When it comes to poorly made fight films, I thought I'd seen it all as I've sat through some truly atrocious 70s Bruce Lee cash-in movies. 'Sorrowful To A Ghost' though ranks right up there with the worst of them.  Having glanced at that slightly enticing cover which depicts exhilarating sword fights and hard-wearing heroes, I was expecting an unsung classic but I was sadly proven very wrong.

The Patience School are a peaceful martial arts clan that have been in existence for many years.  They have always been renowned for avoiding trouble thanks to their teachings of tolerance but now trouble has come looking for them!  When one of their more reckless students, the young lady-killer known as Kwan Chuen, kills a fellow school student in self defence it turns out to be the son of the Dare Devil, a ruthless killer who likes nothing more than an excuse to wreak havoc.  Several deaths later and Kwan is now one of the few left alive so he goes into hiding to practice martial arts with the hope that he may be able to succeed where so many others have failed and mount a serious challenge against Dare Devil.

This really is a substandard attempt at a traditional kung fu movie with the tried and tested formula of martial arts school rivalry disastrously exploited and bogged down by a dull plot, uninteresting dialogue and poor leading performances.  Without these we are left with an empty shell of a film that can only rely on the fight scenes to attempt any kind of entertainment.  Sadly, this important criteria of any film in this genre is probably the most laughable area of this whole abysmal affair.  Imagine the most blandly put together sword fights possible with no room for invention or signs of real skill and then place them on fast forward and now you have an idea of how bad the battles are in this movie.  You're probably thinking of a Donnie Yen style undercranking affair but this is far worse and is actually so fast that it just looks plain stupid.  As if this wasn't embarrassing enough, the director also continues to maintain this speed as the combatants circle each other in anticipation which provides some of the quickest on screen action in history.

Unless you find poorly made kung fu movies a source of amusement then I would seriously suggest you steer well clear of 'Sorrowful To A Ghost'.  This is a bad film with no apparent reason to watch it and it is truly worthy of the one star rating.