Shanghai Lil

A fair example of mid-period Shaw Brothers martial arts film, enlivened by some fairly lethal-looking stunt work around a mine face, and an attractive performance from female martial artist Shih Szu. Chin Han's hero, released from prison after serving a term in place of his half-brother, returns to find the latter working the family mine in cahoots with the Russians. Inevitably, rejecting an underhand offer of Japanese aid, he goes on (with the aid of Shih Szu) to win the mine back - quite explicitly sidestepping a situation with revolutionary potential. The Chin Han character, while physically resembling the heroes of mainland Chinese films very closely, fails to carry the kind of populist charge so crucial to the martial arts hero, and without this he comes off decidedly palely compared to the trenchant Japanese contingent, despite the statutory Chinese triumph at the end.