why the DVD doesn't deserve the full five stars.

While this film is presented in it's original aspect ratio (2.35:1), original language (Cantonese with chinese and english subtitles burned in), the ending, sadly, is truncated. I have the full screen, english dubbed version from World Video, and it features the full ending, where you see the bad guy get shoved into a tree stump and his legs yanked apart like a wishbone. For whatever reason, this has been removed from this print that's on the Xenon disc. I don't know if Xenon removed it or if the source was already missing it. Either way, it's a huge bummer. I'd still recommend getting this version if you are a hardcore HK film collector, inspite of the missing ending.

Rating:
Summary: Great Version of A Great Film - Bummer Ending
Review: Spoiler Alert Below:

Hell's Windstaff is a great movie. It's probably one of the best kung fu movies of the late 70's. It's not great because it has a good storyline. It's selling point is the fighting. And there are lots of them. The choreography is top notch, with guys like Mang Hoi, Hwang Jang Lee and Jason Piao. Mang Hoi's buddy in the film is Tiger Wong, who is played by Yuen Man Meng. I had never heard of this guy before, but was pleasantly surprised at how acrobatic he was, in addition to the quick speed with which he performed the moves. Sadly, he would be forced to retire from the HK action film seen after suffering a heart attack. In this film he looks like someone who could have gone to do bigger and better things. But enough about that. Now to the SPOILER, which is why the DVD doesn't deserve the full five stars.

While this film is presented in it's original aspect ratio (2.35:1), original language (Cantonese with chinese and english subtitles burned in), the ending, sadly, is truncated. I have the full screen, english dubbed version from World Video, and it features the full ending, where you see the bad guy get shoved into a tree stump and his legs yanked apart like a wishbone. For whatever reason, this has been removed from this print that's on the Xenon disc. I don't know if Xenon removed it or if the source was already missing it. Either way, it's a huge bummer. I'd still recommend getting this version if you are a hardcore HK film collector, inspite of the missing ending.