As with other kung fu movies of this era, Challenge of the Masters starts with a demonstration between Wong Fei Hung and Lu Ah Tsai. This introduction transitions into a contest held in a town where a festival/ritual is held for several martial arts schools. This contest uses firecrackers to set off special sticks that the students must recover so that their schools can receive glory and continue participating. Failing to retrieve these sticks not only brings shame to the school but disqualifies them from a variety of activities.

Of course, contest of this nature brings heavy rivalries. In one such instance, Master Pang’s school, played by Shih Chung-Tien, runs an aggressive and ill mannered organization lead by his two key pupils of Ren Leung (Chiang Tao) and Yeung Chung (Fung Hak-On). In direct opposition to these students is Lin Tao Cheung played by a serious Wong Yu and his school. Neither want to back off due to pride but must follow the rules of etiquette.

As the students practice for the contest, Wong Fei Hung also attempts to join in. However, his father Wong Kay Ying (Chiang Yang) is a well known dignitary in town (part of the Ten Tigers if I’m not mistaken), which makes other students hesitant about touching him. At the same time, Wong Fei Hung’s father refuses to teach him kung fu, fearing his petulant ways will eventually cause him harm. Naturally, that does not prevent Wong Fei Hung from scheming in finding ways to learn or back him off from joining in the contest.

Master Pang’s students though want to dominate this contest and request their teacher’s friend/associate Ho Fu (Lau Kar-Leung) to demonstrate his special techniques to them. Ren Leung and Yeung Chung invite Ho Fu to a restaurant to discuss the matter. However, Ho Fu spots Officer Yuan Ching (Lau Kar-Wing) outside, which makes Ho Fu abruptly leave. Ho Fu follows Officer Ching to Lu Ah Tsai’s home/school where Wong Fei Hung mopes around, wishing to receive instruction from the veteran. They briefly talk as Ho Fu observes in the distance. After Officer Ching goes inside Ho Fu confronts Wong Fei Hung to find out more but doesn’t get much information, although he does beat Wong Fei Hung up.

Officer Ching makes his way to Wong Kay Ying’s home and witness Wong Fei Hung “practicing” his version of kung fu. He comments to Wong Kay Ying that eventually his son will become an expert, despite Wong Kay Ying admitting he hasn’t taught his son anything.

In contrast to the polite Wing Kay Ying household, we travel to Master Pang’s school where teacher Lin Tao Cheung and Master Tang (Wilson Tong) request that Master Pang’s handle his students’ roughness. Master Pang sees no issue on his part and squarely deflects the problem. A fight breaks out when Pang’s two students return along with Ho Fu. Ho Fu is about to interject but Master Pang halts the two sides from fighting before things really get out of control and demand the opposition school teachers to leave.

Afterwards, Ho Fu agrees to instruct Master Pang’s students to help beat back the opposing schools. He also asks about Wong Kay Ying and his heirs, learning that he only has Wong Fei Hung as his son. That gives him confidence because Wong Fei Hung has no kung fu ability just stubbornness.

Once more Wong Fei Hung stands outside one of the schools as his friend Tsang Hang (Cheng Kang-Yeh) leaves from practice with other students. Wong Fei Hung wants to join the contest, even as an observer but Tsang Hang knows it would get him in trouble. Nonetheless, Tsang Hang ends up helping Wong Fei Hung as they hatch a plan to get him involved.

The contest ends up being a disaster for Lin Tao Cheung and Master Tang’s schools. Lin Tao Cheung is seriously hurt and their school was unable to obtain a single firecracker, which prevents them from participating for two years. Wong Kay Ying is disappointed in his son for being involved and causing some of the commotion.

Frustrated, Wong Fei Hung leaves and Sau Lien (Lily Li Li-Li) effectively encourages him to ask master Lu Ah Tsai to take him on as his pupil. Wong Fei Hung continues to mope around outside of Lu Ah Tsai’s school where Officer Ching appears and offers to bring him inside. Lu Ah Tsai ends up agreeing to take on Wong Fei Hung and has Officer Ching fetch Wong Fei Hung’s father. In turn, Wong Fei Hung is grateful towards Officer Ching. At the same time, Wong Fei Hung mentions his encounter with Ho Fu whereby Officer Ching tells Wong Fei Hung to forget about it.

