EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Ah Wai runs a martial arts school, a job that his girlfriend Amy thinks is a waste of time. She should talk to his friends, which includes her little brother and two other pals who seem to do nothing until one day, they all go diving and find gold. Ah Wai is sensible, unlike everyone else, and says that it has to belong to smugglers. They return it and plan on coming back in three days and if it’s still there, they will keep it.

One of the friends, Ah Keung, goes back before everyone else and takes the gold. He pawns one piece of it, which connects him to the smugglers, who show up and shoot Ah Chow with a speargun and then shove a SCUBA hose straight up the La Maison du Chocolat highway. They go to Ah Wai’s school and threaten to kill everyone unless they get the gold back. This leads to a battle in a quarry where Ah Chow gets dragged by a van and dies.

If that’s not the worst thing, well, how about the fact that the bad guys hire Phillip Ko. He finds out that Ah Wai is working on a movie and attacks the man he’s about to fight on screen. Imagine the cast and crew’s surprise when a real fight happens. The killer barely escapes and then shows up to kill Amy’s little brother and then throw a flaming blanket at her face. Yes, really. This leaves Ah Keung to get hung in a shower and the killing machine to have one last battle against our hero. And if this all ends like a gritty take on a Shaw Brothers movie, well, that’s what director Kuei Chih-Hung will do. Yes, the same man who made The Boxer’s Omen, making a down and dirty low budget martial arts crime movie.

This was a total shocker and I loved every moment. That final apartment fight is so destructive and then the film says, “What if we break your heart?”

You can watch this on YouTube.