Life Gamble

Life Gamble aka “Life Combat” is a Shaw Brothers film directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venoms and Fu Sheng.

Plot

Life Gamble is a complex story about a stolen piece of jade which falls into the hands of a habitual gambler played by Wang Lung Wei and his arrogant anti-hero body guard play by Fu Sheng, a knife throwing expert. Various individuals want the jade from Lung Wei for their own purposes (to get rich or to return it to its owner), particularly a con-woman played by Shirley Yu and her hired help to get it played by Lo Mang who hide in a small hotel, another woman (unknown actress) and her hired help played by Chiang Sheng, and a handless off and on villain played by Lu Feng. Previously the (unknown actress) and Chiang Sheng offered a duel to Lu Feng to defeat his new sword technique and if he lost he would lose his hand. The sword was made by a blacksmith played by Kuo Chui who formerly made weapons for kung fu experts with his only payment being for the experts to teach him their kung fu style, therefore Kuo himself is an expert at various forms of kung fu, however he retired making weapons after Lu Feng used his new sword to try and kill Kuo and to kill his rivals. Lu Feng indeed lost his hand and lived as a reformed vagabond until hearing about the jade, so he approached Kuo Chui to apologize and ask for a new weapon to replace his hand but Kuo Chui refuses. Shirley Yu and Lo Mang approach Wang Lung Wei about the jade and offer him a price (basically give it up or die), however Fu Sheng hears this and challenges Lo Mang who is also a knife expert to a duel which ends up a draw when Wang Lung Wei intervenes. Chiang Sheng approaches Shirley Yu in private and tries to rape her however he is killed by her forcing his employer to go solo in getting the jade. Eventually a police captain and his daughter (played by Kara Hui) hear about the stolen jade. Kara Hui goes undercover as a maid in Wang Lung Wei’s house and captures the attention of the interested Fu Sheng which gets him to thinking about changing his lifestyle.

Lo Mang approaches Kuo Chui about making more knives for him but again Kuo refuses to make weapons causing Lo Mang to get angry and attack Kuo. Kuo counters all of Lo Mang’s knives and destroys them leaving Lo Mang with no weapons to defend himself and retreat. At this point another (unknown actor) approaches Kuo about how he “does” have weapons (his tools to make things such as a hammer, a shovel, etc..) and kills a bunch of thugs who also came looking for Kuo to make weapons. Lastly another individual arrives which is the owner of the escort party who lost the jade who asks for Kuo’s help in getting it back. Kuo offers to help but gets assistance from two individuals, he makes an iron hand with darts for Lu Feng if Feng offers to help and goes straight, he also makes replacement knives for Lo Mang if he also helps and offers to go straight in which both of them agree. At this point everyone flocks to Wang Lung Wei’s place to get the jade, Shirley Yu and Lo Mang, Kuo Chui and Lu Feng and the (unnamed actress) who employed Chiang Sheng, with Kara Hui and Fu Sheng already on the scene and the police captain waiting at the hotel. Everyone arrives and Kuo gambles with Wang Lung Wei for the jade saying if he wins he keeps the jade and if he loses he dies. Kuo rigs the gambling piece so that the outcome will be “death” either way for Wang Lung Wei. Wang Lung Wei attempts to escape but is killed by the darts in Lu Fengs iron hand. Lu Feng grabs the jade and returns to his usual self (villain) and threatens to kill everyone with his new iron hand if he doesn’t get the jade. Lo Mang attempts to apprehend him but Lu Feng catches his knives with his iron hand and kills the (unnamed woman). Lu Feng tries to fire another dart which backfires and kills him as Kuo rigged his iron hand to need to be “reset” after the fourth dart is fired or it will backfire. Lo Mang and Fu Sheng then get into another knife contest to settle the previous duel which was a draw, this contest ends up being another draw until Fu Sheng throws a magnetic knife which catches Lo Mangs knives and kills him. Kuo Chui tries to give the jade to Fu Sheng and Kara Hui to give it back to the police but Shirley Yu takes her hostage and escapes. Kuo goes after Shirley Yu in the hotel and Fu Sheng goes to check on Kara Hui. Shirley Yu has the jade but then is murdered by an unknown assassin who doesn’t find the jade but escapes anyway, the innkeeper ends up finding the jade but Kuo convinces him to give it up as it isn’t worth his life and Kuo proceeds to return it to the escort service owner. The policeman, Kara Hui and Fu Sheng arrive looking for the jade but the innkeeper tells them Kuo went to return it, the policeman tells the innkeeper to go find Kuo because it’s all a trap set up by the escort service to keep the jade as it’s worth more than the reward. Kuo meets the escort service but is ambushed and injured, the innkeeper returns to tell Fu Sheng, Fu Sheng tracks down the escort service but not in time to save Kuo Chui. He kills the boss and his men and returns the jade to the police.

Cast

*Fu Sheng
*Kuo Chui - Blacksmith
*Kara Hui
*Shirley Yu
*Lu Feng
*Lo Mang
*Chiang Sheng
*Wang Lung Wei
*Danny Lee – escort boss
*Ku Feng– Police captain

Production notes

As with House Of Traps, as of date the film is available as a Region 3 Celestial DVD reissue. It may not yet be available in other regional codings except in degraded VHS tapes.

External links

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079901/