Hand of Death
| Hand of Death | |
|---|---|
UK DVD cover
|
|
| Directed by | John Woo |
| Produced by |
Raymond Chow Peng Chien |
| Written by | John Woo |
| Starring |
Doran Tan James Tien Paul Chang Jackie Chan Sammo Hung |
| Music by | Joseph Koo |
| Cinematography | Liang Yung-chi |
| Edited by | Chang Yau-chung Yuan Tung-chun |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
95 min. |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Mandarin |
Hand of Death (simplified Chinese: 少林门; traditional Chinese: 少林門; pinyin: shǎolínmén), also known as Countdown in Kung Fu, is a 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film written and directed by John Woo, and starring Doran Tan and James Tien, and featuring early acting performances from Chan Yuan-lung, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in supporting roles. In addition to their acting roles, Hung also worked as stunt co-ordinator, whilst Yuen also performed much of the stuntwork, including doubling for both of the principal stars.
During the Qing Dynasty the Shaolin disciples are hunted down by a powerful warrior who wants to rid the Shaolin men from China. At a remote training camp a group of Shaolin train together, their best student Yun Fei is given the task of taking down Shih Shao-Feng and his reign of terror. Along the way he befriends Chan Yuan-lung's character named Tan Feng, who is a blacksmith.
Yun Fei arrives at Shih's camp and tries to take him, but fails. His Shaolin techniques are useless against Shih's "extended iron claw". When Shih beats him, he leaves the rest to his eight bodyguards, who each have weapons such as swords, shields and spears.
Yun Fei escapes with the help of the blacksmith, goes to a village and discovers Shih's men are taking apart the village and pillaging anything they can to scare the villagers into submission.
Tan befriends two people along the way, including a brilliant swordsman who has never drawn his sword after he accidentally killed a prostitute he loved.
The team forms a coalition to defeat Shih Shao-Feng.
With battle plans laid and the heroes trained, they prepared themselves for the battle ahead of them. After their training, Yun Fei's friends cut off his pigtail. Yun Fei and all the heroes will create a diversion, where they will assail Shih's headquarters in separate groups.
...
Wikipedia