Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Lack of good storyline.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Having just watched Jimmy Yu Wang in One-Armed Boxer, and enjoying it, I figured this would be just as good. Boy, was I wrong. Jimmy Yu Wang is wooden in his depiction of Silver Roc Xiao Pang/Hsiao Peng. He doesn't have the charisma here that he exuded in One-Armed Boxer. He seems more like a man in serious need of Lamictal.His obsession with Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-Pei), is so intense he frames her for murders by leaving her Darts at every scene. He wants to draw her out. Setting her up for them murders of many villains was his only option? A letter would have done a better job. And, she wouldn't be dealing with nutjobs coming out of the woodwork to exact revenge for things Silver Roc did.I felt so bad for Golden Whip Han Tao (Lieh Lo). He saved Golden Swallow from from certain death. He nursed her back to life. He even sparred with her to keep her Kung Fu levels above par. And, she spends 3 years (Yup, Han Tao spent 3 years at her side) pining over the unrequited love of Silver Roc. Han Tao puts up with it because he too is in love with her.Silver Roc, when not setting Golden Swallow up, spends most of his time at a brothel with Mei Niang (Chiu Sam-Yin). He uses her as, a substitute for Golden Swallow. You know the saying, if you cant be with the one you love, love the one you're with - however, Silver Roc makes it quite clear he has no feelings for Mei. He'd rather wax nostalgic over Golden Swallow, kill any baddie that crosses his path and of course, set Golden Swallow up for his crimes. Yeah, talk about toxic love.Han Tao follows Golden Swallow in her search for Silver Roc. She needs to decide which one she loves more. It's quite clear from the moment she realizes Silver Roc is her old school chum, that her heart belongs to him. She constantly reminds Han Tao he's been friend-zoned.The men finally meet and prepare to duel. Silver Roc's attempts to act all cool and nonchalant come off more annoying than impressive. His attitude is not believable, in my honest opinion. He spends most of the time looking like he'll collapse from a lack of sleep.The best parts of this film are the brief, and a I do mean brief, appearances of other well known Shaw Brothers Actors. Lau Kar Leung and brother Wing are baddies who are bumped off by Silver Fox. Ku Feng is a father who's son is accused of stealing a goose because the accuser wants Ku Feng's house to add to his property. Sadly, the boy kills himself to prove his innocence and Ku Feng is murdered by the accusers cronies.If you blink, you'll miss Wang Kuang-Yu as Lin Qian and Cliff Lok as Fang Ying, who are both killed off by Golden Swallow in a fight at a restaurant. The best moment is seeing David Chiang Da Wei as an eavesdropping brothel clerk. Now, there's someone who could have breathed the missing life into Silver Roc. David Chiang Da Wei would have given Silver Roc his signature over confident smirk and it would have made this movie pop. Silver Roc and Han Tao's duel is merely a precursor to more unrequited love confessions between Silver Roc and Golden Swallow. Han Tao misinterprets Silver Roc's leap toward him and stabs Silver Roc mid-air. Silver Roc was actually aiming for Poison Dragon Wang Xiong (Yeung Chi-Hing). Xiong was sneaking up on Golden Swallow and Silver Roc wanted to protect her.The dying Silver Roc demands Han Tao take Golden Swallow home, so she can't watch Silver Roc die. But, it's okay for Mei to hang around for the final curtain. Silver Roc hangs on to kill off a few more baddies before doing his version of James Cagney's "Made it Ma. Top of the World" from White Heat.Golden Swallow and Mei bury Silver Roc between Golden Swallow's and Han Tao's homes. Yeah, that wouldn't be an issue for any man. Han Tao packs up and announces he's leaving - a good choice. He assures Golden Swallow they'll never meet again - also a good choice.This is not a good Jimmy Yu Wang movie. It is, a great fight film. If you like checking out Shaw Brothers' actor in their younger days, this is one to watch. Otherwise, skip it.

This is the seventh film from Chang Cheh. Still finding his style, here Cheh is clearly influenced by concurrent chambara films from Japan. While there are a number of signature Cheh style scenes in this film, there many scenes that are very experimental for him especially the opening fight that's cropped in unique ways. The photography is very good, especially the outdoor shots and the composition is better then in many of his later films.While titled, "Golden Swallow", as others have noted, it really should be called "Silver Roc" or "Iron Whip vs. Flying Swords" or something like that. The character Golden Swallow is in the film but director Cheh is more interested in the disturbed swordsman played by Wang Yu. He gets to kill scores of bad guys in numerous extended scenes while the title character is involved in four short fights at the most.Is the film good? Well it is entertaining for the most part if a bit gory (with lots of bright red paint). The martial arts are good but many fights scenes are shot with a shaky hand-held camera much like many Japanese movies from the same time. It's effective but muddies up the choreography if that's what you're looking for. The signature zoom lens Shaw style camera work doesn't really get going until the mid seventies. Shaw director Liu Chia Liang can be seen for a second or two as a villainous swordsman.

