IRON CHAIN FIGHTER/THE CONVICT KILLER begins with criminal Teng Piao (Ti Lung) gunning down the man who betrayed him; he's imprisoned for fifteen years, thanks to another informant, Lan Fei, "The Black Leopard." When Piao is released, the first order of business is to track down The Black Leopard (identifiable by a black leopard tattoo on his chest). This brings him into conflict with Zhou, the big boss of Flying Eagle Town, and his infamous Seven Killers. Early on, Piao confronts Mei, "The Cold-faced Plum Blossom" killer. Her weapon of choice- in this instance- is a pair of scissors. She escapes, but Piao runs into a dart-throwing marksman named Du Guo (Liu Yung),whose "Flying Daggers" are unerring. Du is offered amnesty for a pair of murders by Zhou if Du will kill Piao. Gung fu is mixed with gun fu as things heat up, building to the climactic battle (in the snow, a la SANSHIRO SUGATA II). At one point in the action, Ti Lung uses a crossed-ankles scissors lock to trap and redirect the knife hand of an attacker. Overall, a nice mix of action and suspense.

Teng Piao (Ti Lung) is sentenced fifteen years for opium smuggling. After the opening credits an assassin sent by Lan Fei appears. He offers 5000 gold to forget about the revenge. Teng Piao simply wants revenge but revenge is never simple. He kills the assassin and goes to Zhou Bai (Jason Pai Piao). After fighting the lackeys he checks into the inn and sees the lovely and mysterious Ching Li. She has been expecting him. They talk. Many men attack. He kills them all but one who he sends back. The police appear and take him to the station for a talk. He is advised to leave town but won't. Zhou sends for his six killer brothers. Ti Lung and Ching Li talk again. Her husband went missing fifteen years ago when he went to meet the Black Leopard. It is revealed that no one knows what Black Leopard looks like except for a birth mark. It could be anyone, male or female.

China has many authentic ancient magnificent weapons. But this is the movies and almost anything can be a weapon. In martial arts, weapons training is advanced practice. This is to avoid injury. Even a wooden sword can injure a martial artist practicing alone. In the movies, stunt men can be injured by rubber knives and plastic swords. Some movies use whips as weapons. In reality the whip is a poor choice of weapon. The physics of the whip as a weapon in movies is cartoon physics. But if you are trying to avoid injuring your stunt men then the whip is a good choice. Same for the iron chain in this movie. Plus you don't need cartoon physics using a chain in fights.

As for the action, a gun appears in the first scene and unfortunately many guns return toward the end. I don't like guns in these movies. The fights were all good but there was no "Wow!" factor. The dialog tending to repeat things the audience already knew. I only rate this movie a tad above average because of Ti Lung's performance.

I haven't seen the Celestial release. My copy is by Red Sun and is not a bad copy but has a few film faults. The dubbing can only be called reasonable but is at least not laughable. Brian Camp has covered most of the bases but I wanted to add that the fights are very good and seem to happen about every 5 minutes with a particularly good fight at the end. Liu Yung acts well but looks strangely like he stepped off the set for Saturday Night Fever and you keep expecting him to start dancing. But apart from the fights the main thing that makes this film stand out are the numerous plot twists and unexpected ending. The use of guns is also unusual but effective. If you like a film with good fights, good acting and a great story line this film is well worth watching.