Purely Joyful Movie!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Although it was released just a year before the Shaw Brothers studio closed, OPIUM AND THE KUNG FU MASTER proves to be just as strong a piece of film-making as their earlier classics. I'm constantly astounded at the way Shaw continued to innovate and provide fresh-feeling movies even having produced literally hundreds of similar efforts over the preceding decades.This film's a vehicle for martial arts legend Ti Lung, who takes on a role that requires acting as well as fighting ability. You see, OPIUM AND THE KUNG FU MASTER is the ultimate Shaw anti-drug film, detailing the horrendous effects of opium addiction among the working class population. Lung himself is the usual kung fu expert but an opium addict to boot, so conflict comes both internally and eternally in this story.The scenario is fast-paced and inventive, ably mixing together the usual comedy hijinks (the cross-eyed guy is hilarious), furious action scenes, training, and dense plotting. Chia Tang's direction is outstanding and makes this a fine-looking film and the action never disappoints, although the final bout is a little brief for my liking and the film's true dramatic climax comes earlier. The triumvirate of villainy comes in the form of Chen Kuan Tai, Lee Hoi San, and Phillip Ko, all of whom are excellent.

i have watched a lot of shaw bros. from the late 60's to their end which was the mid 80's. this was one of the last films from shaw bros and in my opinion one of their best.some of the reasons it was a notch above were that it was beautifully shot, the cinematographer really had a good eye. the main leads were actually actors and not stuntmen turned actors, so they were pleasing to the eye. the kung fu choreography was as good as any and the lead villain had a really cool and lethal weapon. the main actress is the legendary and gorgeous Liu Shuet Whah who went on to become the queen of melodramatic television serials in Taiwan.being said that the main leads were all actors and actresses first the acting was pretty good also. ti lung in one of his final and better roles before he teamed up with John Woo and did the legendary " a better tomorrow ". you also had the shaw bros legend Chen Kuan Tai as the main baddie and oh yes lee hoi san is in here also...and yuen wah too!all in all a very very entertaining and well paced movie with a great story about the evils of hard drugs and drug addiction mixed in with some good and beautifully shot kung fu.this one's a winner and a top 10 in my shaw bros movies that i have watched.

In what has to be one of the more interesting turns for a character in a martial arts movie, Ti Lung (as Tie) oversees the day-to-day activities of his students (including a Lion Dance, which they win before belittling and then belaboring their opponents). Tie is a strict disciplinarian- at first. Enter Rong Feng (Chen Kuan-Ti), who decides to open an opium den. Rong learns of Tie's addiction and promptly offers him a jar of opium. Before you can say "uh, gimme a second to think this one over," Tie's all but comatose, sucking on a pipe day after day (and, one presumes, night after night). As one might well expect, when it comes time for Tie to step up and man the barricades against the evil opium dealers, he's barely able to stand: in a surprising sequence, he's knocked around by Rong in front of the whole village. Will he go Cold Turkey fu and bounce back, or will the mighty Ti Lung succumb to The Pipe...? There's a bit of high-flying, Old School wirework on display here (as one might well expect in a kung fu movie about opium addiction), but it's kept to a minimum. Not a bad movie, but definitely one with at least one foot planted just a bit too squarely in The Real World.

What do you get when you get a Kung Fu master (Ti Lung) hooked on Opium?? Serious trouble that's what.This movie was good from beginning to the end. Some opium, traders want to move opium through China, but their serious threat is Ti Lung himself. Chen Kwan Tai tests Ti Lungs' skill to prove his worth. Now they see he is a problem so they set him up to try opium, and it works. Ti Lung then tried to fight but sees that his strength is now diminished due to the heavy opium usage, plus his young protégé dies trying to defend him.This wakes Ti Lung up and he quits cold turkey, big mistake.........................for the bad guys that is. His act of vengeance is very powerful. I can't go on to long, because I'm about to try and watch it again.My wife and I collect kung fu movies, unfortunately this movie is part of her collection, and I hate her for it. Get this movie, it is another Shaw Classic.