Have you seen The Traitors series on Peacock? The gameshow features a group of people (reality show vets) staying at a Scottish castle where Alan Cumming (Goldeneye) secretly makes a few of them traitors. Those tapped have the power to “murder” the “faithful” contestants overnight. After they various money earning competition, the contestants have a chance to vote out a player they think is a traitor. If a traitor makes it to the final group, they win all the money otherwise its split by the last faithful members. I wondered where they got the idea for the gameshow. Then I saw To Kill A Mastermind and the connection is unmistakable. The Shaw Brothers released the movie in 1979 that’s all about spotting traitors. Except instead of merely voting people out using chalk and little blackboards, the potential traitors are taken out of the game with fists, swords and even a flying guillotine. To Kill A Mastermind will have you guessing as to whether one of the lethal killers is a traitor while you’re not marveling at the fighting.
The Chi Sha clan has been hitting a rough patch as their criminal network has been getting pruned by the emperor’s men. The syndicate had lost three of their major members that control various territories. But they’re not going to stare at empty chairs in their secret cave lair. The Chief Leader under orders from the Supreme Leader has approved of three members for a chance at promotion. Before they can sit in the big chairs, they have to fight a band of captives who are promised freedom if they kill any of the three prospects. This isn’t the usual hand to hand combat since the prospective Legion chairs have favorite weapons including giant arm rings, double sided swords and most importantly a flying guillotine that’s like a lethal Frisbee. The new guys pass with flying colors that’s the shades of blood of the unfortunates. One of the captives gets their head popped off by the flying guillotine. The Supreme Leader doesn’t directly talk to his Legion. They sit in a special subterranean room and a metal ball rolls down a pipe to plot on a table. Inside the ball is a message with the first big job for the new board of the Legion. They must intercept the emperor’s chief that’s on their tail and shut down his work. Things get touchy as a word arrives that one of the Legion members is a traitor. But who could it be? One of the new guys? Why not one of the four that didn’t get eliminated. Or perhaps the Chief Leader with his white and pink hair. Maybe he’s looking to take out the Supreme Leader and run the operation? Whenever someone is extremely suspected of being the traitor, the rest of the Legion jump on them. The film is filled with as much paranoia as fight scenes.
To Kill A Mastermind is what you want when you pop a Shaw Brothers movie in the Blu-ray player. There’s a plot that has as many twists as the fighters leaping all over the screen with cool weapons. There’s even a metal claw glove that slashes away in combat. The movie was directed by Chung Sun who had just done Avenging Eagle and would later make Human Lanterns. The film has a bit of the same vibe as Five Venoms with the fighters using special skills to mark their individuality. This makes sense since Kuang Ni wrote the scripts for both. The actors here seem like they’re supposed to be part of a new Venom Mob. Many of the had been doing lesser roles in previous films. But unlike the Venom Mob, Shaw Brothers didn’t elevate this cast for leading roles in further adventures. The film itself became rather obscure in Hong Kong. This is a shame because To Kill A Mastermind is an exciting flick with plenty of intrigue as Legion members do their best to reveal the traitor in their midst.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer brings out the details of the evil Legion’s cave with the numerous banners. The audio is LPCM 2.0 Mono in Mandarin. The mix is clean enough to hear all the fighting. The movie is subtitled in English.
Still Gallery (0:40) has color press photos.
Four Postcards with scenes from the movie. They are suitable for framing.
88 Films present To Kill A Mastermind. Directed by Chung Sun. Screenplay by Kuang Ni. Starring Wei-Hao Teng, Sheng Lo, Kang Shih, Wah Yuen, Lung-Wei Wang, Bun Yuen, Ting-Gou Meng, Feng Ku, Hui-Ling Liu, Fei Ai, Tat-Wah Tso and Dick Wei. Running Time: 99 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: September 10, 2024.
