Faster Blade Poisonous Darts (1983) | (VHS) | USED

**USA ONLY**

Title: Night Orchid (1983)

Alternate Title: Faster Blade & Poisonous Darts

Genre: Action / Adventure / Fantasy

Plot Synopsis
Chu Liu-xiang abandoned the martial world after the death of a female disciple and lives in seclusion. A secret society conspires to destroy the reputation of a nobleman and harm those close to him. When the nobleman marries the woman Chu loved in his youth, Chu is drawn back into danger. Supernatural assassins, poison, twisted loyalties and strange magic clash as Chu seeks to protect the innocent and uncover the society’s deadly plot.

Cast and Crew

• Director: Peng-Yi Chang

• Writers: Gu Long

• Cast:

  • Adam Cheng as Chu Liu-xiang

  • Brigitte Lin

  • Fung Hak-on

  • Eddy Ko

  • Don Wong

IMDb Link: Night Orchid (1983) 

Reviews from Letterboxd

1. Jeff_at_CSB – ★★★½☆☆
   “A wu xia starring Brigitte Lin and Adam Cheng, with a script by Gu Long? How had I never heard of this movie previously? The Night Orchid is a lot of fun. It is a lively 90 minutes featuring twists, turns and supernatural surprises. And the star power is top-notch. The filmmaking seems old-fashioned for 1983; it appears to be completely uninfluenced by the HK New Wave. But that’s fine by me when a movie zips along like this one does.”

2. Invincible Asia – ★★★☆☆
   “Faster Blade & Poisonous Darts is a far superior title if one was to ask me. The film is one of those early 80s Wuxia films from Taiwan with Brigitte being stunning, but not getting to do enough in terms of arse-kicking. So glad the likes of Tsui Hark knew how to embrace her skills later on.”

3. Ryan Hammond – ★★★★☆
   “‘I give my life for you, blood brother. And sorry that I shtupped your wife without asking permission!'”

4. realalexhours – ★★★★☆
   “Delirious fantasy wuxia phantasmagoria. As absurd as anything from the early Yuen Woo Ping comedies, but made by somebody who was clearly a fan of Duel To The Death, Patrick Tam’s The Sword, and King Hu. Very glad to see a restored version that allows all the surprisingly good looking insanity to shine through. Probably deserves to be a Boxer’s-Omen-type cult classic. Stars don’t apply here, just appreciate that it exists.”

5. Matt Constantine – ★★½☆☆
   “I watched this under one of its many alternate titles, “Faster Blade & Poisonous Darts.” The fighting is OK, though the sound effects are distractingly repetitive. The dubbing is pretty bad. But I’ll take bad dubbing over illegible/nonsense subtitles. There’s some super weird stuff, with ninjas popping out of everywhere. Things get pretty weird. Like, why are they in an Egyptian temple with cyborg cat people? As bugnuts as the ending gets, though, the film isn’t all that exciting.”

Meta Description:
A cult Taiwanese wuxia fantasy from 1983 featuring Chu Liu-xiang dragged from seclusion into a web of treachery, mystical assassins, poisonous darts and eerie supernatural surprises.