Life Gamble

Life Gamble, also known as Life Combat, is a 1979 Hong Kong Wuxia film directed by Chang Cheh and starring the Venom Mob, Kara Hui and Alexander Fu Sheng. It was written by Chang Cheh and I Kuang and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio.

Plot
Blacksmith Qiu Zi Yu (Kuo Chui) is handed a blueprint from knife-throwing expert and hitman, Mo Jun Feng (Lo Mang), requesting that Qiu make him a set of knives. Qiu Zi Yu denies this request as he’s no longer in the business of making weapons. Mo Jun Feng becomes hostile and threatens Qiu Zi Yu's employees. Shortly afterwards, another hitman, Xiao “Whipper” Tang (Chiang Sheng) arrives, requesting that Qiu fix his horse-carriage. This request is agreed to and out steps Xiao Tang’s accomplice, the beautiful, seductive, and dangerous Xiao Qiang (Lin Chen-Chi).

Xiao Qiang has a short conversation with Mo Jun Feng, specifically telling him the story about Qiu Zi Yu’s betrayal at the hands of a swordsman and light skill expert named Yan Zi Fei (Lu Feng). Qiu Zi Yu formerly made weapons for kung fu experts with his only payment being for every expert to teach him their special abilities, and therefore, Qiu Zi Yu himself is an expert at many fighting forms. However, he retired from making weapons after Yan Zi Fei used his newly forged sword to try to kill Qiu Zi Yu to prevent him from making any more weapons. Xiao Qiang makes a deal with Mo Jun Feng that if he partners with her, she will get him the knives that he needs (much to the visible disgust of Xiao Tang).

Xiao Qiang and Mo Jun Feng get a room at an inn, coincidentally, in a room right next to a thief who stole Mo Jun Feng’s knives. Xiao Qiang tells Mo Jun Feng of four people she wants killed. The four robbers have stolen the ‘Harmony Jade’, a valuable royal treasure, from an escort and guard service owned by Master Nan. Initially they plan to split what the jade is worth, but since it would leave each with little wealth, they decide to gamble for it instead, winner take all, in a game run by wealthy (and criminal) gambling master, "Golden Lion" Mao Kai Yuan (Wang Lung Wei). The robbers have no idea that Mao Kai Yuan wants the jade for himself and he has no intention of allowing any of them to win it. Mao enlists his head housekeeper, Peng Shuang Shuang (Shirley Yu) to help him, while his arrogant, anti-social, knife throwing expert bodyguard, Yun Xiang (Fu Sheng), watches his back in case things get out of hand.

Xiao Qiang and Xiao Tang confront Yan Zi Fei. She tells him that the man that he tried to kill (Qiu Zi Yu) is living as a blacksmith and refuses to make weapons, no thanks to Yan. Xiao Qiang and Xiao Tang take a rather awkward type of revenge for Qiu Zi Yu by fighting Yan Zi Fei, cutting off his hand, then offering it to Qiu as payment for making some knives for Mo Jun Feng, which he still refuses to make. Later, a remorseful (and handless) Yan Zi Fei finds Qiu Zi Yu's shop and asks him if he hates him for what he did in the past. At this point, a group of henchmen working for Master Nan comes to harass Qiu. Another individual intervenes, kills some of the henchmen, then tells Qiu that he "does" make weapons (his tools for example, which were used to kill the henchmen). The cocky youngster is revealed as famous fighter, Wu Ho (one of the robbers). He urges Qiu to return to making weapons and, while somewhat arrogant, is rather friendly towards Qiu then leaves. Lastly, Master Nan (Li Yi-Min) arrives and explains he is the owner of the escort party who had the harmony jade stolen from them and asks for Qiu Zi Yu’s help in getting it back. Qiu is then met by his close friend, Xiao Hong (Kara Hui) who arrives with her father, inspector Xiao Zi Jing (Ku Feng). Inspector Xiao and Xiao Hong tell Qiu that they are looking for the stolen Jade and convince him to help them get it back.

