THE GOLDEN MASK (1977)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

According to online sources the performer Chi Kuan-chun was a headliner at Shaw Brothers before going independent for features like this 1977 chopsocky. I don't believe I've seen him before GOLDEN MASK and I'm not likely to seek him out again.

Despite having the form of a kung-fu murder mystery, MASK feels as if it was made up while filming. Chi plays Lung, a martially trained contract killer, though the audience doesn't know why he chose this vocation. A mysterious fellow in a golden Buddha-mask hires Lung to kill a particular victim from afar, without even seeing who it is. Lung does so, only to find out that the victim is his own brother. (Guilty Lung later sees the ghost of his brother, though this may be his imagination.) Anyway, Lung decides to find and punish Golden Mask.

Lung is no ratiocinative detective; he just runs around like a bull in a china shop, and clues obligingly fall in his lap. Somehow, Lung ties Golden Mask to an inn called Eagle House, run by a former bandit turned into a square citizen. Various officials at Eagle House interrogate the rash young fellow. Two individuals, Chow (Lung Chung-erh) and her father, try to suborn Lung's services, but he's not having any. Chow is put out by this, and this seems to be a setup for a romantic pairing, but such is not the case. Oh, and there's a weird moment in which a couple of fiery spheroids zoom around Lung's head. Ghosts? Optical illusions? Who knows?

Lung gets attacked by various martial minions, a couple of whom dress up in golden masks, so he knows his enemy is about somewhere. None of the fights are very creative and the characters are mostly bland red herrings. When one reaches the end, we're told that Chow and her father were working with Golden Mask to get revenge on the Master of Eagle House, but I never figured out why Golden Mask involved Lung in the first place.

As an excuse for a "big finish," Lung has to fight a dozen guys in gold masks, all wielding bladed discs that can spin around like mini-flying guillotines. But this doesn't make up for this "flopsocky's" criminal under-use of the talents of Lung Chung-erh.