Alicia
I love this movie so much
Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
poe426
FISTS AND GUTS has a lot to offer, but it also lacks a lot. The opening sequence, in which we see Ah San (Gordon Liu, in yet another wig) arrive in town searching for "a housekeeper who made off with some family heirlooms," is interesting: he carries with him a book showing this alleged housekeeper wearing various disguises. But then we are introduced to Ah Yung (Liu Chia-rong) and his pal Pang (Lee Hoi San). Ah Yung, it seems, makes money by taking the place of condemned villagers about to be executed by the local authorities (we see him slip into a work gang and,the next day, wearing bandages to hide his true identity and wearing a bulletproof metal vest, get shot by a firing squad). What we never see or are told is HOW he trades places with the condemned man once inside the jail, nor what happens to the man to be executed. The three characters meet and when they split up to track down the mysterious housekeeper, Ah Yung and Pang meet a fortune teller called "Mr. Faerie" (Lo Lieh, whose disguises help showcase his range as an actor throughout the movie). Yung and Pang are told to go to a nearby island, where they'll find the desired riches. Unfortunately, the island is inhabited by lepers and it's here that we have one of the least tasteful sequences in the movie, as the two must battle their way through the lepers (they wrap their hands with their shirts, but things do get quite nasty...). Ah San, meanwhile, sneaks into the local General's quarters to retrieve what he believes to be the heirlooms. In an interesting sequence, he must battle a turncoat Lieutenant who has also come to steal the box: their combat must be kept quiet so they don't rouse the General or his men and it's a genuinely intense, low key struggle. Yung and Pang, disguised as sanitation workers, find themselves at one point dumping the buckets of bodily waste excreted by the prisoners in the jail. As one might expect, it's a less than enjoyable sequence (for the characters as well as the viewer). The finale, which pits Liu against Lo Lieh in an underground temple, is great; but, again, some of the aforementioned scenes detract from what might've been a much better movie (and the noted omissions hurt as well).
matth-939-451549
I disagree with anyone who puts this film down.. I believe the plot is clever and there are dozens of scenes I could watch over and over. Also, I love to see films that you can tell the cast and crew worked very hard on with little money.(spoiler alert!! quick synapse) The film starts with Gordon Liu riding a train into town in search of a man who is a master of disguise.. whom he later tells two men is his house keeper which ran off with his family's fortune. This is believed to be the plot through the majority of the film. The three end up searching together and getting into several fights (I would describe the action as superb but to each his own).. It later turns out the man they are searching for is in town disguised as a fortune teller(whom at one part sends them to an island of lepers where they must fight while avoiding touching them). They enter his home which turns out to have a secret passage to a chamber of various traps.. We find at the end that the two enemies are actually rival monks.It may take u two watches to appreciate the plot.. I bought this film in a 2 movie set when I was about 12.. thinking that the other film would be the better of the two.. and was i surprised. The other film was about some element ninjas.. it wasn't too bad but this film I found so watchable it is possibly on my top ten and definitely on my top 20 list. Not at all bloody though.. if you're looking for that sort of thing.. look up story of ricky. -Matt Hurt (Schlock Films)
Brian Camp
FISTS AND GUTS (1980) is a vaguely comedic kung fu tale in the mode of such similar items as HE HAS NOTHING BUT KUNG FU, DIRTY HO, RETURN OF THE MASTER KILLER and MASTER OF DISASTER, all of which also starred Gordon Liu, as this film does, and two of which were also directed by Lau Kar Wing, brother of Lau Kar Leung (who directed the other two). However, FISTS AND GUTS isn't terribly funny and, despite four top-of-the-line kung fu performers, it's saddled with a plot that shrouds its main characters in such mystery that the viewer learns very little about them until the final scene. By that time, it's too late to supply the dramatic tension needed to make viewers care about what happens. Gordon plays a mysterious traveler who enlists two hapless con men in a plan to get back what he claims are family heirlooms stolen by an errant housekeeper (Lo Lieh) operating in various disguises. The people he targets keep turning out to be the wrong ones. The con men (Lau Kar Wing and Lee Hoi San) are first seen participating in a ridiculously dangerous con game, in which Lau takes the place of a prisoner on death row and gets `killed' in their place, surviving the firing squad thanks to hidden metal sheets which block the bullets. He then collects money from the real inmate's family. How the real inmate gets out of the prison is never explained. None of this makes any sense. That the two grifters agree so readily to help Gordon in exchange for a cut of the treasure is increasingly hard to accept as Gordon keeps making mistakes and the venture proves increasingly unprofitable.
The final bout between Gordon and Lo Lieh includes a belated revelation of the actual cause of their dispute. Until then, the fight scenes are all somewhat gimmicky and more stunt- and prop-oriented than actual combat. The scenes would be much more clever if the characters made sense and the story had some urgency. Instead it all gets tiresome quickly. The poor English dubbing doesn't help. It's a poor use of four superb actor-fighters and an inadequate showcase of Lau's otherwise expert directing skills, as seen in HE HAS NOTHING BUT KUNG FU and ODD COUPLE.
Richard Peplinski
The action is fairly standard, not super, not bad, definitely watchable. The broad plot is a standard one, involving finding stolen goods. However the details of the plot wander around the movie, mostly as vehicles for showing some action scene. They have the required comedic characters, as well as the Shaolin monk whose kung fu is so good that he can beat people with one hand tied behind his back. Overall it is a decent flick, although it doesn't have the attention grabbing action that usually makes these movies so memorable. The shots are fairly long, so at least you know that the action scenes are "real". The fighting style is not quite the "punch-pause" style, but it definitely isn't Jackie Chan speed.Still, a fun and watchable "Samurai Sunday" style movie.