Mad Mad Kung Fu (1979) Review
Just as I had re-discovered the Chinese Godfather last night as one of the ultimate treasures of rare kung fu movies I’ve been searching for, I also finally located another piece called Mad Mad Kung Fu or Drunken Master, Slippery Snake (1979/1980). Like Chinese Godfather/The Chivalrous Knight, Mad Mad Kung Fu possesses a few key scenes that had been permanently imprinted in my head since the moment I saw them, which is why I had been hunting it done in part. One almost was a literal imprint for me that is accompanied by a few personal stories that are worth telling here. Fortunately, the movie itself is up on YouTube for free and can be found below for your enjoyment.
Since I had been combing through numerous early to mid 70s movies in search of the infamous Chinese Godfather scene, one thing I had realized is that many of those independent films were terribly grainy, horribly shot, the kung fu being a mess and the plot lacking almost any coherency except as a method to get from one long fight scene between two real kung fu actors to the next. With Mad Mad Kung Fu (which we’ll call in this blog), the plot seems a bit tighter, the output cleaner and kung fu far tighter. So I think these movies were better to import than some of the earlier ones because they were more relatable and easier to understand for an international audience.
Mad Mad Kung Fu actually has a few names I recognize including the main star Cliff Lok, who oddly has no name, Peter Chan as Kwan Chang Chi, Lee Hoi-Sang as Lung Yung Feng, Simon Yuen as Bamboo Stick and even a small cameo by Chiang Tao only described as a “Japanese” judo master (so it goes to show that not only Americans/white cinema would use incorrect ethnic types in their movies to make their point). To me, Cliff Lok was like a low budget Jackie Chan or Fu Sheng type. He had decent charisma and reasonable martial arts skills but his movies or his character never really had the same level of impact to me that the other two did. Peter Chan had been in a large number of movies, including The Avenging Eagle (1978) as a ball and whip wielding Soaring Eagle Wang Tao Sang. Lee Hoi-Sang was another highly prolific martial arts star and most probably recognize him in a variety of Shaw Brothers productions playing some monk character with his bald head under Lau Kar-Leung. Chiang Tao is probably one of the hardest working villain character actors in kung fu cinema and very recognizable across the board. Finally, most people who watched many kung fu movies from the 70s period (mostly) would know the familiar face of the wise but typically gruff Simon Yuen playing the other hero, Bamboo Stick.
The story starts off with a bizarre man attempting to commit suicide by hanging himself. Simon Yuen comes along as a homeless guy trying to stop the man from committing suicide by getting the man to donate his clothes to him before he kills himself. Gradually, he learns that the man is in trouble because he’s being forced to marry his daughter away to a creep. The creep is played by Cheng Kang-Yeh (Lung Chan), someone many people would recognize as a Shaw Brothers bit player who frequently had comedic roles. Here, once he marries the “daughter,” Lung Chan naturally wants to sleep with the daughter. However, during the ceremony itself the father and wife do all they can to hide the fact that they’ve hired Bamboo Stick to pose as his daughter. Lung Chan does all he can to try and become intimate in the dark with the “daughter” only to be thwarted, revealing Bamboo Stick who get gets rid of the hoodlums, but inadvertently kills the son.
The father is Lee Hoi-Sang/Lung Yung Feng and he wishes to seek revenge against the folk hero Bamboo Stick. His advisor is a bookish fop who actually gives Lung Yung Feng sage advice throughout the movie that mostly works. Here, he suggest that Bamboo Stick needs to be drawn out and decides to use his student Kwan Chang Chi as the bait. Kwang Chang Chi works for the government doing escort work. Lung Yung Feng and his men ambush an unsuspecting Kwang Chang Chi and his men, killing them all except Kwang Chang Chi. In the process, the find that Kwang Chang Chi was guarding a precious jade ring, which they keep so that Kwang Chang Chi is blamed and sought after by the government for failure to return.
In turn, Kwang Chang Chi has to go into hiding as posters of his face are plastered around towns. He takes up the identity of a ruffian with a beard (important key here for me at least) and tries to escape. Government officials patrol and hold checkpoints to inspect travelers. As Kwang Chang Chi gets to one of these checkpoints, he notices that a person in front of him is pilfered but says nothing as he does not want to alert any officials. One of the officials inspects him but cannot discern Kwang Chang Chi’s true identity and allows him to pass. Cliff Lok also is part of this group.
Once they get through the checkpoint, some of these travelers stop for a break. The man who was pilfered from realizes that his money is gone and the thief accuses Kwang Chang Chi because he looks like a beggar. Without much thought, the man goes on a rant at Kwang Chang Chi as the thief joins in. But Kwang Chang Chi removes the thief’s hat to reveal that he has the stolen money. The thief tries to fight back but Cliff Lok intervenes and beats the thief silly. As Kwang Chang Chi and Cliff Lok buddy up, we learn that Cliff Lok likes doing good and has invented his own style of fighting.
