Ways of Kung Fu (1978) Review
Ways of Kung Fu (1978) is one of Chi Kuan-Chun’s better movies after his contract with the Shaw Brothers had finished. Around ’77, he pretty much was done with the Shaw Brothers and began doing more independent movies and would be featured with other Shaw Brother alumni that he might’ve befriended along the way. For myself, this was a staple favor for my family on Saturdays that would appear around 5pm on channel 9. You can find it on a variety of spots like TubiTV or Amazon and it’s a movie that I’ll periodically check out as it’s not horribly bloody like later Venom movies and more good nature in spirit.
The movie is about Tak Kung (Chi Kuan-Chun), an orphaned young man who has been taken in by a temple. Unfortunately, Tak Kung is not well liked and frequently bullied by virtually everyone except the abbot, who is old but kindly and a pacifist. The unseemly Chang Yang (Cliff Ching Ching) one day stops by and takes residence at the temple where he bullies the occupants into allowing him to stay. However, he has a particular distaste for Tak Kung, who receives the brunt of his seedy demeanor. In turn, the head kindly temple head Hu Lin tells Tak Kung that he must leave and seek a former friend/colleague in a distant village.
Along the way, Tak Kung continues to be onset by ruffians, one group who steals his belongings and another one that attempts the same, even though he just has been robbed. In a few instances, he is saved by two random strangers, a young lady (Wang Seng) and a practitioner of the drunk kung fu technique (Meng Fei). By the time he arrives at the village, he encounters another young lady Hsiao Yin (Wang Pao-Yu) who insist he stay and learn kung fu from her family. The rest of the family come over to insist, despite Tak Kung’s insistence on avoiding kung fu for no real reason. Instead, the head of the family, Shang King (Leung Kar-Yan aka Beardie) decides that he won’t force Tak Kung to learn kung fu but that he still must work hard.
Staying with this family of kung fu practitioners is rough on the naive Tak Kung as almost all aspects of their lives involve kung fu to some degree from eating to handling their laundry. Initially, Tak Kung is assigned duties of filling up water from the well and cutting wood under the bed of Shang King. Also, eating becomes an exercise in futility as he’s too sore to keep pace with the rest of the family who gorge themselves. As time passes though, he improves in strength, stamina and speed.
At one point, he tears his clothes trying to dry them off and goes to the local town to pick up new materials for the mother to create new attire for him. While at the town, Tak Kung overhears several drunk “fighters” brag about their abilities. They eventually get into a confrontation but mess up a noodle cart where the owner twist them about and manhandles them to the crowd’s delight. However, when someone praises his kung fu, the owner admits that he never studied kung fu in his entire life, which makes Tak Kung realize that he too had been inadvertently training.
Back at the home, Tak Kung confers with Shang King where he provides Tak Kung with the bigger picture on how kung fu ought to be (self defense). After a few flash backs, Tak Kung decides that he will start learning kung fu. He undergoes a series of exercises that leads him to challenge Shang King in the rain and beat him by taking his umbrella away. From there, Shang King tells Tak Kung that he needs to return to the temple as his old master is sick and the cruel Chang Yang has overrun the temple.
Upon Tak Kung’s return, it’s clear that he’s changed where the other pupils can no longer use their tactics to bully him. When Chang Yang tries his turn, Tak Kung counters and Chang Yang realizes that Tak Kung had been practicing the past two years and they fight. Eventually, Shang King shows up to defend his pupil. As they double team Chang Yang, Tak Kung’s mentor from the temple appears and pleads to let Chang Yang leave.
However, the incident causes an awkward reunion between Shang King and Hu Lin a discussion with Tak Kung acting as a mediator on the philosophy for kung fu. Hu Lin tries to invite Shang King to the temple but their relationship has been strained over the years and Shang King wishes to return to his family.
A new random figure appears in checking out the temple and tries to get Tak Kung to admit his name while Tak Kung wants the figure to reveal why he’s there. Neither communicate well so of course they break into a fight but the figure hightails it by leaping on the roof. Back at Shang King’s home, his wife is killed by Chang Yang and two of his bandit buddies. He ends up meeting his demise while his daughter escapes.
