After he had starred in the first of many features, which are sometimes given the quite unfair brand of “Bruceploitation”, actor Jackie Chan and director Lo Wei began what would be a fruitful collaboration, commercially as well as artistically. Filmed in South Korea, “To Kill With Intrigue” was quite typical for the kind of projects they would work on, a blend of martial arts, comedy, revenge and romance. The feature was one of the many attempts to turn Jackie Chan into a leading star, this time with the additional support of the wuxia genre and acclaimed novelist Ku Lung, who was responsible for the script. While the ingredients are certainly quite interesting and entertaining, the whole project is also something of a mixed bag, with many aspects not blending well together.
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It is his father's 60th birthday and many families from all over the country have come to celebrate, but Lei Shao-feng (Jackie Chan) is in no mood to join the festivities as he has reasons to believe his father might be assassinated. A gang known as The Bee Faces, led by Ting Chan Yen (Feng Hsu), is about to attack and as soon as the party is over they do so, quickly fending off any opposition in their way and killing Lei's parents, with him being forced to watch. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Qian-qian (Ling Lung Yu) is heartbroken after Lei has ended the relationship (as a means to drive her away and thus into safety). Entrusted with her protection is his friend, Jin-chuan (Ie Lung Shen), who is quite shocked to see two of his friend breaking up and swears to demand some answers from Lei when the two meet again.
However, the young man finds himself being ridiculed and tortured by the murderer of his parents, who calls him a “brute”, unable to seek out the person responsible for the death of his mother and father. On his journey, he runs into Dragon Four (Kuo Wang), who takes a liking to Lei's stubborn attitude and who is after the person who stole his possessions. As the two men get to know each other a little better, they see how their paths are leading to the same culprit, a dangerous enemy, who is a martial arts master and a powerful nobleman.
Perhaps Jackie Chan describes it best in his autobiography “I Am Jackie Chan” when claiming how even Lo Wei gave the impression he did not understand what was going on in the story. Indeed, “To Kill With Intrigue” is quite an odd entry in both of their filmographies, which seemingly attempts to put in too much at the same time. The sudden mood shifts, from the supernatural/horror elements of the first few minutes, to a revenge drama and finally a melodrama about betrayal and love, happen quite suddenly, lacking timing and also good direction in parts. When seen individually, there are certainly strong aspects in “To Kill With Intrigue”, whose dynamic opening is surely one of the better parts of the feature, besides the martial arts-scenes.
When it was released in cinemas, Lo Wei's feature flopped and only stayed in theaters for a short period of time. You soon understand why, as the rhythm of the story is off, with some of the twists being strongly reminiscent of a “pulp novel”. Nevertheless, there is a lot of entertainment too, with the fight choreograhies, for example, in the confrontation of Lei and the “Exorcist Trio” or the final battle, which are very well-executed, edited and performed. Jackie Chan, Ie Lung Shen and especially Feng Hsu all have their moments in these scenes, with Chan trying his best to master the aforementioned shifts in tone in this overall chaotic project.
In conclusion, “To Kill With Intrigue” is a martial arts feature, with aspects of melodrama, romance and even supernatural elements. While the first (and most important) ingredient of his feature works quite well, Lo Wei's effort runs into trouble finding the right tone and balance between the other parts, resulting in dramatic and sudden shifts in tone.
