A militia captain, Lao Chin-Chun (Chi Kuan Chun) and his partner, Lung, practice their Kung Fu exercises when Lung announces that he feels the need to travel and test his Kung Fu skills. This will leave Chun behind to deal alone with a local violent gang. In a forest, Chun and Lung come across gang members dividing up some stolen loot. A fight breaks out and the main credits roll. Chun arrests the gang when an Old Man interrupts and demands to personally punish the gang members. Chun wants the gang to get a fair trial so he and the Old Man begin sparring. The Old Man is too good for him and criticizes his Kung Fu skills. Chun concedes and kneels before the Old Man and begs to be his student. The Old Man runs off but leaves behind a monk's engraved wood block. Chun packs his belongings and announces to his cousin and fiancee that he is leaving to intensify his Kung Fu training. He tells his fiancee, "Forget me, get someone else, don't wait!"

Under some cheesy Euro-lounge type music, Chun begins searching for the Old Man's temple. There is a very abrupt cut (something missing?) and Chun is inexplicably at the temple returning the wood block to the Old Man. He accepts Chun as his student and for his first lesson, Chun learns patience by wallowing in a filthy, smelly cess pool for a few hours! There is a series of training scenes reminiscent of the comical Jackie Chan/Simon Yuen-style antics of SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW and DRUNKEN MASTER. One exercise has Chun trying to catch flying sparrows in a small room (obviously, no Humane Society rep was present on the set when this scene went down!). In between some exotic stretching and weight training, Chun (who is doubled for the acrobatic moves) finds time to prepare his Teacher's favorite dish, dog meat! As part of his training, Chun learns of the Teacher's secluded booby-trapped, bamboo-fortressed rest area. After a couple of attempts, Chun is able to enter the lounge area where the Teacher naps with a giant boulder on his chest! Finally, Chun learns internal control and begins mastering the Eagle Claw style. Chun also learns the toad style and trains on the Bronze Man to master pressure points. At this point, the Teacher warns to Chun to be careful of applying pressure points without mastering the "anti-lock" technique and relates a story (through flashback) of how a secret anti-lock manual was stolen by a bandit called "The Red Dart." The Teacher gives Chun the torn cover of the missing Kung Fu manual and teaches him the Monkey Style and "The Dying Fist" to eventually defeat the Red Dart and recover the book.

Chun goes out in search of the Red Dart. In his travels, he encounters and spars with a short old man who turns out to be his teacher's cousin. The cousin urges Chun to learn the Bandit's vulnerable point. Out of money, Chun takes a position at a local Kung Fu school run by the corrupt crime lord, Mr. Liu, his son, Master Liu (sporting a stringy goatee). There are also two hitmen/instructors, Tung and Foo, and a third teacher, Lung, who is temporarily away on family business. After Chun witnesses Tung teaching demonstrating (and killing two students in the process!) the secret "anti-lock" technique, Chun suspects that Tung is in possession of the stolen Kung Fu manual. Swathed in trendy black ninja wear, Chun orchestrates a covert sexual rendezvous in the woods between Tung and his lover, Mr. Liu's nympho daughter. Chun ambushes Tung, applies a deadly pressure point and demands to know who taught him the locking technique. In great pain, Tung confesses that Mr. Lui taught him and dies because Chun can't "unlock" him. When teacher Lung returns to the school, Chun is overjoyed to find out that it is his old militia partner! They resume their training together. Chun dons a ninja costume and "locks" Mr. Liu to find out if the Red Dart will expose himself to "unlock" the old man. During some spying, Chun witnesses Master Liu bathing with the book around his neck and a gold plate protecting a pressure point on his spine! Chun nabs the manual and a big battle ensues with the Red Dart and numerous guards and henchmen.

Finally, Chun and Master Liu confront each other in a field. Foo arrives and reveals himself to be a covert cop and unsuccessfully tries to make an arrest. Lung also shows up and lends a hand (and a pair of feet) to help his buddy Chun. The Red Dart's dazzling somersault kicking skills prove to be too much for both militia men until the gold plate on the Dart's back is revealed and ripped off! Chun starts tossing off every technique he has learned during the course of the film and finally paralyzes the Dart. Just when things seem to be going good for Chun, his old teacher shows up, takes the book and starts beating the crap out of him! The dying Red Dart reveals (courtesy of a flashback) that he was hired by the old Teacher to steal the book. The two criminals fought over the book until Master Liu ran off with it. Unknowingly, Chun was trained by the old Teacher to retrieve it. To add yet another twist to the finale proceedings, the old Teacher's cousin shows up and helps Chun. But it is the Red Dart who saves the day when he uses his last dying gasp to fatally launch his signature crimson projectile into the old Teacher's skull. Chun retrieves the book as he "locks," courtesy of the stock freeze frame ending.

-  Carl Morano 

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