''Invincible Armor'' is a 1977 Hong Kong-Taiwanese
kung fu film
Kung fu film () is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in ''wuxia'', a related martial arts genre that uses historical ...
starring
Hwang Jang-lee
Hwang Jung-lee (Korean: 황정리; born December 21, 1944), known to many with the spelling of Hwang Jang-lee is a Japanese-born Korean martial artist and actor. Hwang is perhaps best known for his role as "Thunderleg" in 1978's ''Drunken Maste ...
,
John Liu
John Chun Yah Liu (born January 8, 1967) is an American politician in New York City. A member of the Democratic Party, he is a member of the New York State Senate for the 11th district in northeast Queens. He previously served as the 43rd New Yo ...
, and Tino Wong.
Plot
On patrol through town,
Ming
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
General Chow (Liu) observes a fighter, Hu Lung, fending off a group of bandits. Impressed by the fighter's skills, General Chow arranges for Hu Lung to meet the Minister of Royal Security as a potential candidate for joining the Ming forces. While sparring in the courtyard to test his skills, Hu Lung produces a knife and assassinates the Minister before leaping over the courtyard wall and escaping. As General Chow rushes to the Minister's aid, the guards arrive and immediately arrest Chow for the murder. En route to the court, a group of soldiers arrives with orders to kill Chow, who defeats the group and escapes.
Ming Minister of State Cheng (Lee), an authoritarian ruler and master of the Eagle Claw and Iron Armor techniques, summons his most skilled enforcer, Shen Yu (Wong), to hunt down Chow and arrest him. Chow hunts for Hu Lung, but must avoid the authorities along the way who are attempting to kill him. He eventually finds Hu Lung, but is thwarted by Shen Yu as Hu runs away. Chow informs Shen Yu that he has been wrongly accused and that Hu Lung is the actual murderer, but Shen is not convinced and he fights with Chow. The fight is interrupted by an old man claiming to also be after General Chow, and fights with Shen over who will get to bring him in. Chow uses this opportunity to escape and continues his pursuit of Hu Lung.
The old man is later revealed to be Hu Lung's old teacher, who previously expelled Hu from their clan. Hu confesses to his old teacher that he was paid by Minister Cheng, a former classmate of the old man, to carry out the assassination. The old man confronts the Minister over his actions and sets a trap to kill him, but is killed by Cheng in their ensuing fight.
Meanwhile, Chow learns the Iron Finger technique from the old man's grandson and granddaughter to defeat Cheng's Iron Armor, but his training is cut short when Shen Yu and a 2nd enforcer sent by the Minister arrive to arrest him again. After the 2nd enforcer attempts to kill Chow over Shen's objections but fails, Shen begins to doubt Chow's guilt and gives him three days to locate Hu Lung and clear his name. Before he can catch up with Hu Lung, Hu is killed by Cheng, however Shen discovers evidence on Hu's body that the Minister was involved.
Minister Cheng's plot is exposed and he is confronted by Chow, Shen Yu, and the old man's two grandchildren. During the fight, Chow discovers that Cheng's weak spot is his testicles and that Cheng is able to retract them into his body for protection. Through the group's combined efforts, Chow is able to use his Iron Finger technique to cause Cheng to drop his testicles so Chow and crush them, killing Cheng.
Cast
*
Hwang Jang-lee
Hwang Jung-lee (Korean: 황정리; born December 21, 1944), known to many with the spelling of Hwang Jang-lee is a Japanese-born Korean martial artist and actor. Hwang is perhaps best known for his role as "Thunderleg" in 1978's ''Drunken Maste ...
– Minister Cheng
*
John Liu
John Chun Yah Liu (born January 8, 1967) is an American politician in New York City. A member of the Democratic Party, he is a member of the New York State Senate for the 11th district in northeast Queens. He previously served as the 43rd New Yo ...
– Chow Lung Fu
*
Lee Hoi-sang
Lee Hoi-sang (born April 15, 1941) is a Hong Kong martial arts film actor and martial artist, known for his roles in '' The 36th Chamber of Shaolin'' (as Abbot Li Hai Sheng) (1978), '' Shaolin Challenges Ninja'' (1978), ''The Incredible Kung Fu ...
– Hu Lung
*Tino Wong – Shen Yu
*
Phillip Ko
Phillip Ko-Fei (June 18, 1949 – March 30, 2017) was a Hong Kong film actor, filmmaker and stunt coordinator.
He directed the movies ''Angel on Fire'', ''Magkasangga 2000'', ''Kakambal ko sa tapang'' and ''Romano Sagrado: Talim sa Dilim''.
Fil ...
– Hu's teacher
Reception
Review aggregator site
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives the film a score of 82% based on 321 user reviews.
Notes
The main theme for
Tonino Valerii
Tonino Valerii (20 May 1934 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian film director, most known for his Spaghetti Westerns. Tonino (Antonio) Valerii started his film career as an assistant director on Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'', before mo ...
's
Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
film
Day of Anger
''Day of Anger'' ( it, I giorni dell'ira, lit. "The Days of Wrath") is a 1967 Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Tonino Valerii and starring Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, and features a musical score by Riz Ortolani. The film ...
, scored by
Riz Ortolani
Riziero Ortolani (; 25 March 192623 January 2014) was an Italian composer, conductor, and orchestrator, predominantly of film scores. He scored over 200 films and television programs between 1955 and 2014, with a career spanning over fifty year ...
is used multiple time throughout the film.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Invincible Armour
Kung fu films
1977 films
1977 martial arts films
Hong Kong martial arts films
Taiwanese martial arts films
1970s Mandarin-language films
1970s Hong Kong films