Wong Kay Ying shows up at Lu Ah Tsai’s place as Lu Ah Tsai shows that he’s accepted Wong Fei Hung as a student and will take him to a remote place to practice for two years. In the meantime, Master Pang’s school celebrate their victory with Ho Fu. However, Ho Fu is informed that he should meet with Officer Ching and dismisses himself for the private affair. Ho Fu leads Officer Ching to a secret bamboo grove where he kills the official with his death kick, the thing that has been declared illegal and the move that Master Pang stopped him from executing during the encounter with Lin Tao Cheung and Master Tang at his school.

Lu Ah Tsai and Wong Fei Hung depart for the reclusive area while a servant informs Wong Kay Ying of Officer Ching’s demise. Afterwards, Wong Kay Ying inspects his dead friend’s body and notes the death blow delivered to his chest but having no idea who might’ve done the deed.

From there we see the gradual growth of Wong Fei Hung into a martial artist where he starts off in poor form and ridiculed by Lu Ah Tsai. Overtime, Wong Fei Hung gains the necessary attributes to satisfy Lu Ah Tsai’s demands of not just the physical ability but the mental and emotional components. The most important are compassion and humility and the biggest lesson for Wong Fei Hung is that beating a man in a fight is just a physical contest; but showing one kindness can win over your opponent’s heart, which is where the real philosophy behind martial arts is.

While Wong Fei Hung trains, he also learns of Officer Ching’s demise through Lu Ah Tsai but won’t reveal the person behind it as he wants to gain revenge himself. Then over back at the town, Master Pang’s school continues to celebrate their victory while the other school remains passive and unable to fight back. Not only that but Master Pang’s students bully and humiliate the other school.

Eventually, Wong Fei Hung best Lu Ah Tsai by retrieving Lu Ah Tsai’s pipe. He returns home, visiting Officer Ching’s grave and having his servant summon Ho Fu to the bamboo grove where Officer Ching was slain. The two battle with Ho Fu initially being overconfident and not realizing that Wong Fei Hung has learned true kung fu. He tries to trick Wong Fei Hung into the deep wooded area so Wong Fei Hung no longer can employ his pole. Yet Wong Fei Hung crushes Ho Fu’s leg with bamboo, leaving Ho Fu unable to utilize his death kick. The memory of Lu Ah Tsai’s words resurface as Wong Fei Hung shows mercy to Ho Fu and forcing Ho Fu to realize that he has no choice but accept his fate to go to jail with Wong Fei Hung.

News of Ho Fu’s capture comes to Master Pang. He and the students are shocked but decide that their hands are clean as none of them involved any of Ho Fu’s crimes as a bandit. However, with the next contest/festival coming up, Master Pang still wants to win at all cost and purchases iron bars that can be hidden and used to disable their opponents. He trains his students in them, even though weapon use in the contest is forbidden. At the same time, the other school begins their training too.

The next contest is on a more equal footing with Wong Fei Hung participating with his newfound kung fu. Also, Tsang Hang brings his own equalizer with bean oil that he slicks his body with to avoid anyone gripping him. Finally, Lin Tao Cheung has recovered allowing him to participate. The contest is more intense as Lin’s school does not want to get humiliated again while Master Pang’s group covertly uses their weapons to try and gain the upper hand. Tsang Hang does manage to secure a stick for his school while Sau Lien gets a few moments of screen time to kick some ass whenever rival schools approach their side.

The main fight is between Wong Fei Hung and Yeung Chung. This time Wong Fei Hung is clearly superior and presses the stick against Yeung Chung’s throat. Once again though the wise words of Lu Ah Tsai remind him what martial arts is meant to be and he relinquishes the hold as Yeung Chung grabs the stick. However, Wong Fei Hung hands it over willingly and even encouragingly. Yeung Chung sees the generosity from Wong Fei Hung and calls the fight to stop. His classmate Ren Leung also sees that this is a moment and pauses in his fight with Lin Tao Cheung. Tsang Hang approaches and is the one to celebrate, recognizing that they all can win which brings a roar from the crowd.

