Expected more

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Gu Hui (Chen Kuan-tai) is on the run from the head of the Wolf Head gang, trying his best to effect a BLOODY ESCAPE. In a flashback, we learn why: the formerly kinda sorta righteous gang ("no killing, no raping, only take half the money") dispenses with its old rules under new (mis)management- anything goes, now. This doesn't sit well with Gu. When he prevents a slaughter, he is belittled by his own gang. Later, when Xiao Li (Shih Szu) sees her parents brutally murdered by the gang, she tries to run- and runs into Gu, who hides her. For this affront, he is beaten. Still later, he helps her escape rape and then escape the gang altogether. The Chief of the gang offers a $5,000 reward for Gu, claiming he "stole thousands" when he ran off. He meets an old shoemaker who tells him he must "tame his mind" if he hopes to "become human." The old man is subsequently killed and Gu goes wild, killing his murderer. Police commissioner Zhang arrives in town, with "Miss Tang" (Shih Szu), his fiancé-to-be. Executions of local bandits picks up... (Says one bandit, when confronted by Gu: "We can't be bandits and saints at the same time.") As in THE BOXER FROM SHANTUNG and FIVE TOUGH GUYS, Chen Kuan-tai once again proves that a contemporary setting can work for a martial arts movie. The proper costume helps (in FIVE TOUGH GUYS, he fought in a three-piece suit). THE BLOODY ESCAPE is just one more example of Shaw Brothers superiority when it came to making martial arts movies.

A very Cantonese film. Broad acting, heavy melodrama, a fascination with gangs and bad behavior. Just a few years later director Sun Chueng would break out with "Avenging Eagle" a very different sort of film. Bloody Escape is very typical with little to distinguish it from dozens of other gang films of the era.The plot revolves around a "noble" gang member who rebells when the gang loses it's "moral center" after the leader dies and the leadership passes to his tough but immoral son. The father would "only" take half of a victim's possessions and never would kill or harm anyone. The son, however, wants to keep all the booty and kill the victims to eliminate any witness. Rape is in the new order as well. The hero fights the new order and eventually frees a beautiful woman before the leader gets to her. The hero goes on the run as the new leader is determined to kill him. The hero is hiding in the nearby town when he is "adopted" by an elderly shoemaker with a not too clean past of his own. The plot thickens as the local militia arrives to capture the gang and our hero.It's interesting to see director Chang Cheh listed here as a co-director since this film seems like he was the actual director. The film credits don't list him at all. There are none of the touches that Sun Chueng would show later in his career. There are a few good scenes, especially between the hero and the shoemaker. The cinematography is unfortunately zoom happy and sloppy. The martial arts are representative of Southern China but very stiff at times and stagy. The lead actor, Chen Kuan-Tai, is very good but the actor playing the bandit leader is high ham. The film does make an interesting point when the hero has to confront his moral dilemma with other people's opinions of him.You might like it but I think there are better Shaw films out there.