Shuang Shuang speaks with Mo Jun Feng, who is revealed to be her ex-lover. They meet in her room and, after a brief sexual encounter, she offers to help him get his knives back if he helps with her current task. Shuang Shuang gets Mo Jun Feng’s knives back from the thief. Once she returns to her room, Xiao Tang approaches and tells her to keep away from Mo Jun Feng. She removes his shirt as if willing to seduce him, but then murders him as a response. Inspector Xiao and Xiao Hong arrive just as this occurs and suggest that Shuang Shuang can be absolved of the murder and claim self-defense if she helps Xiao Hong operate undercover in Mao Kai Yuan’s residence to watch the gambling event. She agrees to this to avoid facing capital punishment for murder. Yan Zi Fei gets news of Whipper Tang’s murder and antagonizes Xiao Qiang with this information. He then begs Qiu Zi Yu for forgiveness for trying to kill him and asks Qiu to make him a new hand so he can become a productive member of society. Qiu Zi Yu agrees to make him a new hand.

Xiao Hong goes undercover at Mao Kai Yuan’s gambling hall and gets training from Shuang Shuang on how to serve guests. She catches the attention of Yun Xiang, who’s immediately smitten with her. While Yun Xiang reveals to her that he’s not a good person, his conversations with (the still undercover) Xiao Hong causes him to start rethinking his current lifestyle and he starts becoming concerned for her safety under the current circumstances. Mo Jun Feng meets with Mao Kai Yuan about the jade and demands a cut of the jade’s profits. Mao Kai Yuan refuses as Mo Jun Feng threatens him then leaves and gives him some time to think about it. Yun Xiang hears this and challenges Mo Jun Feng to a duel, which ends up a draw when Mao Kai Yuan intervenes to prevent it from escalating further. Mao Kai Yuan cuts a deal with Mo Jun Feng, which involves betraying and poisoning Xiao Qiang.

For a second time, Mo Jun Feng approaches Qiu Zi Yu about making more knives for him but again, Qiu Zi Yu refuses to make them. Agitated at seeing an armored hand, Mo Jun Feng attacks him but Qiu Zi Yu counters and destroys half of his knives using the armored hand. Mo Jun Feng realizes that he cannot defeat Qiu Zi Yu and offers to be his ally instead. Mao Kai Yuan comes to Xiao Qiang’s room and cuts a deal with her to betray Mo Jun Feng. When Mo Jun Feng returns to her, she finds the poison in his possession, as well as knives given to him by his "girlfriend". She attacks two of his pressure points, leaving him temporarily paralyzed and bedridden. Qiu Zi Yu finds Mo Jun Feng incapacitated, revives him, and gives him three new knives to replace the ones he destroyed. Then he goes to offer Yan Zi Fei the new, weaponized armored (iron) hand, but only under the condition that Yan helps him recover the jade.

The day arrives for the four robbers, with their respective groups of henchman, to meet with Mao Kai Yuan, have dinner, and gamble for the jade. As the saying goes, there’s no honor among thieves and they all begin plotting to betray each other over the jade. Once dinner is done, the gambling begins. Mao Kai Yuan pays Shuang Shuang what he promised her, but tells Yun Xiang to kill her anyway. Yun Xiang corners her in an alley, but spares her out of respect for Xiao Hong believing that the two are close with each other. The game begins and the jade is brought forth. The robbers place their bets for the jade and once a winner is declared, one of his accomplices (and Mao Kai Yuan) kill him. The three remaining robbers place their bets again for the jade, fully aware that any of them could be killed by one of their "friends". Mao Kai Yuan rigs the gambling device to declare himself the winner. Once the melee begins, two of the three remaining robbers are killed when Xiao Qiang (who’s eventually killed), Mo Jun Feng, and a returning Shuang Shuang intervene.