The two schools make amends at Master Pang’s school where they finally show respect towards one another with Master Pang and Wong Kay Ying praising Wong Fei Hung. However, Master Pang fully takes accountability for his machinations and decides that he needs to be punished. He takes out one of the iron bars and is about to mutilate himself but Wong Fei Hung knocks it out of his hands as the movie ends.

Challenge of the Masters wasn’t Lau Kar-Leung’s directional debut but close to the start of his directional career. Here, he was paired with Ni Kuang as the writer, which gave the movie a good flow and actual historical context through the folklore hero of Wong Fei Hung. There is a clear moral to the story here and the martial arts aren’t as emphasized in terms of the training or pure action compared to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), which most consider to be Lau Kar-Leung’s masterpiece. But you can see the connection between the themes of kung fu and the philosophical aspects that Lau would go on to push in his movies.

And what I mean about the training aspects is that while training was still heavily emphasized, the training itself wasn’t as well focused compared to other movies he would go on to do. Usually, a lot of the best stuff involves cause and effect where a pupil learns something that later gets repurposed (basically the kung fu version of Chekhov’s gun). For instance, in Challenge of the Masters, there’s a cool sequence with Wong Fei Hung slapping a floating plank in a pool as Lu Ah Tsai lowers lit incense/candles over Wong Fei Hung’s hands. However, that scene isn’t connected to a later usage like some sort of killing blow.

Also, while the martial arts is good here, it’s not great. While we do get to see Gordon Liu take on the master Lau himself, that fight isn’t all that noteworthy especially since Gordon Liu would play Wong Fei Hung again in Martial Club (1981) where we would get to see a serious kick ass fight between him and Wang Lung Wei. However, I would argue that Challenge of the Masters has a better story and flow compared to Martial Club but Lau’s filming of martial arts would improve over time as he would modernize the kung fu aspects.

Another critical aspect in the movie that I think gets under looked is the idea of mastery. One key insight Gordon Liu starts to understand as he develops his kung fu is that he realizes he’s not as good as he wishes. Lu Ah Tsai mentions how true mastery is the lifelong pursuit of self-improvement where there are no limits with kung fu. Yet in obtaining this “dissatisfaction” with oneself, it demonstrates the proper mentality in ones journey in mastering kung fu. This notion is partly the idea of humility because one has to realize there is no such thing as perfection and that one needs to practice and continue learning all the time.

The reason I think this idea of humility and learning is an underrated one is because it can apply to everything we do. For instance, early in my career, I became very cocky with my abilities with Perl. However, when the dot com bubble crashed, I was not only out of a job but could not find work. I had missed a gainful opportunity at the people search job because they were moving to Java. That whole incident made me realize that my skills weren’t good enough. As a technologist, having a sense of humility is important because of how frequently technology changes. You can never truly master the discipline and never believe yourself better than everyone. Instead, the real mastery is knowing that you must constantly improve and learn. So I take this movie’s core message to heart.

The post Shaw Brothers Challenge of the Masters (1976) Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

The movie starts with the introduction of a few key characters where they each give a small demonstration of various weapons as they fight off unknown assailants. The music is intense and the action high paced to really catch the viewer, even though you really have no idea why anyone is fight other than it looks cool and that we’ll get to see these characters and weapons as the stars of the show.

From there several of the main characters make their appearances, beginning with Tien Ho played by Hsiao Ho. Tien Ho performs a bizarre ritual with candles, incense and nonsensical kung fu and eats a pair of candles/incense for no apparent reason (candy flavored?). Afterwards, an official drops by one of these meeting spots and mentions the betrayal by Lui Gung for which the leader here must order Lui Gung’s assassination. Part of this scene involves various black garbed fighters leaping about and using trickery like smoke and bombs to create an air of deception and intimidation. The other part is expatiation on why Lui Gung is scheduled for termination as he dissolved a portion of this society on the basis that their operations were found on their fraudulent magic and pugilism, which supposedly made them immune to guns.

