The Cannibals (1972)
A man (Chang Yi) is looking for stolen money (gold coins) and seeking revenge for the death of his master.
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Disturbing yet enthralling
I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
This unfortunately titled movie seems to be available only on Ocean Shores VHS format and that's all it deserves. I respect Chang Yi. Not a martial artist in his first martial arts movie "King Cat", he certainly trained hard and by 1972 he had the moves of a black belt or equivalent stunt man. Shaw Brothers had thrown him under the bus but he continued to live his dream on his own effort, with results sometimes good - often not. The plot here is Chang Yi is after his brother's killer but it is muddled by too many needless characters most of whom can't fight. There is no female eye candy either as both the chicks seem past their expiration dates for looking hot. Chang Yi will go on to much better movies where he plays the villain. Here, he is still the hero and the only reason I rated it a generous 6 out of 10.
Quite possibly the only martial arts film to ever feature a trio of bad guys wearing ski masks with big floppy bobbles on them, The Cannibals doesn't actually feature any. Cannibals, that is. What it DOES feature is music ripped off from other films (including some James Bond cues and the eternally popular Theme From Shaft), the annoying Ocean Shores logo repeatedly burned into the print, and, oh yes, those delightfully outre balaclavas. The story? Our masked anti-heroes have stolen $8,000 (enough to live on for a while, they assure us) and killed the courier in the process. Time for the man's brother, Mr. Bao, to quit his job as a martial arts instructor and get revenge! Unfortunately, there's a ton of boring exposition to plow through before we get to the climactic showdown. A very poor effort.