Country: China

‘Wrath of Silence’ builds up well after a slow start and, while not quite bringing the viewer to the edge of their seat, evolves into a more than decent mixture of arthouse aesthetics and nuts-and-bolts action.

With some excellent, grounded choreography and a number of allusions to genre legends this is a mature martial arts film that respects its roots.

Scraping to the 80-minute mark, proceedings propel along slickly (despite the low budget) bouncing between scenes of melodrama and furious fight action, with rarely a break for character development.

Too early for the post-‘Once Upon A Time In China’ boom and too late for the post-‘Shaolin Temple’ frenzy in 1981, ‘Zen Master 6’ is perhaps better appreciated all of these years later.