In a way, Lui Gung’s premise is pretty much a meta belief of Lau Kar-Leung where I think he was ridiculing the direction of kung fu movies where they showed special effects over the real martial arts. Also, I think this idea was similar to the Boxer Rebellion (1976) with less emphasis on the political implication of that period but more on the kung fu and philosophical aspects behind the Boxers and pugilism.

In addition, Tien Ho is selected to be the one from that sect to pursue Lui Gung. Since years have passed, they do not have a clear physical description of Lui Gung, which makes the investigation a challenge. The only notable aspect is Lui Gung’s inability to stop bragging about his own abilities, which might’ve been an inside joke about Lau Kar-Leung himself.

From there, we meet another sect led by someone who hides his face and uses a voodoo doll to control his men. The final sect gives one last exhibition of the pugilism technique itself. This time Ti Tan, a monk played by Gordon Liu, performs another ritual where though his men can defy normal weapons, they still cannot withstand bullets. The official sees the men perish and is incensed because of how long they have been practicing without reaching their true goal. On top of that, he reveals that the membership of the society has been decreasing and accuses Lui Gung of being responsible. Besides Ti Tan, another high ranking member makes her appearance in Fang Shau-Ching, played by the gorgeous Kara Hui. Unlike other members, Fang Shau-Ching seems keenly aware of the desperateness of the situation and shows compassion as he comrades are eliminated without reason.

Next, Tien Ho travels to Canton to initiate his side of the investigation. At a tea house, we meet various bizarre characters as well as Fang Shau-Ching, who has disguised herself as a man (despite wearing makeup). Also, Ti Tan sits amongst a group with a hat, bearing a staff to pick up clues. The aforementioned bizarre characters are a mustache wearing Lui Yung played by Lau Kar-Wing and Mo, a loud, braggart who combs his beard and attracts a lot of attention. Since Tien Ho was given an order to find anyone who brags as being Lui Gong, he immediately suspects or at least becomes suspicious of this character Mo. Fang Shau-Ching and Lui Yung also take interest in this odd character before he gallops off on his horse to the town.

They end up staying at a busy inn in town. Tien Ho makes inquiries there and notices Fang Shau-Ching and Lui Yung nearby. He trips a waiter to test Lui Yung where Lui Yung catches the waiter and thereby confirming that he may know kung fu. When Lui Yung retires to his room, Tien Ho observes which room to further examine later in the evening. Both Tien Ho and Fang Shau-Ching attempt to search the room from the attic but encounter one another. As they are about to fight, Ti Tan appears with several people from the inn. Tien Ho and Fang Shau-Ching exchange a series of ninja-like attacks while pretending to be a cat. Eventually, Ti Tan grows impatient and lifts a ceiling tile which explodes with smoke as the two inn helpers panic and a cat drops down. However, Ti Tan discovers that flash paper was used, even though the helpers believe it’s a ghost or magic involved.

The following day Tien Ho spots an old man and suspects it’s Lui Gung. This person to the town is Uncle Yu played by the director himself. Here, he’s a woodcutter. Once again Tien Ho uses his tripping trick to determine if this person knows any kung fu. Unlike Lui Yung, Uncle Yu flies onto a table clumsily and flays about like a helpless turtle. So momentarily his suspicions are allayed until Uncle Yu brings over 300 pounds of fire wood through the inn where each log is neatly chopped.

As Uncle Yu makes his way back towards his home, he notices someone hiding behind drying racks of cloth and falls back like a doddering old fool. Dramatically, Tien Ho flies overhead to check on the commotion. He accuses Uncle Yu of summoning/creating the wind that caused the rack of clothes to fall over while the real perpetrator escapes. In turn, several people think that Uncle Yu is Lui Gung but he plays it off. Tien Ho remains persistent and even starts his ritualistic powers but gets interrupted as things heat up by a person dressed in white, which distracts him.

Tien Ho hunts the intruder into an alleyway, where he finally gets to meet Fang Shau-Ching. He notices that she carries the same hook he witnessed the previous night at the inn and both inquire what their purpose was on that night.