As they get into some random town, a young woman is harassed and Cliff Lok once again acts as the hero. Unfortunately, the would be victimizer knows kung fu and is superior to Cliff Lok. Kwang Chang Chi realizes that Cliff Lok requires aid and steps in to give a guiding hand. Once again the pair beat the martial artists and the town applauds while their friendship grow.
From there, they get hungry and enter a restaurant, ordering a huge variety of chicken. When it comes time to pay, neither have any money. Kwang Chang Chi tries a few tricks, including calling Cliff Lok “Bamboo Stick” after his master but the restaurant proprietor insists on payment. In turn, Kwang Chang Chi dismisses himself to return disguised as some hombre from a western movie. He beats up the restaurant’s staff which forces the proprietor to beg Cliff Lok to aid him. As a result, Cliff and Kwang fight it out where Cliff “beats” Kwang and he leaves while the proprietor is eternally grateful. Kwang returns and their tab is removed with the trick paying off.
Their adventures continue as they encounter the “Japanese” judo master, who had been wanting to face Bamboo Stick. They setup a wager where if the judo master loses he would forfeit the gym. Once again, Cliff Lok is the one to take up the fight but gets his ass beaten until Kwang aids him by spitting weird seed or beans at the judo master. Outside, another bet goes on where two old men bet each others’ attire over each side. Of course, Cliff Lok wins, one of the old man hobbles away naked and poor Chiang Tao loses his pants and takes off to leave the school to the pair.
Once Cliff Lok obtains the school, he does a demonstration to his new students but Kwang initially humiliates Cliff until Cliff tells him that they need to demonstrate his strength. So Kwang plays the role of a fool and gets beaten so that Cliff can take a break. I suppose with their earnings from the school, Cliff manages to get a shabby home where they stay. During one meal, Cliff closely examines Kwang and notices something strange about him and determines that Kwang is the both the imposter from the restaurant and the man seen in the various posters. However, because they’ve become close, Cliff says that he won’t turn Kwang in and learns of Kwang’s true story and identity. In turn, they plot to recover the stolen jade ring from Lung Yung Feng.
Cliff goes in disguised as a prostitute but the advisor easily detects that he’s a phony, theorizing that Kwang might be attempting to recover the ring. Later, Lung Yung Feng and the advisor plot to play along to draw out Kwang. Cliff thinks he gets Lung Yung Feng drunk and steals an empty planted box without verifying that the ring is inside and returns to Kwang. However, this sets up an ambush by Lung Yung Feng and his men. A hopeless fight ensues where Kwang and Cliff manage to beat back Lung Yung Feng’s men, but are outmatched by Lung Yung Feng’s Iron Head technique. Kwang sacrifices himself so that Cliff can get revenge as Lung Yung Feng smashes poor Kwang’s face in with a gnarly headbutt that cuts to a watermelon getting wrecked. However, Kwang in death clings to Lung Yung Feng’s feet to allow Cliff to escape.
As Cliff mourns for his friend, he promises to get revenge by making his head stronger than Lung Yung Feng’s. He sets up numerous Chinese wine jars from ropes and practices hardening his head by smashing his head through them. Unfortunately, the technique proves futile as it takes only two before his head is bleeding from the hard vases. At that time, the real Bamboo Stick appears and wards Cliff away from this futile effort. But he learns that the reasoning behind his crazy exercise was to gain revenge for Bamboo Stick’s pupil.
As a result, Bamboo Stick is finally drawn out of hiding to face Lung Yung Feng. They fight with Lung Yung Feng gaining the upper hand (or head) Cliff joins Bamboo Stick to rescue him and hide in the bushes. As Lung Yung Feng pursues them, he believes he finds Bamboo Stick only to discover that Cliff is in Bamboo Stick’s attire. He gets headbutted for his trouble as Lung Yung Feng is more obsessed over Bamboo Stick’s demise. Cliff locates Bamboo Stick and the pair hobble off to Cliff’s home where they share medicine and begin their recovery.
While Bamboo Stick rests at Cliff’s home, Cliff works as a noodle vendor in town. We see that he’s quite adept at crafting his noodles, which may hint at a subtle kung fu he knows. However, as he finishes up for the day, one of Lung Yung Feng’s men spots him and tracks him to his home. Lung Yung Feng traces the pair and brings a few men to have a confrontation and finish the job. He tells Cliff that this isn’t his affair and focuses his attacks on Bamboo Stick. Nonetheless, Bamboo Stick hasn’t fully recovered, leading Cliff to take his place.