Touted as the sequel to King Hu's Come Drink With Me starring Cheng Pei Pei, this movie is anything but. Except for the return of Pei Pei's Golden Swallow role, Chang Cheh's movie doesn't share any similarities with King Hu's original, clearly stamping his own take on his movie utilizing the lead character from Come Drink With Me, and relegating her to supporting role status.As a fan of the original, this is downright disappointing, as I had expected to see Pei Pei kick some serious rear again as the fabled swordswoman. Instead, what we get is a story involving a love triangle of sorts, with costars Lo Lieh as Golden Whip Han Tao, a man who saved Golden Swallow from bandits and nursed her back to health, and Wang Yu as a beau from long time ago, who now calls himself The Silver Roc. The Drunken Cat, with whom Golden Swallow rode into the sunset with, is clearly forgotten and totally written out.In actuality, this movie can be renamed The Silver Roc. The story centers on this figure, an orphan bearing a scar on the forehead similar to Harry Potter's, and is one of the fellow disciples to Golden Swallow's teachers. Disappearing one night to seek revenge on his family's murderers, he resurfaces to look for Golden Swallow, and does so by killing villains in her name, in an attempt to lure her out of seclusion. Being the self-proclaimed number one swordsman with an attitude helps too, and not before long, our trio will meet, with Golden Swallow being indecisive about both alpha males, that they have to duke it out to settle scores.In Chang Cheh's signature ketchup blood style, this movie doesn't lack in the gore department, with really bloody scenarios, dismembered bodies, slashes to face and an inspiration to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, albeit done in a more straightforward manner. But some of the kung fu moves seemed recycled from One Armed Swordsman, especially Wang Yu's Silver Roc, who holds his sword akimbo similar to his One Armed days. And his much revered "Coup De Grace" killer move was never seen until the finale, and that too was too weakly executed and laughable. I wondered too about numerous scenes where characters liked to leap out of windows, clearly to a mat at the bottom, out of the screen. But one thing's a bonus, and that's having plenty of outdoor shots versus indoor studio ones, which boosts production values a little.Still, it's a decent martial arts flick, but one which could have been miles better. With Wang Yu hogging too much of the limelight with his character in this movie, it suffers by neglecting the other leading characters by Lo Lieh, and especially Cheng Pei Pei, because the movie, after all, is named after her Golden Swallow, or in the original English title, it's the Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick (apparently it's a misnomer, she doesn't have that skill, nor executed any recognizable kicking moves).If anything, watch out for a young Wu Ma as Hu Zhen, a supporting character and friend of Golden Swallow and Han Tao. Nothing memorable, but just a getting a kick out of recognizing a star (to me at least) in his earlier youthful looking days.

THE GIRL WITH THE THUNDERBOLT KICK (aka GOLDEN SWALLOW, 1968) is a Shaw Bros. costume swordplay drama notable for co-starring the studio's top male action star, Jimmy Wang Yu, with the studio's then-reigning swashbuckling diva Cheng Pei Pei (THE THUNDERING SWORD). Wang Yu plays the notorious killer Silver Roc and Cheng plays his childhood sweetheart Golden Swallow, whom he hasn't seen in years (a reprise of a character the same actress played in King Hu's COME DRINK WITH ME, 1966). Golden Swallow follows Roc's trail of blood and is accompanied by Golden Whip Hand (Lo Lieh), who is in love with her but helps her track down Silver Roc. Midway through the film they all meet, but Silver Roc quickly challenges Whip Hand to a duel after the latter condemns Roc for an earlier instance of cold-blooded killing. That's pretty much the whole plot and it takes a long time getting to the final duel. This film has its fans but it doesn't hold up as well as such other Wang Yu vehicles of the 1960s as ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, and THE ASSASSIN. There are plenty of swordfights here, but they're fairly stylized, with lots of leaping around, twirling of swords, soft blows, and unconvincing fighting skills. Cheng Pei Pei has great screen presence, but she's more of a dancer than a fighter. There's an undertone of unrequited love that's rather poignant at times. Following this film Wang Yu turned to a harder-edged brand of martial arts film with THE CHINESE BOXER (1970), generally considered the first pure kung fu film.The video transfer available in this country has Cantonese dialogue dubbed over the original Mandarin soundtrack, which remains slightly audible. The transfer is full-screen, cutting off the widescreen subtitles on the sides, making some of the dialogue difficult to decipher. The Cantonese sound mix includes music cues lifted from John Barry's soundtrack for the James Bond film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and awkwardly plastered in over the very lovely original music track.