Both reveal their orders to find and kill Lui Gong. But before Fang can mention her situation, Ti Tan arrives so both scale the walls and hide amongst the drying cloth to avoid his notice. As Ti Tan slowly walks through the alleyway, droplets pelt his hat from the clothes until he goes under their area where the droplets halt. In turn, Fang and Tien Ho keep up their ruse by spitting on Ti Tan’s hat but it’s not enough to dismiss him as he spots Fang’s fan.

Both jump over the other side, although the dubbing here has Ti Tan mention that he not only recognizes the fan of his sect but promising to find Lui Gong. On the other side of the wall, Tien Ho and Fang continue having their discussion, pretending to be civilized as other normies are in plain sight and that the situation is more of an internal dispute. Fang identifies the bald monk, calling him her uncle but I think this is a bad translation. Nonetheless, she mentions that she’s from a different sect than Ti Tan while Tien Ho states that he doesn’t want to see Fang around when he performs the rights. I think they missed Fang talking about her true purpose, which is to help Lui Gong or deny her order, which is why Tien Ho takes issue with her.

We return to Mo’s story where he learns his check for the inn has bounced. But it’s clear that Mo is a confidence man as he meets some shady cohorts and reveals that he’s using disguises to fool various inns but now has run out, hence why he shaved his mustache/beard off. However, his friends have a new special mission for Mo to perform where he gets to play a martial artist, which will make them rich. This job is sponsored by Lui Yung, who sits in the corner and had noticed Mo from before and wants him to lure Lui Gong out into the open.

In turn, they put on a show in town, using various tricks to make Mo into this legendary Lei Gong character. In reality, this showing is also very meta at least for kung fu enthusiasts as it almost breaks the 4th wall in showing how these types of displays are done behind the scenes with fake weapons, hidden blades, fake blood, etc. While this is going on, Tien Ho watches in the crowd, actually believing this chicanery.

At the end of the showing, Mo goes outside of the town to collect his money from Lui Yung with his cohorts hiding. They meet this guy in an outhouse among all places with Tien Ho tracking them down. A fight breaks out where Lui Yung hypnotizes Mo and uses his voodoo doll to control him and attempt to beat back Tien Ho. At the same time, Mo’s cohorts are amazed at this power and wrestle with Lui Yung, which causes poor Mo to be tortured while fending off Tien Ho.

This is actually a pretty funny scene just to get to see Fu Sheng do expressions and hop around. Eventually, Lui Yung tosses the doll into the water while the cohorts realize that the power no longer is effective. At the same time, Mo awakens from his trance but is forced with the others to dumpster dive in the “shit water” for their money.

Tien Ho had been immersed in the “shit water” too which causes Fang and Ti Tan to react with disgust towards him. However, Tien Ho’s malignant bath sickens him. The investigation continues with the three tracking down Lui Gong to his home off in the distance. Lui Yung goes into the home to discover it’s empty. Tien Ho figures that Yung’s failure to find Lui Gong made his own efforts futile especially as his illness worsens. However, Fang decides to take a closer look and finds numerous weapons hidden in the woodcutter’s home.

As a result of her discovery, Fang confronts Uncle Yu and directly names him as Lui Gong. She tells her purpose for hunting him down with the order to kill him as well as showing her knowledge of Lui Gong and the formation of the secret society. There’s an interesting little political line about why the society was formed as a way to cut down on the cost of the empress’ purchases by creating this elite fighting force, which obviously failed. Uncle Yu warns her that her bold statements are good for treason but she tells him that he will be assassinated in his home later that evening.

Both Tien Ho and Lui Yung show up as it’s pouring rain from above. The house seems empty although Tien Ho and Lui Yung have a small confrontation. Yet Tien Ho is too ill to follow through and passes out before Lui Yung determines that Lui Gong is not around. Tien Ho drops some stars on the ground for which Fang picks up and asks Uncle Yu, who shows he knows some kung fu in a defensive stance.

However, Uncle Yu’s concern is for the sick Tien Ho. Nonetheless, Fang continues to insist that Uncle Yu is Lui Gong and he finally admits his true identity. Furthermore, Fang persists in imploring Lui Gong to further reveal the falseness of the pugilism and other powers of their secret society because of how young people like Tien Ho have been deceived. In turn, she encourages Lui Gong to rebuild his kung fu as he will have to confront the other members who are set on killing him.

