Customer Reviews

Life Gamble [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1977, the maestro Chang Cheh re-teamed his "Venom" boys (before they were known as that) with Johnny Wang, Billy Tang, Simon Li (who seemed real smug in the interview feature), Fu Sheng, and a few Shaw actresses like Kara Hui & Shirley Yu (unusual for director Chang to use females in lead roles). Not the best movie from this group, but it's pretty damn good, and that's sayin' a lot, pard'. As usual with Shaw Brothers, great, colorful sets; as usual with Chang, esoteric weapons & great performances (especially Philip Kwok a.k.a. Kuo Chui & Lo Mang); as usual with Robert Tai, Liang Ting and Lu Feng, great fu on display; don't know why Robert was so disappointed with it that he took his name off of it.

Now I'll be the first to admit the first half is a bit slow going, and the theme is redundant & obvious-greed will corrupt and kill you (it was done better in "Disciples of Shaolin"-also with Fu Sheng), but there are some killer fights & good set-pieces in the second half. Not to mention a finale that must have inspired Chang's later "Flag of Iron". Navarre (I think that's the company's name who got this from Celestial) did a great presentation-beautiful, widescreen picture; re-mastered audio & subtitles. Also, a pretty good interview section with Lo Mang (really good), Ku Feng (not bad, but real long), Simon Li (dismisses his film career) & Sun Shu-Pei (also really good). Chang Cheh re-made this himself in 1993 under the title, "Hidden Hero." All fans of Shaw Brothers, Chang Cheh and old-school fu, take note.

The Shaw Brothers, the company known for their many releases of Hong Kong films for many decades ran by producer Sir Run Run Shaw, knighted by the British government and founder of Shaw University in Hong Kong and even founded the HK-TVB TV network was a major power behind the company and his third brother Runme Shaw (who founded South Sea Film), the film company would become known as Shaw Brothers Studio and become the first studio to bring Hong Kong cinema with sound in 1934.

The Shaw Brothers have created over a thousand films and with several having been aired on US television and some being released on video, the 1978 film "Sheng si dou" (Life Gamble) is directed by Chang Cheh (known for the film "Chinese Super Ninjas", "Five Venoms", The Brave Archer" and "The One-Armed Swordsman), the Shaw Brothers Studio's most well-known filmmaker.

"Life Gamble" brings together talent who have appeared in his films "Five Venoms" and "Invincible Shaolin" in a martial arts story about rivals, deception and greed.

The film revolves around a a group of assassins who have stolen a highly coveted jade piece that can earn them a lot of money. The problem is that with four assassins having worked together, the question is how would they split the earnings. Because some do not want to share the profits, the only way they can come to a final decision is to go to play a game to the death in which the ruthless king of the gamblers would be in charge of the game.

But the king of the gamblers has a plan, to murder the four assassins and he would be the person that will have the jade piece in possession.

Meanwhile, news of the jade piece and the assassins coming to town has reached many other assassins who have arrived in town in hopes they can get their hands on the jade statue and defeat the four original assassins.

But in order to do that, one hopes to have the famous blacksmith Kuo Chui to create them better weapons. But unfortunately Kuo has no intention of coming out of retirement... that is until his life is threatened.

Featuring an strong cast of characters each with their own special martial arts skill such as Lo Mang (known for his seven daggers), Fu Sheng (the expert knife thrower), Lu Feng (the excellent swordsman and a man who betrayed the blacksmith), Xiao Tang (the man with the deadly whip), Zhen Liu Xiang (with her golden hairpin attack) and many more!

VIDEO:

So far, each Shaw Brothers release that FUNimation Entertainment has looked quite solid. Thanks to Celestial Pictures going through major remastering and restoration for many of the Shaw Bros. films, "Life Gamble" looks very good compared to its other previous releases and uncut. I will say that compared to other Shaw Brothers films, "Life Gamble" is the only one that does look a little aged but I have seen this film once before and this DVD looks much better than the previous version that I saw many years ago.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for audio, the film is presented in English Dolby Digital stereo and Mandarin Mono. Personally, having endured these Shaw films with the terrible (yet humorous) English dubs back in the late '70s and early '80s, just watching it again with the English dub just didn't make sense anymore (unless you get a kick of how bad they were acted). So, watching it with the Mandarin mono track was my choice and preference.

I felt the English stereo soundtrack was OK but felt the Mandarin mono to be much better. For listening, I had my receiver set for stereo on all channels for a more immersive soundtrack. Some may be wondering why the film is presented in Mandarin when Hong Kong films are typically in Cantonese. The Shaw Brothers Studio had films split into Mandarin and Cantonese.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Life Gamble" comes with no special features.

EXTRAS:

The "Life Gamble" DVD comes with a slip cover.

JUDGMENT CALL:

If there is one thing that you can expect from a Shaw Brothers film, especially when its directed by Chang Cheh , it's that you are going to get an entertaining story with awesome martial arts choreography and plenty of action.

"Life Gamble" is an interesting tale that features plenty of characters which is a double-edge sword when it comes to filmmaking because a) you sacrifice character development in trying to create a cohesive story with so many characters b) awesome because there are many characters with distinct fighting styles.

