The Secret Of The Dirk

The Secret of the Dirk (Da Luo Jian Xia) (1970)

Runtime: 78 minutes

Directed by: Teng Hung Hsu

Starring: Yi Chang, Pei-pei Shu, Li Ching, Hsiung Chao

From: Shaw Brothers

From the same random dude on YouTube who uploaded what I watched last night, here's another obscure Shaw Brothers movie (one that's even more obscure than the last one, judging by online votes and such). No, the secret in the title isn't what a “dirk” is. I'll be honest, the only dirk I know was Dirk Nowitski, the famous NBA basketball player. Thanks to Google, I discovered what it means; it is “a long thrusting dagger” used by mainly naval officers of old across the world. Yes, dirks do factor into the movie and one of them does have a secret. It's not like The Secret of the Ooze, either.

To steal the plot from Letterboxd: “The lovely Ching Li and handsome Chang I star as star-and-sword-crossed comrades who take on the vicious Black Tigers gang in a quest for hidden wealth. There's action galore, until the final, fiery fight in a temple of treasure.” To elaborate, several different entities are looking for a treasure that was the property of the rich people of a sieged town, thus it's important to some people. Such things appear as wacky wire-fu (there's a good amount of that present), an old mute man, and statues of bodhisattva.

While this wasn't as good as what I watched last night, I still enjoyed it. It's short, has a nice amount of action and along with the sword action (including several of them being used at the same time) there's also some martial arts. While the story doesn't always make sense, things move along briskly and it's always entertaining so I won't complain. You also get blood spurting out of wounds and a neat way of using an arrow. As for the dialogue (at least in the subtitles), some of it is wacky. While you actually get, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”, there's also “On this day next year is the first anniversary of your death!”, which is badass.

Sorry, not too much else to say about this entry. The plot at its most basic is rather simple and yet I don't want to say more and spoil how the story gets fleshed out. I shall return on Monday night.