Bullet Points: The Kid with the Golden Arm
Arrow’s Shaw Scope Volume 2 is the gift that keeps on giving. The collection features some of the Shaw Brothers’ best martial arts films, including many that I am experiencing for the first time, like the subject of this edition of Bullet Points… 1979’s The Kid with the Golden Arm!
- Gold Rush: Chief Yang (Sun Chien, Chinatown Kid) and his security force have been tasked with safely escorting 200,000 taels of gold to a famine stricken area in desperate need of relief. Yang is well aware he has a long road to hoe so he is stacking the deck in his favor. Joining Chief Yang and the Hu Wei Security team are the battling brothers Yin and Fang (Long Axe and Short Axe for those in the know) who will serve as scouts on the mission, plus the couple that fights together (and with one another) Hero Li and Heroine Leng. There’s also supposed to be a government appointed lawman on the mission, but so far there’s no sign of him.
- Masters of Disaster: The lack of a lawman is the least of Yang’s troubles… the biggest threat he is going to face is the Deadly Valley, a gang led by four master chiefs, who are ranked not by age but by skill level. Coming in at #1 is Golden Arm Kid (Lo Meng, Five Deadly Venoms). In the #2 spot is Silver Spear (Lu Feng, Invincible Shaolin). At #3 is Iron Robe (Wang Lung-Wei, Dirty Ho), And rounding out the foursome is Brass Head (Yang Hsiung, Ten Tigers of Kwangtung). Each of the masters gets their own introduction piece and by the time it was over, I wished they made The Kid with the Golden Arm action figures.
- Choose Your Side: With the battle lines clearly drawn it doesn’t take long for the fighting action to commence. The first fight features Long Axe and Short Axe taking on some Deadly Valley minions knows as the 7 Deadly Hooks due to their weapons of choice… Long Axe and Short Axe each take out three Hooks and share the last kill, that’s teamwork! …Next up we see an encounter between Iron Robe (and his crew) and Heroine Leng. Iron Robe tells her not to worry, he never fights women and seconds later we find out he’s a lying bastard… but that’s about time the alcohol fueled Sheriff Hai To (Phillip Kwok, Shaolin Temple) makes his presence felt for the first time… the first in a series of events that causes some friction between Hai To and Leng’s significant other, Hero Li. Li even takes offense to Hai To basically saving Li’s life after Li is on the wrong end of a poisonous blow delivered by another baddie, Black Sand Palm!
- All That Glitters: Aside from his introduction early on in the movie, we don’t get to see Golden Arm in action until around the 23 minute mark and at that point, our heroes have already eliminated Brass Head from the equation…. which does not sit well with Golden Arm. On the flip side for the villains, Iron Robe has the gold filled cart. That is until he runs into Sheriff Hao To and another master bites the dust and Chief Yang and company are able to regain control of the gold. It’s not all good news for our heroes… their ranks start to thin out as well as their journey continues dealing with the Deadly Valley gang and their nasty tricks… like poisoning the water!! Good thing Sheriff Hai To only drinks wine.
- I Was Told Iron Feet Was In This Movie?: The bulk of The Kid with the Golden Arm is comprised of fight scenes with its colorful cast of characters testing their skills against one another, but there are some intriguing storyline elements as well… like the love triangle between Hai To, Leng and Li and after Golden Arm’s forces begin to dwindle, he wonders whatever happened to the notorious Iron Feet, who wreaked havoc in the area prior to Golden Arm’s ascension to the criminal throne. That’s not the sort of thing you mention and then don’t pay off. The Kid with the Golden Arm pays it off in an epic fashion that raises the stakes in the final 20 minutes or so of the movie.
As much as I enjoyed The Kid with the Golden Arm in 2023, I can’t help but imagine how much it would have blown my mind as a kid. I could see me and my friends back then watching this movie and then choosing a character so we could chop and kick the air near one another for hours on end.
My favorite character hands down was Phillip Kwok’s Sheriff Hai To… the functioning drunk was an amazing fighter and his maverick style made him super cool… he’d be the one that I would have wanted to be in the backyard as kid, chugging down a grape Little Hugs instead of wine of course…. Lo Meng’s Golden Arm Kid would be a close second in the favorite character department. The titular character is a badass villain and he like Hai To has the cool factor going for him… As you might imagine, Hai To and Golden Arm are a big part of the finale and when you have two characters that you have emotionally invested in against one another at the end, then you throw in a surprise!?! It really can’t get any better.
The only thing that could possibly make this review any better are some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Bastard Check: I caught two “bastards” uttered in the film, both by Wai Pak’s Li… which definitely made him Hero Li in my book. Although in general, his character may have been the least likable in the film.
- Directed By: The Kid with the Golden Arm was directed by Chang Cheh, who has been at the helm for almost all of my favorite Shaw Brothers films thus far.
- AKA: The Kid with the Golden Arm is also known as Kid with the Golden Arms, which is more accurate since he had two arms and they were both equally powerful… so powerful, he’s the one character in the movie that does not use any weapons.