For those in it for the action, there is a lot of action in this film. Many types of weapons utilized by certain characters and if anything, you get a sense the film is more or less, who will be the last one standing.

There is a main character in the sense that the Kuo Chui is a well-revered Blacksmith which everyone knows he is a talented martial artist and wants him to assist them or create a weapon for them, anyway to bring him out of retirement. But the story is written in a way that you don't follow him too closely.

Overall, "Life Gamble" may not be the best Shaw Brothers or even the best Chang Cheh film, but it is very entertaining for its martial arts choreography. But for those wanting a deep plot, this is one of those films that is more eye candy when it comes to the action sequences and with all the characters featured, you really never get the sense that you want to root for one, you're just wondering who is going to survive in the end. Otherwise, "Life Gamble" will definitely please Chang Cheh fans and also those who are in it for the action.

I caught this Shaw Brothers chop sockey flick on the "Kung Fu Channel", a HD cable channel that shows chop sockety flicks 24/7, most of which are Shaw Brothers productions. While most of Shaw Brothers movies revolved around only a select group of characters, "Life Gamble", instead had a ensemble cast that swelled up to at least 16.

The story basically revolved around a group of bandits (three men and a woman) who waylayed a caravan belonging to the Nan family, who in turn was "escorting" a valuable piece of jade to its rightful owner. Unwilling to share the jade amongst themselves with the flimsy excuse of the fear of incurring the wrath of the Nan family, they decided to gamble for it; with only one of them walking away with the priceless heirloom. They appointed a well-known "King of Gamblers" called Golden Lion to act as a neutral party to determine which of the 4 will win the jade.

Golden Lion had his own ideas about acquiring the jade, and so does about every well-known martial artists who lives in town who caught wind of it. Throw also into the mix is the local constable and his daughter and a retired blacksmith, who forged most of the weapons used by the aforementioned martial artists.

"Life Gamble", while featured its fair share of battle sequences, also featured intrigue and backstabbing aplenty, as each character makes and breaks alliances and reveal other ulterior motives with almost monotonous regularity. At the end of the day, practically the entire cast was wiped out; even the top billed actors are not immune from the rate of attrition. While Shaw Brothers flicks usually featured one token major female character (if at all), this movie has a whopping four; and these are not damsels in distress...all are capable black widows.

Given the huge ensemble cast, it is easier to keep track of who is who while watching the movie with sub-titles. I for one, do not care for the horrendous English dubbing as shown on Kung Fu HD. Luckily, the DvD release do not even give you that option. The language is Mandarin with English subs.

The extras feature interviews with various actors and producers who worked with Shaw Brothers, but the interviews were not specifically about "Life Gamble", they are just generic interviews in which the interviewees related their careers in the industry. The interviews are obviously edited and a couple were quite short.

In all, "Life Gamble" is one of Shaw Brother's more interesting efforts. With so much packed in that it is hard to believe the movie is under one hour and forty minutes long....but it gets a little predictable after the umpteenth character showed his or her true colors and try to take the piece of jade for his or herself. Otherwise, figuring out who to trust and who will make it to the credits keeps the film engaging.

This movie was good and if you know the brothers then you know their quality. Some of their movies are not as good as most, and I can say the same for this one. I bought this as a triple collection item (3 movies-1)package. It was well worth the money and can be watch by everyone. I think you will enjoy this flick and follow the story line as well. Good choreographed fight scenes and fighting skills.

This was a beautifully restored dvd from Jade Tiger, which was some kind of branding spin-off Image Entertainment tried to use for some of its Shaw Brothers titles, but only this and Opium and the Kung-Fu Master made it out on that label. The movie stars a few of the infamous "venoms" and Alexander Fu Sheng and is as always skillfully directed by the great Chang Cheh. The plot is pretty complex in its developments compared to other similar movies of the era. It centers around a group of 4 thieves who steal a valuable jade artifact, but none of them think the split earned on selling it will be enough. They decide to gamble over it so just one can claim the item and it's price, so they set up a simple match to be overseen by the King of Gamblers. Well then everyone finds out about this and tries to make a play for the item -- a famous swordsman (Lo Meng), a famous blacksmith in hiding (Phillip Kwok), a lawman (Ku Feng), and others. Fu Sheng's character, an assassin, works for the King of Gamblers and gets caught right up in the middle of it all too. All these stories and characters overlap in at least a dozen ways. There's actually some great acting, some great small stories, and the finale with the flag defense, taken right out of the Peking Opera, was great.

Another of the reviews mentioned the disk itself well enough, though I'd like to emphasize that despite what I'm seeing above for product information, the aspect ratio here is NOT 1.33:1. It's quite beautiful in its widescreen glory! And I'd prefer a rating of 4.5 but don't mind rounding up.

This Shaw Brothers film has all of the venoms cast in a story that takes on many turns Fu Shengs character is an expert knife thrower who is a hired killer. Lo Meng who also is a knife tossing expect who and every other character in this film are all after a secret treasure they in turn are all fighting each other. Not a 5 star movie but has a lot of different characters using a variety of styles.