Dirty Ho (1976)

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Prince Wang is the 11th prince of Manchuria and an excellent martial artist, but prefers not to draw attention to himself and keeps a low profile, posing as a merchant who deals in wine, antiques and paintings. He has a run-in with Ho Jen, a simple thief who makes a living by stealing and spending loot wherever he can. The Prince takes a liking to the thief and enlists him to be his bodyguard, something Ho takes to very reluctantly at first. But when a conspiracy unfolds and the Prince is targeted for assassination, Ho must undertake a serious training regime to protect his master.
This is one of the films that sears itself into your mind forever unless kung fu films are a real turn off. Even when it was only watchable in poorly centered TV prints the brilliance of the action shined thru. Filmed towards the end of the golden age of the Shaw Brothers Studios, Dirty Ho rates as the top of the genre. The way the fights are choreographed is mesmerizing and I have spent hours rewinding the scenes to see exactly how the director orchestrated the camera and actors. It incredible how the movement progresses. I defy anyone to come up with something as subtle yet outrageous as the wine scene or the antique scene. The scenes in "House of Flying Daggers" are quite impressive but everything is computer assisted exaggeration. Here the only tricks are what could be done with editing and camera movement (O.K. maybe a few wires). You can see that most of the work is being done by the highly talented actors.
When this is re-released, buy it!