As Lui Gong nurses Tien Ho back to health, he also practices with Fang to regain his strength. At some point, Lui Yung appears and establishes himself as Lui Gong’s blood brother.

This is where the story starts to muddy up, at least to me if you don’t pay enough attention. Lui Yung has the same order as the others to kill Lui Gong and briefly engages with Lui Gong when Lui Gong dares Lui Yung to try. However, Lui Gong’s kung fu has greatly diminished after he retired so Lui Yung refuses to perform the rite. Instead, he tells Lui Gong that he still has good foundation and can rebuild himself but will be waiting to challenge him properly. I think this part can be a little confusing because it establishes as Lui Yung supposedly as this honorable character, who refuses to kill Lui Gong. But this aspect gets demolished later on and you have to listen carefully to get the details on Lui Yung’s reasoning behind this convoluted machination.

After Lui Yung departs, Tien Ho becomes conscious again and confronts Uncle Yu in seeing Uncle Yu’s expertise with an axe. Fang tries to calm Tien Ho down with herbal tea and Uncle Yu for the moment denies being Lui Gong. Tien Ho (who really is a gullible stooge if you think about it) accepts Uncle Yu’s excuse.

From there Uncle Yu makes progress on his kung fu techniques while Tien Ho also recovers. He witnesses Uncle Yu’s prowess which makes him doubt Uncle Yu’s identity. Uncle Yu tries to give the impression that he’s hunted because of how he looks like Liu Gong with Fang vouching on being his teacher. Fang also gets into a small fight with Tien Ho and Tien Ho incidentally touches her boobs, which forces her to unveil her identity as a woman. Yet Tien Ho momentarily is placated.

Tien Ho fully recovers and decides to leave to continue his quest. Uncle Yu hints that Tien Ho will meet Lui Gong soon enough. Also, Fang appears fully dressed as a woman, which excites Tien Ho. However, it’s Ti Tan’s turn to visit and confront Liu Gong. Naturally, this is an opportunity for all three to fight with Ti Tan. Here though, Tien Ho finally figures out that Uncle Yu is Liu Gong but this time Liu Gong accepts the accusation. The fight mostly is Liu Gong vs Ti Tan where Liu Gong disables Ti Tan by deafening him and pointing out that Ti Tan’s pugilism can’t withstand Liu Gong’s fingers which means against guns his kung fu is hopeless. He also says that all the tricks are fake kung fu (which again is a Lau Kar-Leung thing) and that he isn’t a traitor because of how this futile endeavor to master pugilism against guns will only cause the death of all their members. This part changes Tien Ho’s view of Liu Gong but he’s still confused. In turn, Ti Tan though deaf decides to return to Shaolin to meditate because one more member will show up later to try and defeat Liu Gong.

At night, Liu Gong and Fang await inside of Liu Gong’s home while Tien Ho and Tieh Tien (Tien Ho’s master) show up to try and finish Liu Gong off. Tieh Tien uses a variety of tricks but is unable to defeat Liu Gong. But he does try to get Tien Ho to kill himself after momentarily hypnotizing him but Liu Gong blocks the attempt. When Liu Gong defeats Tieh Tien, Tieh Tien is humiliated and tries to take his own life but Tien Ho stops him. In turn, Tieh Tien spares Liu Gong and Tien Ho then leaves.

Finally, Liu Gong decides that he needs to take on his brother as the “final boss” for this movie. He uncovers a traditional robe and shaves as part of a bizarre family tradition before he goes to a temple to fight Liu Yung. Fang and Tien Ho accompany Liu Gong as witnesses and bring the 18 legendary weapons with them. The full plot is revealed here by Liu Yung as Liu Gong says that this whole matter was orchestrated by Liu Yung as a way of consolidating his own power. I will return to that point afterwards but from here on out it’s mostly a 1 vs 1 between Liu Gong and Liu Yung in giving a demonstration of the 18 weapons. I counted maybe 12 weapons in usage or so with the other 6 being used in Liu Gong’s fight with Tieh Tien. Each time a new weapon is used, a small subtitle is shown to define what the proper name is.

