60 Second Assassin aka My Life is On The Line aka WTF!

[Ninja Sinai]

Yesterday I was in need of a fu fix so I sat down with my son and put on 60 Second Assassin.. I thought I would be in for some good classic kung fu as I heard many fans talk about this over the years.. the movie started off solid and I was really impressed with the opening fight scene.. I dont recall ever seeing the main dude with the moustache before but man he could fight! So the movie started off good and after the beginning it begins to really slow down.. towards the middle you could say it almost came to a halt when Dean Shek turns up doing his infamous irritating act.. man that was one looooong drawn out cheezy "comedic" scene.. almost enough to make you turn off the movie! So anyway, I endured that scene and then towards the end is when things started to get kinda WTF...!!?? 

Spoilers ahead..

So the main dude accidentally kills the little kid.. by the way why do little kids in old skool kung fu movies gotta be so annoying!? Anyway he kills the kid and what does he do? He frickin runs like crazy and runs off a high ass cliff straight into the sea!! I was like WTF!!! I had to rewind that scene like 2 times!!! lol

So anyway he carries on for a final showdown with Beardy.. who for some strange ass reason decided to dress up like a crazy old dude.. dont ask me why.. maybe he likes cosplay.. then he reveals himself as the main villain and they start fighting.. and man this is when the movie started to slowly redeem itself with some really good kung fu action.. and then what happens.... the frikkin movie STOPS mid fight and some fake ass cartoon blood covers the screen and "THE END" pops up on the screen!!! Me and my son sat there bewildered both staring at the TV screen frozen for like several seconds.. thinking surely they cant end the movie like that!! Well yes they did.. one of the biggest WTF moments ever in kung fu movie history!!

Overall I give it a 2/10.. one point for a good beginning and one point for some good fight action at the end before they decided forget it.. its a wrap folks.. who cares if we dont finish off this end fight! Man im telling you people even my lil son had a WTF expression on his facE! lol

Edited June 27, 2020 by Ninja Sinai

[thundered mantis]

haha, the movie is weird indeed, Mr Ninja. In the italian version, they cut the final fight a little earlier so they make it seem Wang Li Pankick to Beardy´s chest kills him. Take a look

 

BTW, I got hold of the italian version ´cause I was told it was letterbox; dunno what happened to my eyes, but I remember I compared it years ago with the old UK DVD and thought "yep, it´s a bit wider, like 1.78 format". A couple of months ago, I think it was @laagi on other post, that clarified the italian DVD was just fake wide. So I checked again and daamn, the italian version I had was just the same than the fullsc wu tang´s on youtube. What a letdown lol. There´s an akuma custom with a wide italian version though. Would be great to locate it, the movie is not the best out there, but the finale does indeed stand out

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by thundered mantis

[Ninja Sinai]

Yep the finale does stand out until they flippin decided to end the fight mid way without a proper ending! 

Man would love to find the director and ask him what he was thinking and why they never finished off the end fight!??

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

3 minutes ago, Ninja Sinai said:

Yep the finale does stand out until they flippin decided to end the fight mid way without a proper ending! 

Man would love to find the director and ask him what he was thinking and why they never finished off the end fight!??

Ran out of film? Print damaged? 

You have to remember, some of these films were made deliberately to lose money. Not unlike Uwe Boll. Many of the grindhouse, saturday TV theater movies arrived here only because they were acquired cheaply, not because they were hits in HK or Taiwan. Some were made simply to export, like Bruce Le clones movies which were certainly held in low regard. My brother in law implied that many felt bad for Ho Chung Tao as he got typecast, and he wasn't a bad actor. Anyway, running out of money and ideas was pretty common with these. Some of these movies are just a bunch of staged fights and then film scenes around them to make a story, etc.

[DrNgor]

My Life's on the Line (1978) - Man Lee-Pang, who choreographed the Chia Ling film No One Can Touch Her, plays an infamous assassin named "Minute" Fong, known for killing his targets in less than sixty seconds. He's given his orders by a man named Chao (Leung Kar-Yan) and for his last kill, he needs to kill an old man. He unwittingly befriends his target's grandson and even starts getting soft for the man's daughter. It won't be long before his allegiances are tested, tragedy strikes, and revenge will be taken. The first 40 minutes are almost pure action, after which it slows down for about 25 minutes to focus on the characters, and then revs up again for the last 25. The action is consistently good, especially the last 15 minutes or so when Fong takes the film's "Replacement Killers" and then Chao himself. Man Lee-Pang is an excellent martial artist, he can do acrobatics, high kicks, low-stanced handwork, the works. Looking at his filmography on the HKMDB, it doesn't seem as if he had any other starring roles--he appeared to spend his career playing thugs and other thankless roles. If anyone knows of a movie where he has a large fighting role, let me know.

[Killer Meteor]

Man Lee-Pang is a decent fighter, but is not up to the acting required by the role. He's rather wooden.