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The movie opens with Chou Chao, a wicked bandit chief, burning down the home of Master Liu Wen-Lung and murdering his wife. All is lost except for the master's son, Liu Yu-Long and his chubby servant Ah Fu. With his disciple, Hu Chi Feng, he manages to poison Chou Chao with a dart, forcing the bandit to chop off his own arm to survive (but not before vowing revenge). As they set out to start a new life, Hu Chi Feng proves to be a bad seed and terrorizes a local homestead, killing the father and using one of his master's darts to kill the mother. Master Liu Wen-Lung tries to force his disciple to commit suicide for being so wicked but he refuses and escapes. The daughter Jin Yu-Sien, holds her mother as she dies, who makes her vow revenge, and Yu-Sien the darts that poisoned her. The master takes pity of daughter of the homestead couple and raises her as his own. This sets the stage for the story that unfolds.
The movie is a thrilling tale of revenge gone awry with Jin Yu-Sien coming of age as Master Liu Wen-Lung's pupil and falling in love with his son, Liu Yu-Long). All would be perfect except for a love triangle involving the daughter of a local wealthy patron named Lin Heung-Kam, and a growing misunderstanding over the darts that killed Yu-Sien's mother.
The real star of this movie is Chin Ping, and she is very good in the role of Yu-Sien. I thought her action scenes were especially effective. This is still more in the swash-buckle era of wuxia and her swordplay was excellent, very punctual. It is a shame we didn't get more Chin Ping movies as she has a lot of charisma on screen.
While the action isn't wild, it is still exciting and well executed. As said, this is more of a swashbuckling style, but there is also a variety of weaponry. The darts I thought were particularly exciting (though not as prominent as one might expect from the title). And Chou Chao fought with an interesting arm attachment after losing his hand. At one point Liu Yu-Long demonstrates some nifty qigong with a surprising special effect to stop a flying bowl mid-air. But for me the arrow-through the head scenes stole the show.
The storytelling is very good in Killer Darts. Ho Meng-Hua is usually very reliable here and in this movie it feels like all the pieces fit into place perfectly by the end. There is an emotional arc that is rewarding, especially Yu-Sien's journey of discovery and revenge. It is more of a touching film than a cathartic one.
And Killer Darts is a movie that is really driven by the story. The action is important, but I found myself not worrying about when the next sword fight was going to be because I was so immersed in the storytelling.
It also builds a convincing martial world. Mostly it is developed around Master Liu Wen-Lung and his battle against the bandits. But at a certain point in the film we see just how extensive this bandit network is and there is a scene where a host of colorful martial experts are on full display.
I quite liked the sets too. The bandit fortress is a nice lair with plenty of traps (and another example of a wuxia dungeon). I especially liked the burning house at the start of the film.
Killer darts is quite solid. I would probably have rated it a 7 if it had just a bit more emotional punch to it. But 6.5 here indicates an enjoyable evening of wuxia entertainment.
Rating: 6.5
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