Cliff unleashes his technique but still has trouble overcoming the superior Iron Head technique. However, he manages to get Lung Yung Feng to smash his face into the dough, which blinds him. This allows Cliff to realize that he has a chance of beating Lung Yung Feng and grabs more dough to splatter and cover Lung Yung Feng’s face in. Unable to see, Lung Yung Feng’s attacks are more erratic and he gets his throat caught between two poles where Cliff smashes them together to kill Lung Yung Feng. Victorious Cliff and Bamboo Stick celebrate as they examine the dead body of their foe.
So just as I’m writing the plot up here, I realize just how much cleaner of a story and more understandable it is compared to Chinese Godfather or a few other early 1970s movies I had been watching this past week. There are problems like some of the pacing could have been better and how Bamboo Stick’s technique never was taught to Cliff seemed like a major missing opportunity. For the most part, this movie is fairly straight forward and easier to digest.
Also, I will say that Cliff Lok’s character here isn’t annoying. Some of the comedy fighters like Jackie Chan stay goofy for the entire movie. Once Kwang perishes, the tone quickly shifts where Cliff becomes very serious, even though the whole wine vase headbutt practicing scene was ridiculous.
The martial arts itself isn’t spectacular compared to say the Venoms movies or anything from Lau Kar-Leung. But it’s still entertaining and moves well. I think part of that is due to Simon Yuen’s influence since he was another legit martial artists that you could take seriously, even in a comedy. Cliff himself is quite acrobatic and a few of his training feats aren’t bad. But I think without the real focus of martial arts in the way Lau Kar-Leung knows how to present, it’s harder to get into the training parts in the same manner as the trope wasn’t strongly used here. Like Cliff simply gives up on his own Iron Head practice, which makes sense then shows us his weird noodle making technique. But we never had seen him use it during the entire movie so when we’re shown it feels abrupt.
Likewise, there’s the one “subliminal” moment with the watermelon face smashing scene. This is the only time in the movie where it uses a kind of flashback or subliminal technique. I do recognize that the film maker employed this visual to give the impression of the impact of the Iron Head technique but I tend to think styles of visuals are best suited when they’re consistently used in a movie. For instance, Chang Cheh’s sepia flashback sequences and to a lesser degree even the odd interstitial cuts of Bruce Lee images inside of Chinese Godfather. So this is where the real difference to me is made when you examine the sharper Shaw Brothers movies in comparison to more independent movies.
But let’s go into that whole sequence with the head smashing scene. One thing I’ve come to realize about those 70s/80s movies in comparison to contemporary movies is how memorable more scenes were back then. Perhaps, part of that is due to age and how I have a better long term memory. Nonetheless, I do think movies back then did a far better job at allowing the audience to absorb key moments by creating unique scenes that would stand out.
The face smash moment was the main thing I had been searching for in some time. It was similar to the foot spike/arrow trap moment from Chinese Godfather. It literally had a major impact on me because it was both a gruesome and somewhat hilarious moment. The gif posted earlier is only missing the dramatic music, which was used in a few Chinese independent movies back then. But that music would heighten the tragedy of the scene where the poor bearded fellow got his face caved in. To a lesser degree, I also was able to recall the Iron Head training sequence with Cliff Lok smashing his head through wine vases because it just looked stupid and ridiculous.
However, I will admit that because of my love for kung fu, at one stage in those days, I too had used my own “Iron Head” to smash someone’s face in. No, I didn’t kill the person because I think I just delivered a hard headbutt. I can’t recall whom I did this to but it could’ve been my cousin, my dad or some stupid kid on the playground that pissed me off. All I know is that people would make fun of me back in those days as having a “big ol’ head” so one day I actually proved it. But in a way these movies with their memorable scenes demonstrate clearly how much of an influence they would have with me even in some practical/impractical manner.
That said, I’m actually happy I found this movie as like Chinese Godfather, I had been searching for decades for that particular scene. There might be one more movie with a special scene that I’m missing but it’s one that is going to be even harder to discover. I will admit here that part of how I ended up re-discovering this scene is using Google’s Gemini. Because I had no idea of the cast and could only describe the scene, the genre, etc., basic search often times would fail me. I did my best in going through numerous old kung fu review sites and images to no avail or inquired on reddit. But Gemini presented me with a list of potential candidates as the lead and I ended up narrowing it down to Cliff Lok. The movie is actually on Tubi but in Spanish. Once I had the title translated, I was able to find it on YouTube and the Hong Kong Movie Database. At any rate, I’m very satisfied that another leg of my life long kung fu quest has succeeded.