At the temple the unnamed girl that rescued Tak Kung earlier appears as she’s being chased by a pair of thugs. No one at the temple are able to offer much help until Tak Kung shows up to defend the girl. As he’s trying to get information from the girl, Hsiao Yin shows up and blows her fuse at seeing him with another girl and runs off. They pursue her into the forest where a fight breaks out (of course) with Chang Yang’s thugs. Both girls are captured while some of the people from the temple attempt to aid Tak Kung. Hu Lin is killed off along with the other senior monk but Tak Kung escapes.
He runs off to where the drunk is training with his master (there’s a scene earlier with them drinking) and oddly Meng Fei (who doesn’t even receive a name) attacks the injured Tak Kung. Fortunately, the drunken master wards Meng Fei off and they give him aid along with additional training. After a more or less inconsequential training scenario, the pair get the master severely drunk to the point where he passes out. Sometime along this time frame, Hsiao Yin escapes from Chang Yang’s captivity while the unnamed girl sacrifices herself.
The two thug sidekicks for Chang Yang appear at the master’s training ground and attack Tak Kung and Meng Fei. One of these guys knows this bizarro toad/frog style where they show a frog making some odd sound. But it’s ineffective as both men are taken out. Chang Yang then attacks them with his brass hoop in a silly fight that involves the previous mysterious guy appearing at the last minute to help catch Chang Yang, who actually is the criminal Wu Tak. The guy had been wearing a terrible disguise and no one really explains anything about this guy. Hsiao Yin shows up crying “Tak Kung” and the movie ends.
So this is one of the better independent kung fu movies from that late 70s period. It definitely is one of the Chi Kuan-Chun’s better semi-solo/independent efforts and I’m guessing is meant to show him with a better range. However, there’s a massive problem: this guy doesn’t come off very convincing as this sniveling, humble servant fellow. He doesn’t really have the charisma to play the lead compared to a Fu Sheng, who could be a foil to Chi’s normally stoic demeanor. I suppose that’s part of the reason they chose Meng Fei to appear as you could consider him a Fu Sheng-lite version in that system back then.
The movie is paced reasonably well and doesn’t get boring but it’s not a great kung fu movie compared to stuff from the Shaw Brothers in their golden years. The stench of independent film making is heavy on this as the copies still come out grainy and you can see the editing quite clearly. The kung fu itself is nothing to write home about, although Chi does get to show off more than his typical hung gar that you’d see during his Shaw Brothers’ days.
The best aspect of this film is the kung fu family with Leung Kar-Yan as the father figure. Usually, under the Shaw Brothers, he would play a second rate thug with limited fighting skills. Here, he gets to play the prototypical tough master but remains likeable with his own code of honor. But it’s no wonder why this guy ended up having a very long career in film making as he shows more of a range of characters and expressiveness compared to others from this genre.
Then there’s the Meng Fei problem. Back in the day, I didn’t realize this was the same guy from the Five Shaolin Masters. Yet I think looking back it’s simply because he wasn’t all that memorable because his kung fu wasn’t special and he generally would seem like a 2nd rate Fu Sheng copy. And he just randomly appears at various points in this movie.
The movie can be disjointed at times with random characters showing up like the bandits or Tak Kung’s serendipitous rescuers. I’ve never liked when people magically appear and this movie has quite a few of those situations where someone shows up just to get killed or save someone to introduce a new character or end one. The part where Tak Kung and Chang Yang move from the temple to the forest happens out of nowhere.
Quite honestly, some of the scenes looked as though they had been secretly filmed at the Shaw Brothers studio. For instance, one fighting scene looked like Chi Kuan-Chun’s battle with the mantis guy at the end of the Five Shaolin Master. Also, considering they had a few people from that movie, it made me wonder if this movie hadn’t been secretly filmed during one of those productions despite how it came out a few years later.
Regardless, it’s still a fun movie to watch. It’s like that Saturday 5pm period when nothing else is on and you’re either getting ready for dinner or waiting for your family to bring home some Chinese at the local restaurant.
