Guardia Dreadnaught features Yuen Woo Ping's extreme talent for choreography and action direction. Fan's of any of his other work will no doubt be very pleased to sit through this oddly titled film. Also, fans of Yuen Biao (that's me), will also be very happy to pick this one up, (although, like "Circus Kids" his role in the film could be argued as criminally underused).Again, set in Ming Dynasty China, this film sees the plight of Mousy (Biao), who happens to be a very shy, in-confident, and even cowardly laundry worker. His nature is revealed when we witness him trying to collect laundry debts from various townspeople - they push him around and give him nothing.All the while, an evil and eccentric killer "White Tiger" takes pleasure in terrorising anyone who happens to be around, and, unfortunately for Mousy, he seems to be high on Tiger's list. But, again, like most Kung Fu films, it's not so much what is done, but rather how they do it. Thankfully, Dreadnaught does well in it's direction and choreography, but it does not excel.Credits list Biao as the star, but I believe Leung Ka-Yan (who is Mousy's older brother in the film) deserves equal billing - they certainly have equal screen-time. "Foon", played by Ka-Yan, is a more well-rounded martial artist, and a student of the legendary Wong Fei Hung (played brilliantly and hilariously by Kwan Tak-Hing a la "Magnificent Butcher). The scene involving a rather violent tailor is worth the sitting alone.Dreadnaught seems more of an unfocused film as compared to Woo Ping's other work(s). "Drunken Master" for example had a clear, snappy and balanced screenplay. We knew where we were supposed to be at in terms of all the plot elements. Dreadnaught fails on these grounds, and it's action sequences do not mesh pleasurably with the dialog as they do in Drunken Master.I was expecting a "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" for Yuen Biao, but rather, I see this film as three main action sequences starring various cast, tied together with the broad characterisation of Mr. White Tiger. It is by far one of the better Kung Fu films out there, but I'm afraid Yuen Woo Ping's other works do the same thing but better.

bs3dc Dreadnaught is largely unknown these days compared to 1979's 'Magnificent Butcher" (Lin Shi Rong) despite the fact that they have a great deal in common from the director Yuen Woo-ping and writer Wong Jing, to some of the characters and a number of the actors - Yuen Biao, Hark-On Fung, Kwan Tak-Hing, Mei Sheng Fan and Ching Tan. This is a shame since despite Dreadnaught having fewer fight scenes of the quality of its predecessor, it has many things going for it.Kwan Tak-Hing has terrific presence as Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-Hung and he gets far more screen time than in 'Magnificent Butcher' where he had a memorable role, but barely more than a cameo. He even gets more action in this one and though he is clearly doubled for much of these scenes, his manual dexterity for his age (around 76) alone is a great advertisement for the practising of martial arts to promote health.Leung Kar-Yan is dependable as ever as Wong Fei-Hung's headstrong student Leung Foon. Yuen Biao plays the cowardly 'Mousy' who wants to learn to fight, not knowing that he has been learning a special style of kung fu from his sister at the laundry. This means he does little fighting for much of the film which is not as bad as it sounds since he gets to show off his remarkable athleticism more. Yuen Shun-Yee steals the show as the mentally deranged serial killer and his high energy performance adds greatly to the impact and tone of the film.Yuen Woo-ping and his team have done another great job with the choreography, especially the lion dancing which is the clear highlight of the action. The taut fight scenes are very well done also, especially fitting the psychotic personality of the the main villain.Too many different themes have been trying to be built into the running time - horror, comedy, action and romance - for all to be really successful. It is a pity that the cheesy humour could not have been left out as this would have made a improvement to the atmosphere which is great in periods such as the chilling build-up to the final showdown. Also the romantic theme is dropped long before the end of the film with no real resolution.Nevertheless 'Dreadnaught' is well worth watching for the quality of some of the performances, the kung fu and also for anybody interested in the number of films loosely based around the life of Wong Fei-Hung.

thepts In a hotel room in Kunming, China, 2005, four western tourists were getting ready to go out for that day's restaurant round, then this movie was on by accident - and we couldn't stop watching! We actually laughed at the lame slapstick, the "lion dance" was terrific, the energy - as mentioned in another review - was perfect throughout! Excellent work.Now I am at IMDb trying to check out this film, you see, we had to go 15 minutes before the ending to get to the restaurants before they closed, which was surprisingly hard to do with a random Chinese kung fu movie. We made sure to snap up the movie title, I'm going to watch this all the way.Then I see here it's from 1981 - which wasn't expected at all. Very good film, might look like your classic low-quality run of the mill kung-fu, but believe me, this is a notch above the rest!

David Austin This movie is fantastic. Don't be put off that Yuen Biao's character is completely annoying, and that some of the comedy is of the "guy with crossed eyes getting hit in the face" variety. This movie has at least for of the most memorable scenes I've ever enjoyed in a movie, including tailor-fu, laundry-fu, and doctor-fu. The lion dance is easily one of the coolest and most enjoyable set pieces in any kung fu movie. I saw this in a theater, and at the end of the lion dance, the entire room applauded. Both Kwan Tak-hing as Wong Fei-Hung and Sunny Yuen as White Tiger really stand out in the acting department. I've seen more powerful villains, but never one this psychotic and aggressive. Now that I think about it, I can't remember if White Tiger ever even speaks in the movie. His presence is so strong he certainly doesn't need to. This is an odd movie that doesn't fit the usual patterns. If you're not a fan of the Yuen Bros more goofy fare, like Taoism Drunkard, Drunken Tai-Chi or Young Taoism Fighter, see this anyway, it's much less random and silly, and the production values are very high. Don't miss it.