Legend of the Bat
Legend of the Bat
| 08 July 1978 (USA)
Legend of the Bat Trailers

Following "Clans Of Intrigue"'s success, director Chu Yuan, novelist Ku Lung, and superstar Ti Lung re-teamed for another adventure featuring sexy knight Chu Liu-Hsiang. This time, he travels to the mysterious Island Of The Bats, where he encounters treacherous monks, beautiful women, and a strange Prince. The movie is also a significant milestone in the amount of female flesh revealed on screen, proving that Shaw movies can balance the yin of cheesecake with the yang of beefcake.

Reviews
Joe Dog

Wow.. I was just writing a review and was kinda upset because when I searched for Legend of the Bat I was directed to the Clans of Intrigue page. The Clans of Intrigue page is named "Legend of the Bat" and also has the Legend of the Bat video cover pictured there, but not here???I'm glad I found this here before I finished my gripe and review on the Clans page. Legend of the Bat aka "Clans of intrigue 2" (which is not listed here either) aka Bat Island Adventure (which is misspelled here) is a sequel to Clans of Intrigue.Well.. there's not much I can say here that hasn't already been said by the other reviewers. It's full of twists and turns that keep you guessing just like Clans. Some like it better than Clans and others like it less. My reaction to either is equal. Both good movies. I just hope that IMDb fixes the error and puts the Legend of the Bat video cover here (where it belongs) and returns Clans of Intrigue back to its original again to avoid the confusion.

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poe426

Night on Bat Island, and there's an auction being held. All the lights are put out before the auction begins. A mysterious bidder wants the head of Chu (Ti Lung, reprising his role from CLANS OF INTRIGUE). Before long, everybody's trying to collect the reward for Chu's head. At one point, trapped on a boat full of likely suspects, Chu meets up with Yi, his ronin buddy from CLANS OF INTRIGUE. Storywise, there are more twists and turns than you can count. The ship Chu is on is sunk and he and the survivors float to safety (another ship passing by) in coffins with their lids removed. This new ship is headed for Bat Island, where things get even hairier for Chu and his friends. I'm not going to give away anything here, but there are some ingenious developments during The Big Finale. It's too bad that American, English, or Canadian filmmakers lack the storytelling sensibilities of a director like Chu Yuan: with all the comic book superheroes flooding screens big and small in this country, very few are even worth the time it takes to sit through them (when it comes to adapting comic books, most filmmakers are blind as a bat, if you will). LEGEND OF THE BAT should be used as a How-to guide for filmmakers.

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curtpdx

Outlandish sets, garish lighting, a chartreuse pool of acid and the evil Mr. Bat, with his minions in red jumpsuits, capes and cute little bat ears. Oh, and the only kung-fu movie you'll ever see featuring an auction.There are decent fight scenes, though too much time between them. This is not Ti Lung's finest hour, but it's a great example of Shaw Brothers excess. That said, I did enjoy it, but if you're after some good Ti Lung chopsocky, try The Magic Blade or Blood Brothers, both available in the Shaw reissue series by Celestial Pictures.

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David Austin

Legend of the Bat involves a hero played by Ti Lung trying to find the mysterious Bat Island in order to help friends and solve mysteries, and solve the riddle of the masked Mr. Bat.This is a fairly entertaining sequel to Chu Yuan's Clans of Intrigue, but is not as engaging as the original. There is some really beautiful, Suspiria-esque use of lighting, and some great sets. Most of the leads do a solid job, and Ti Lung is good as always. However the movie drags in too many irrelevant characters (even by Chu Yuan standards), and Ti Lung's character, the only important hold-over from the first movie is largely eclipsed by other characters. It's solid stuff, but no Magic Blade.

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