One Hell of a Misleading Poster!
Blood of the Dragon, also known as The Desperate Chase, is a 1971 martial arts film starring Jimmy Wang Yu.
White Dragon (Jimmy) is a courier with a mission to deliver a scroll containing an important message to the Imperial Court. But crossing the Chinese-Mongolian border in the middle of the war is dangerous, and a Mongolian Minister will stop at nothing to retrieve that scroll. After befriending a young boy pretending to be a beggar, White Dragon takes refuge in an inn belonging to the boy's sister Miss Lian while evading the Mongols.
Blood of the Tropers:
- Action Prologue: The movie begins it's first second with White Dragon fighting General Tai, with the credits superimposed over their battle.
- Badass and Child Duo: White Dragon and Ni-chiu, after the former asks the latter to be his guide.
- Behind a Stick: While being pursued by Mongol soldiers, for some reason Ni-chiu tries hiding behind a tree thinner than him.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: White Dragon at the end of his fight against General Tai and Minister Sing's soldiers, where his all-white clothing ends up covered in plenty of blood, both from his enemies and himself.
- Con Artist: Ni-chiu likes to pretend being a blind beggar to con for alms, shown in his early scenes.
- Covers Always Lie: Yes, movie, we know Jimmy Wang Yu have an impressive set of abs, but despite what the above poster implies, at NO point in the movie did Jimmy strip down to his undies.
- Epic Flail: The preferred weapon of Kang Fu, the Mook Lieutenant, is a spiked ball on a chain.
- Human Hammer-Throw: The ultimate fate of Big Bad Minister Sing; after White Dragon shoves a spear through Sing's guts, he then twirls his opponent in circles in mid-air before flinging Sing to the corner of the body-strewen courtyard.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Since White Dragon's main weapon in the whole movie is a gigantic spear, expect this to happen constantly. Including the Big Bad Minister Sing.
- Offhand Backhand: White Dragon, while sipping wine in Miss Yan's tavern, hears an assassin crawling on the rooftop above him. He chucks a knife vertically into the air where the sound is from, and seconds later a dead assassin rolls down the roof.
- One-Hit Polykill: While facing off against three black-clad assassins, White Dragon managed to skewer all three of them with a single forward thrush.
- One-Man Army: It's a movie starring Jimmy Wang-yu. No surprises here. By the climax of the film he had claimed at least 60 lives with that spear of his.
- Pursued Protagonist: White Dragon spends most of the movie fleeing from the Mongols after his life because of the all-important scroll he is carrying for the imperial court.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: A beautiful one delivered by White Dragon, before learning he's gonna have to fight Minister Sing and a whole platoon of at least 60 enemies:"I don't have time to die right now!"
- Shout-Out: At one point, White Dragon reveals his true name to be... Ti Lung?
- Tagalong Kid: Ni-chiu, the little brother of Miss Yan, who follows White Dragon plenty of times throughout the film.
- Weapon Specialization: White Dragon's preferred weapon is his spear, whose silver-coated shaft is absolutely huge. He's damn good at using this weapon to take names in the finale.
- Whip Sword: Minister Sing's second-in-command, General Tai, uses a sword that can split into chained segments to fight White Dragon.
- White Shirt of Death: Played straight with the white-clad protagonist, White Dragon. Take a wild guess if he outlives the credits or not.
- Wuxia: Yeah it's one of these.
