My Life's on the Line (1978)

It opens to the usual "who are these two guys and why are they fighting?" plus a pocket watch. It is soon explained that someone was sent to kill the "60 second assassin" but failed. The assassin arrives at the target's place and reads him his list of crimes then kills him in under a minute. Next he goes to visit his brother who disapproves of his career choice.The movie seems to go totally off course when the fat kid enters the story. Dean Shek salvages a bit of it. The fat kid wants to learn kung fu and this leads to his death and the death of his family. Man Lee- Pang finally learns that his boss, Leung Kar-Yan is a bad guy and has been deceiving him all along. This leads to the final fight.Yes, the fights were excellent especially the final fight. Yet I felt the rest of the movie came across as filler material. This was mostly due to I found the kid annoying. That's always a risk when using children as actors. Overall I will only rate this as average for the year and genre.

Sixty Second Assassin is a forgotten shapes film.The films stars Man Lee Pang,Leung Kar Yan,Lung Fei, Wong Chi Sang,Kong Ching Ha,Su Chen Ping,Dean Shek.This is one of Leung Kar Yans very good villain performances. he is the employer of Minute Fong(Wan Lee Pang),who is an Assassin that kills his enemies in under 60 seconds.Minute Fong wants to give the killing up to retire and live in a farm.But Leung Kar Yan has got a couple assignments before he can walk away.This Assassin story has been in many movies but what makes this one special is the fights.Good choreography from kicking and punching.Wan Lee Pang is a Taiwanese martial artist,and has only appeared in very few movies.He is also a villain in Kung Fu On Sale.The fight between him and Leung Kar Yan is indeed worth watching.

My Life's On The Line contains a good deal of fairly good fighting, although almost all the fight sequences have been accelerated, so it's harder to see how skilled the actors actually are, which is a shame.The story does have some strange cuts. Most gratingly, when the main character is fighting some old guy in the middle of the movie, suddenly (without the fight having finished) the scene cuts to a brothel where the main guy is surprised (along with the audience) to find himself in a prostitute's bed. She then begs him to take her away with him, and when he refuses, she takes poison. Next, he befriends the family of the guy he has been sent to kill, ending up causing the death of the young grandson, and, indirectly, the rape and death of the daughter-in-law. This follows the often observed Asian movie tradition of killing off everyone the hero was meant to save, just so he can be angry and anguished enough to take on the bad guy. In this movie, the final fight against Kar Yan Leung is quite good (Kar Yan Leung doing an excellent imitation of Bruce Lee), but it is interrupted by The End before anyone wins or loses. The screen is covered in blood, apparently saying that violence is a vicious circle that never ends. Well. Maybe so, but it's not a very satisfying ending.Add to this a completely useless and really awful stand-alone comedy sequence some time into the movie (I had to fast forward through most of this; it was that unbearable to watch), and this flick cannot be granted anything higher than a 3 out of 10 rating. And that's generous. Definitely NOT one of the better kung fu movies.

This is quite an interesting independent kung fu film. For many of us who have watched countless numbers of kung fu movies with the same plot ideas, its nice to watch a film that tries to be a little different and play around with he plot. The idea of a hit man who gets payed for killing off criminals, and making sure he does so in under a minute, is an idea i have not seen before or since in a movie. The action is also quite original and entertaining as well. Wang Li Pang uses lots of different styles but his main styles are kick boxing and some of the more contemporary kung fu techniques. There is also a bit of weaponry towards the end but this is mainly an empty hands kung fu movie. The final battle where Wang Li Pang takes on the evil Leung Kar Yan, is vicious and very well executed.One of the problems with the movie is that there are many cuts in the plot. As you think you're warming to a scene or a certain character it cuts to the next fight very abruptly. Also there are random scenes where the picture blacks out and then fades back into light again, mostly during a fight. However whether this is due to poor picture quality or simply bad editing.All in all this a very enjoyable kung fu film. The ending alone is reason enough to watch it.