Yun Xiang arrives and threatens Mo Jun Feng in order to protect his employer. He backs off when he sees Xiao Hong and goes to protect her. Yun Xiang advises Mao Kai Yuan to depart but Xiao Hong orders him to tell Mao Kai Yuan to put down the jade. Since it's his boss, Yun Xiang can’t bring himself to physically stop Mao Kai Yuan, but it doesn’t matter since Qiu Zi Yu arrives with Yang Zi Fei as is enforcer. Once Yang Zi Fei kills the final robber, Qiu directs Xiao Hong to instruct Yun Xiang not to intervene as he gambles with Mao Kai Yuan. If Mao Kai Yuan wins, he keeps his life. If he loses, he dies. Qiu Zi Yu counter-rigs the gambling piece so that Mao Kai Yuan loses. Mao Kai Yuan attacks Qiu Zi Yu but is killed by a dart from Yan Zi Fei's iron hand. Qiu tells Yun Xiang to give the jade to Xiao Hong but Yan Zi Fei returns to his villainy, and threatens to kill Qiu Zi Yu with his iron hand if he isn’t allowed to leave with the jade. Mo Jun Feng attacks Yan Zi Fei with his knives but Fei catches them with his iron hand. Feng throws one more knife, which splits into 3 that severely injure Yan Zi Fei, who tries to fire another dart which backfires and kills him as Qiu Zi Yu rigged his hand to need resetting after a certain number of darts are fired or it will backfire. Yun Xiang gives the jade to Xiao Hong, but Xiao Hong is taken hostage by Shuang Shuang, who promises to release and leave her at the inn once she’s given the jade. Mo Jun Feng threatens both Xiao Hong and Shuang Shuang over the jade, forcing him and Yun Xiang into their inevitable rematch. This encounter also ends up being another draw until Yun Xiang throws a magnetic knife which catches Mo Jun Feng’s knives, then kills him. Qiu Zi Yu tells Yun Xiang that Xiao Hong is a police officer, she was sent there undercover to get the jade, and to go make sure that she made it back to the inn.

Shuang Shuang acquires the jade and returns to the inn with Xiao Hong, but the jade is pickpocketed from her on the stairs by the thief who stole Mo Jun Feng’s knives. She is confronted by Inspector Xiao and Yun Xiang (who is offered by Inspector Xiao to reform himself) and told to give up the jade (which she doesn’t have). Qiu Zi Yu finds the thief and convinces him to give up the jade so he can return it to Master Nan. Inspector Xiao eventually finds the thief, who tells him that he gave the jade to Qiu Zi Yu. Inspector Xiao tells the thief to go and get Qiu since the owner of the jade reported the theft to the police and therefore, the inspector wants to return it to the owner directly. That evening, Shuang Shuang is murdered by an assassin who is looking for the jade, forcing Inspector Xiao to go and get more men to find who he suspects is behind it.

Qiu Zi Yu goes to meet Master Nan and his escort service but unbeknownst to him, Master Nan is setting a trap for him, describing to his men how skilled Qiu Zi Yu is, and to be careful. The thief eavesdrops on the coming ambush and runs back to tell Yun Xiang. Xiao Hong surmises that Nan wants the jade for himself, since the jade is worth more than the insurance money he would get for it being stolen. Yun Xiang goes off to help Qiu Zi Yu. Qiu Zi Yu returns the jade to Master Nan and is attacked immediately by assassins dressed like the ones that killed Shuang Shuang, and eventually, Nan himself. They overwhelm and kill Qiu Zi Yu before Yun Xiang can arrive to help him. Using his knives, and another hidden weapon, Yun Xiang gets revenge for Qiu Zi Yu by killing Master Nan and his men, then returns the jade to the police.

Cast

 * Alexander Fu Sheng as Yun Xiang
 * Kuo Chui as Qiu Zi Yu, blacksmith
 * Wang Lung Wei as Mao Kai Yuan, The Golden Lion
 * Ku Feng as Chief Constable Xiao Zi Jing / Police captain
 * Kara Hui Ying-Hung as Xiao Hong
 * Chiang Sheng as Xiao Tang, The Deadly Whip
 * Shirley Yu as Peng Shuang Shuang
 * Lu Feng as Yan Zi Fei
 * Lo Mang as Mo Jun Feng, swordsman
 * Li Yi-Min as Master Nan/Mister Nan
 * Lin Chen-Chi as Xiao Qiang
 * Danny Lee as Escort boss
 * Liu Hui-Ling as Zhen Liu-Xiang a.k.a. the Golden Hairpin

Release
As with House of Traps, Life Gamble was available as a Region 3 Celestial DVD reissue. Although it was difficult to purchase in other regional codings -except in degraded VHS tapes-, the film is currently available on Region 1 DVD from Funimation. It has a new NTSC transfer and Mandarin/English language audio options with subtitles.