His sword is bigger than the title card.
Killer Constable, also known as Lightning Kung Fu or Karate Exterminators, is a 1980 Shaw Brothers film directed by Kuei Chi-Hung, starring Shaw veterans Chen Kuan-tai and Jason Pai Piao.
The vault of the Manchurian Court has been raided, and 300 bricks of Government-owned gold are stolen. The Empress' Security Chief, Liu Jing Tian, has assigned the royal court's Chief constable and most accomplished fighter, Leng Tian Ying (Chen Kuan-tai) on the job. Constable Leng, known as the "Killer Constable" because of his ruthlessness and brutal efficiency, is given ten days to retrieve the stolen gold, but along the way, Chief Leng and his men realize they are being set-up.
Killer Constable contains examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: In the final battle, the vengeful Constable Leng, having slaugtered his way through dozens of guards, managed to hack off Security Chief Liu Jing Tian's leg before he's intercepted by The Dragon Ba Jia. The villain spends the rest of the fight crawling away for his life.
- Anti-Hero: Our "hero", Constable Leng, can be pretty harsh and ruthless at times to the point where he's no different from the bandits he's hunting. Such as cutting down an unarmed, fleeing bandit, and ordering his men into flogging (and later killing) a suspect, right in front of the suspect's wife and daughter.
- Anyone Can Die: Every major character in the film — Constable Leng and all his comrades, Security Chief Liu, the bandit leaders, EVERYBODY — dies before the end credits.
- Badass Cape: The titular constable wears a magnificient cape, lined with fur, in his first scene, the same cape which shows up when he's horseback or when taking names.
- Battle in the Rain: Constable Leng battling Fang Feng-Jia, the leader of the bandits, in heavy rain, on a muddy field where the footing is made difficult by the number of puddles and the soil becoming too soft and sloshy to stand in without getting stuck.
- BFS: Constable Leng's weapon, his massive broadsword which he uses to take loads and loads of names.
- Caltrops: The night the constable team spends in a tavern have Constable Leng being ambushed by two assassins in his bedroom. As Leng fights off his attackers while wearing only his socks, the assassins retaliates by throwing numerous spiked ball bearings on the bedroom floor. Leng still beats them off anyways.
- The Dragon: Ba Jia, the personal bodyguard of Security Chief Liu Jing Tian, the Big Bad.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Fang Feng-Jia, the bandit lord, turns out to have a blind daughter that he does care for. Said daughter is completely oblivious to her father being a ruthless bandit.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Constable Leng is one hell of a killing machine. See, that's why the film is called Killer Constable.
- A Father to His Men: As ruthless as Constable Leng is, and while he's indeed merciless and brutal when dealing with bandits, he does genuinely care for his subordinates, often looks out for his underlings, and swearing vengeance after all their deaths to have the villain who set him up hunted down, even if it means his death by the end of the day. His comrades sees him more of a big brother instead of a commander.
- Five-Man Band: Constable Leng Tian-Ying, and his team of "special" investigators assigned to uncover the stolen gold. Constable Leng Tian-Ying is the titular hero who leads the security team. Fan Jin-Peng is the second-in-command of the team who is second to his boss in terms of fighting skill. Sun Heng (played by Dick Wei) is the largest of the five. Zhao Jian is the previous supervisor of the constable squad who acts as a trainer, and the group's strategist. Peng Lai is the youngest and kindest, who often shows disdain over his boss' ruthlessness and also the pacifist of the team.
- A Handful for an Eye: At one point during that Battle in the Rain moment between Constable Leng and Bandit Chief Fang, Leng have the upper hand after Feng trips in a wet puddle. Fang retaliates by grabbing a handful of soil and throwing it into Leng's face.
- The Hero Dies: The titular Constable doesn't outlive the credits. But then again, nobody does.
- Hidden Villain: Security Chief Liu Jing Tian, who organized the constable team to recover the stolen loot, turns out to be working in tanden with the bandits, using the bandits to raid and steal the gold, and then arranging for Constable Leng and his comrades to eliminate the bandits on a Suicide Mission to cover his tracks.
- High-Pressure Blood: Many onscreen deaths are accompanied by absolutely glorious fountains of red sauce. Considering the film is directed by the Shaws' goremeister, Kuei Chi-Hung, this is expected. The death of Chief Liu's bodyguard, Ba Jia in particular comes with a blood spray that keeps going for maybe ten seconds onscreen.
- Human Pincushion: Fan Jin-Peng, who dies after being nailed by several arrows fired by Security Chief Liu's minions. He dies on his kneecaps, by the way, in a field of dead bodies, when Constable Leng finds him later on.
- Last Request: Bandit Chief Fang, sacrificing himself to being killed by Chief Liu's soldiers after being betrayed allowing Constable Leng to escape. Before succumbing, he implores Leng to take care of his blind daughter.
- Nice Guy: Peng Lai, the one member of Leng's constable team who behaves like an actual decent human being, giving his money to the grieving wife of a slain suspect, offering his food to hungry beggars, and trying to dissuade his leader, Leng from excessively killing every random bandit he comes across. Unfortunately, his kindness ends up biting him in the ass — see the next trope.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: As the constable team sets up camp in a ruined cottage, Peng Lai, the nicest guy of the bunch, spots several starving civilains and beggars throughout the ruined village. Being the kindest of the bunch, Peng decide to go out and offer his food to a pair of beggars outside a campfire. Too bad those beggars turns out to be members of the bandit gang who, upon recognize Peng as one of the constables after them, ambushes him, puts him through a whole night of Cold-Blooded Torture, crucifies him alive and leaves him nailed to a cottage's wall as a warning message to the other heroes, forcing the protagonist, Constable Leng Tian-Ying, to execute Peng Lai in order to put him out of misery.
- Off with His Head!:
- Several of Constable Leng's onscreen victims, thanks to his BFS.
- In the scene where Chief Liu reveals his nature as the traitor, he ordered his bodyguard, Ba Jia, to silence three of his followers for knowing too much. One of the three lose his noggin, who then rolls across the floor.
- One-Man Army: Constable Leng, even on his own, managed to kill dozens and dozens of bandits, mooks, and mercenaries sent by Chief Liu thanks to his BFS.
- Playing Possum: The constable team (what remains of...) comes across a ruined village, it's inhabitants slaughtered by bandits. But upon closer inspection, it turns out those corpses are bandits remaining behind to ambush the heroes.
- Protagonist Title: Constable Leng is the Killer Constable.
- Ring of Fire: The battle in the fields culminates with Leng and Sun Heng being led to the middle of a field, which has a circle of fuel poured around it. Both heroes ends up being trapped in the flaming circle as the bandits drops a torch on it, with Sun Heng using his body to put out the flames so his leader can escape.
- Suicide Mission: Constable Leng and his team's mission to retrieve the gold is basically this. They're not supposed to return alive, and are to be made scapegoats as Chief Liu falsely reports to the Empress Dowager that the constables had fled with the treasure.
- Sword Fight: Tons and tons of it, with Constable Leng and his team taking plenty of names throughout.
- Taking You with Me:
- Sun Heng, being set alight in burning fire, tackles two bandits into the flames. Man on Fire times three.
- Constable Leng, having killed all of Chief Liu's guards including The Dragon Ba Jia, finished off Liu by shoving his sword into Liu's guts. But Liu, before succumbing, triggers a mechanism on his armchair, activating a spiked trap that kills Constable Leng. End credits.
