Life Gamble

Life Gamble
Traditional 生死鬥
Simplified 死亡竞赛
Mandarin Shēngsǐ si dòu
Cantonese Sǐwáng 1
Directed by Chang Cheh
Leung Ting (Uncredited, Action Director)
Lu Feng (Uncredited, Action Director)
Produced by Run Run Shaw
Written by Chang Cheh
Ni Kuang
Starring Kuo Chui
Alexander Fu Sheng
Wang Lung Wei
Ku Feng
Kara Hui Ying-Hung
Chiang Sheng
Shirley Yu
Lu Feng
Lo Mang
Music by Chen Yung Yu
Cinematography Kung Mu-To
Miyaki Yukio[1]
Edited by Hsing-Lung Chiang
Production
company
Distributed by Shaw Brothers Studio
Release date
  • 22 February 1979 (1979-02-22)
Running time
 96 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Mandarin

Life Gamble, also known as Life Combat, is a 1979 Hong Kong Wuxia film directed by Chang Cheh and starring the Venoms, Kara Hui and Alexander Fu Sheng. It was written by Chang Cheh and I Kuang and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio.

Plot

A complex story, about a stolen piece of jade which was originally stolen by 4 thieves (Dick Wei, Bruce Tong, Lau Wai Ling & Suen Shi Pau) that falls into the hands of a habitual gambler named Mao Kai Yuan (Wang Lung Wei) and his arrogant anti-hero bodyguard Yun Xiang (Fu Sheng), a knife throwing expert. Various individuals want the jade from Mao Kai Yuan for their own purposes (to get rich or to return it to its owner), particularly the con-woman Peng Shuang Shuang (Shirley Yu) and her hired help, who wants to get it played in a gamble game at Mo Jun Feng's (Lo Mang) small hotel, along with Xiao Qiang (Lin Chen-Chi) and her hired help Xiao Tang (Chiang Sheng), as well as the handless off and on villain Yan Zi Fei (Lu Feng); previously Xiao Qiang and Xiao Tang offered a duel to Yan Zi Fei to defeat his new sword technique, and if he lost he would lose his hand. The sword was made by the blacksmith Qiu Zi Yu (Kuo Chui), who formerly made weapons for kung fu experts with his only payment being for every expert to teach him his kung fu style, and therefore Kuo himself is an expert at various forms of kung fu. However, he retired from making weapons after Yan Zi Fei used his new sword to try to kill Qiu Zi Yu.

Lu Feng indeed lost his hand and lived as a reformed vagabond until hearing about the jade, so he approached Kuo Chui to apologize and ask for a new weapon to replace his hand but Kuo Chui refuses. Shirley Yu and Lo Mang approach Wang Lung Wei about the jade and offer him a price (basically give it up or die), however Fu Sheng hears this and challenges Lo Mang who is also a knife expert to a duel which ends up a draw when Wang Lung Wei intervenes. Chiang Sheng approaches Shirley Yu in private and tries to rape her however he is killed by her forcing his employer to go solo in getting the jade. Eventually a police captain and his daughter (played by Kara Hui) hear about the stolen jade. Kara Hui goes undercover as a maid in Wang Lung Wei’s house and captures the attention of the interested Fu Sheng which gets him to thinking about changing his lifestyle.

Lo Mang approaches Kuo Chui about making more knives for him but again Kuo refuses to make weapons causing Lo Mang to get angry and attack Kuo. Kuo counters all of Lo Mang’s knives and destroys them leaving Lo Mang with no weapons to defend himself and retreat. At this Bruce Tong approaches Kuo about how he "does" have weapons (his tools to make things such as a hammer, a shovel, etc..) and kills a bunch of thugs who also came looking for Kuo to make weapons. Lastly another individual arrives which is the owner of the escort party who lost the jade who asks for Kuo’s help in getting it back. Kuo offers to help but gets assistance from two individuals, he makes an iron hand with darts for Lu Feng if Feng offers to help and goes straight, he also makes replacement knives for Lo Mang if he also helps and offers to go straight in which both of them agree. At this point everyone flocks to Wang Lung Wei’s place to get the jade, Shirley Yu, Lo Mang, Kuo Chui, Lu Feng, and Lin Chen-Chi, with Kara Hui and Fu Sheng already on the scene and the police captain waiting at the hotel.

Everyone arrives and Kuo gambles with Wang Lung Wei for the jade saying if he wins he keeps the jade and if he loses he dies. Kuo rigs the gambling piece so that the outcome will be "death" either way for Wang Lung Wei. Wang Lung Wei attempts to escape but is killed by the darts in Lu Fengs iron hand. Lu Feng grabs the jade and returns to his usual self (villain) and threatens to kill everyone with his new iron hand if he doesn’t get the jade. Lo Mang attempts to apprehend him but Lu Feng catches his knives with his iron hand and kills Lin Chen-Chi. Lu Feng tries to fire another dart which backfires and kills him as Kuo rigged his iron hand to need to be "reset" after the fourth dart is fired or it will backfire. Lo Mang and Fu Sheng then get into another knife contest to settle the previous duel which was a draw, this contest ends up being another draw until Fu Sheng throws a magnetic knife which catches Lo Mangs knives and kills him. Kuo Chui tries to give the jade to Fu Sheng and Kara Hui to give it back to the police but Shirley Yu takes her hostage and escapes. Kuo goes after Shirley Yu in the hotel and Fu Sheng goes to check on Kara Hui.

Shirley Yu has the jade, but then is murdered by a ninja assassin, who doesn’t find the jade but escapes anyway. The innkeeper ends up finding the jade, but Kuo convinces him to give it up, and Kuo proceeds to return it to the escort service owner. The policeman, Kara Hui and Fu Sheng arrive looking for the jade. After talking to the innkeeper, the policeman tells him to go find Kuo, explaining that a trap for Kuo has been set up by the escort service, who wants to keep the jade, as it’s worth more than the reward. Kuo Chui meets the escort service but is ambushed and injured. The innkeeper returns to tell Fu Sheng, who tracks down the escort service, but not in time to save Kuo Chui. He kills the boss (Li Yi-Min) and his men and returns the jade to the police.

Cast

Release

As with House of Traps, Life Gamble was available as a Region 3 Celestial DVD reissue. Although it was difficult to purchase in other regional codings -except in degraded VHS tapes-, the film is currently available on Region 1 DVD from Funimation. It has a new NTSC transfer and Mandarin/English language audio options with subtitles.

References

  1. ↑ Life Gamble Full Cast Hong Kong Cinemagic
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