Publicity materials for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON boasted that it was Chow Yun-fat’s first martial arts film, conveniently forgetting this early Ronny Yu Yan-tai effort, which also had him busting a few moves, though in a more limited and less impressive fashion. Lensed in South Korea, the story revolves around four men who have been hired by Hu (Eddy Ko Hung) to transport a mysterious case across the frontier within seven days. Ma (Leung Kar-yan) is an honest postman on the lam after being caught in the company of Yao Jie (Yuen Yat-chor), a pickpocket, who is also along for the trip. The other two members of the party are Fu (Chow), a shifty conman with a price on his head, and Bu (Fan Mui-sang), a slovenly explosives expert who plays chicken using lit sticks of dynamite. Accompanying them is Guihwa (Cherie Chung Cho-hung), a young girl travelling across country to buy back her sister (who was sold by their destitute father), and Ms. Li, a woman they rescue from bandits en route. Subsequent events reveal Li to be a member of Sun Yat-sen's forces and she informs the men that the case contains a tribute for Sun's enemy, the warlord Yuan Shikai. After a bizarre (but not wholly unexpected) twist, some of the party is murdered. One of the survivors then sets out for revenge, with an army of rats and a whole lot of dynamite.

While routine in most respects, THE POSTMAN FIGHTS BACK serves up enough offbeat touches to make it worth catching (while crossing a frozen lake, the party is attacked by spear-wielding killers on ice skates!) and the Korean locales (which range from deserted forests to wintry mountain regions) provide a fresh backdrop. Some of the tricks utilized by Eddy Ko anticipate similar moves he would make the next year in Tony Ching Siu-tung's DUEL TO THE DEATH though, on the whole, the martial arts on display are nothing special, which is surprising considering that they were choreographed by Yuen Cheung-yan and Yuen Shun-yee (who also appears briefly as a fighter out to kill Fu). Chow is not given much to do but, with his cool demeanour and singular good looks, he makes the most of the role.