A Pretended Rebel (1979)

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

NINJA WOLVES is a somewhat slapdash and cheap Taiwanese martial arts flick with a political backdrop. Unusually for the genre, the Japanese aren't the bad guys here, but rather ambassadors who have been betrayed by Chang Yi's corrupt eunuch, who has been stealing gold tributes destined for the Chinese emperor. The hero of the piece is none other than Shaw Brothers actor Yueh Hua, moonlighting on the cheap and wearing a pretty cool wig, it has to be said. Eddy Ko has a small role too. Although the story is nothing special here, there's plenty of wuxia-style staged action sequences, and it moves at a tidy pace.

The movie starts with exposition from a narrator setting up the historical context of the fall of the last Chinese dynasty and the Japanese. Chang Yi plays the corrupt eunuch who misappropriates tribute from the Japanese meant for the emperor. Yueh Hua and Chan Muk-Chuen play Japanese martial arts experts. The original title "A Pretended Rebel" is a bit of a spoiler as to what is really going on. The alternate titles with "wolf" or "ninja" are obvious bait for the old VHS rental business that kept so many of these old martial arts movies from vanishing into film dust particles. My copy is a digital file from an Ocean Shores VHS. It is English dubbed. Some of these 1970s movies were actually made unwatchable by horrible voice actors. This movie used the "A team" of voice actors though I don't know their names I recognize their voices. The movie runs long at over one hour and fifty one minutes and could easily have been trimmed down to ninety minutes just by cutting out a lot of walking across the frame. The pacing of the action also suffers and worse the action is just not good enough for 1979 standards. The characters are also unlikeable with too much focus on the bad deeds. Overall I rate it below average and only suitable for hard core completists.