The Dragon Creek (1967) is a 1967 Hong Kong film directed Drama, starring Cheng Pei-pei, Ng Chin Han, Essie Lin Chia, Yeung Chi-Hing, Lee Ho Chin Feng, Lee Ying, Ku Feng, Lily Li Li-Li, Lee Kwan, Lee Wan-Chung, Gam Tin-Chue.

When Master Gao is murdered, his daughter Er Niu (Cheng Pei-pei, The Lady Hermit, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is that the avaricious Village Chief Wu (Lee Ying, The Knight of Knights, The Monkey Goes West, The Flash Legs) and his sons are involved. But the crucial evidence, a scrap of paper with the killer’s name, has already been removed by Wu.

Er Niu hopes to convince her brother Jian Guo (Chin Han, Sons of Good Earth, The Blue and the Black, Finger of Doom), just returning from his studies, to take action, but he is taken in by the obsequious Wu. Even though they manage to persuade City Chief Investigator Ma to reopen the Investigation, there still isn’t enough proof to bring Wu to justice.

Director Griffin Yueh Feng had made a several musicals and Chinese opera movies for Shaw Brothers by this time. At numerous points in the movie lead (female) characters break into song, but this isn’t a grand, Bollywood movie: the characters just naturally begin fairly traditional, charming little songs. It’s not a jarring as you might think, at least not with the tone of the movie as it stands.

Shaw Brothers fans have known and loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon villain Cheng Pei-pei for decades as one of the sweetest, most attractive, most heroic stars ever in Asian Cinema. She was only 20 years-old, and just three years into her remarkable career, when she took the lead in this fascinating martial arts murder mystery which combines battles with Bullet. This Chinese martial arts Nancy Drew must face a secret serial killer with too much blood on his hands to let her live.

Master Guo, a peasant whose family possesses land alongside the Dragon Creek, is murdered.

He lived long enough to write the name of his killer on a scrap of paper.

Unfortunately, this is seen only by an illiterate Peasant woman before the killer himself gets his hands on it, & replaces it with a note identifying another man as the culprit, an innocent man driven to banditry by our villain.

The dead man's daughter Er Niu (Cheng Pei Pei) knows in her heart the killer is Master Wu, a man who has been trying to take over their land.

Since the law believes it has done all that can be done, Er Niu is left angry & dissatisfied, determined to exact family revenge herself, or with the help of her brother.

Her brother Jian Guo (Chin Han) is returning from his studies, travelling with a merchant's Caravan. A beautiful travelers’ song is performed en route. Yu Mei (Essie Lin Chia) is a fine singer & a crush develops between her & Young Master Guo.

The young man is a sure-shot with a Rifle, but his skill is for hunting pheasants, not killing men. His education has imbued him with a greater respect for the law & he does not want to be an avenger. And as Yu Mei warns him, avengers also get killed, by other avengers. Her father has promised to use his influence to get another murder investigation started, as he is friends with a provincial police chief. When he arrives home the whole village looks to Jian Guo for revenge against the bullying & ongoing cruelty of the Wu family. He feels a cultural pressure upon his shoulders to act.

The bandit blamed for the murder had been Jian's best friend/sworn brother.

This man became a bandit after avenging the rape & suicide of his wife, leaving his young daughter Xi Zi (Lily Li) a veritable orphan to fend alone.

The bandit's daughter also gets to sing a nice folksong as she goes about her occupation in the hills as a shepherdess.

Chief Ma arrives to renew the police investigation, but ends up, like others before him, completely fooled by Master Wu.

Only later will he become properly suspicious, but in the meantime, Er Niu becomes more insistent than ever that her brother act, or she will act alone.

The Wu brothers ambush young master Guo & shoot him.

Wounded, he gets off two shots of his own, & being a greater shot then they, that's the end of the Wu brothers.

He's carried into the hills to be cared for by his bandit brother.

Though Master Wu had sent his sons to do the killing, he nevertheless wants revenge for their deaths, saying, "Blood begets blood."

Fortunately, Chief Ma with new input from merchant Master Yao & his daughter (who give audio evidence of who shot first along the mountain trail) are able to solve all crimes to everyone's satisfaction except the guilty parties, & in the end, legality wins above traditional vengeance.

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