Although forgotten today in favour of their bloodier martial arts epics, EMPEROR CHIEN LUNG was the most successful Shaw Brothers release of 1976, and three sequels inevitably followed. It's a quirky kind of historical comedy that works rather well throughout with an involved and involving storyline, albeit following a trope familiar to Western viewers: that of a mild-mannered ruler who goes undercover as a poor man to better understand the lives of his subjects. It's the kind of storyline that's been doing the rounds ever since Shakespeare wrote HENRY V, and it works well here, with a politically-focused script looking at corruption in officialdom. There's also humour in spades, with a youthful Wong Yue working hard as the comic sidekick, Tony Liu on form as the likeable lead, and a lot of surprisingly explicit material at times.
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