At one point, Liu Yung tries to resort to chicanery by hypnotizing Tien Ho. Yet his power has diminished as his concentration is almost gone. From there Liu Gong demands that they just use their fist to finish off the contest. Liu Gong beats Liu Yung and cripples him but accedes in allowing Liu Yung to live, return to the capitol and tell the others that he beat Liu Gong. Liu Yung weeps in defeat but I assume this whole matter is handled in this fashion for Liu Gong to humiliate Liu Yung in a personal rivalry but sparing him and putting out the word that Liu Gong is dead so he can live in peace.

So this movie is really convoluted if you’ve only watched it once. The various names, societies and changing of identities with poor dubbing make it somewhat difficult to follow. I didn’t understand why it would take five different people to hunt down Liu Gong or more importantly why they didn’t attempt to coordinate their efforts. Obviously, Fang had her own set of plans but the other four didn’t bother to work together, despite having similar orders. If there was a special code required for these orders to be carried out (outside of committing oneself one the ritual was performed), it wasn’t explained.

What partly hurts the movie is the interruption with the nonsensical subplot involving Fu Sheng as a confidence man. Obviously, the idea here was to give Fu Sheng some comedy time as he was moving more in that direction in his career. But the subplot had very little to do with the main plot except for Tien Ho getting sick as a result of diving into the feces laden water. Fu Sheng was great but also annoying too especially because they gave him a really corny dubbed voice.

The dubbing in this movie is quite bad to be frank. You either have the froggy voice or the grunting voice, which can get a little confusing when people are trading lines off. Because of the numerous names, places and attempt at world building, it’s easy for anything Chinese related to go over ones head unless you keep a careful tabulation. Also, I felt that the emotion that they wanted to convey was subverted because of the dubbing such as when Lui Gong was fighting off Ti Tan and telling him that he didn’t want to see his students getting killed.

Naturally, what makes this movie a classic are the fight scenes. In particular, most people will probably cite the final fight between Lui Gong and Lui Yung as a must see as we get to see the two brothers show their stuff. Also, the fight between Ti Tan and Lui Gong is quite good while Mo’s robotic hypnotized character is a hoot. The message that Lau Kar-Leung seemed to have wanted to project here though I think got lost because of the kung fu especially with the fight scene between himself and Gordon Liu. But at least for the English dubbed part, it definitely was diminished.

So not necessarily my top Lau Kar-Leung movie where he is able to bring everything together. I felt like he was trying to do too much with some ridicule aimed at more modern kung fu spectacles. But it’s difficult seeing that part if you’re trying to watch for plot and the kung fu itself as it seems more like a personal joke or attack against the martial arts filming industry that might be a little too subtle for the casual fan.

The post Shaw Brother Legendary Weapons of China (1982) Review appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Lung Hsia is the son of a famous instructor Lung Chen Tien, played by Lau Hok-Nin. Lung Chen Tien is known for his Dragon’s Claws technique (hence the name of the film) and competent but sickly. Lung Hsia himself is a goofy kid who doesn’t take his training seriously but acts quite brash and arrogant where he is only respectful upon getting his tail kicked around. And even then because he has an incredibly stubborn head, he practically has to be disabled before giving up his pursuits when he gets angry.

Ling Ko Fung one day stops by the school to search for teacher Lung Chen Tien. Instead, he encounters an old flame Li Hua, played by Yuen Qiu. We don’t get much of a backstory between these two except a flashback where Ling Ko Fung observes her own hesitation upon seeing him. Before they can converse, Lung Chen Tien returns with his contingent of students. At the moment, no one notices Ling Ko Fung’s presence but Ling Ko Fung temporarily steps aside in seeing the sickly old man.

Lung Chen Tien receives some medicine to alleviate his suffering at which Ling Ko Fung pays him respect. However, there is a bit of ridicule in Ling Ko Fung’s posture that only Lung Chen Tien understands as he asks why Ling Ko Fung has arrived. The truth is that Ling Ko Fung wants this gold plated heirloom and wishes to challenge Lung Chen Tien for it. However, as Lung Chen Tien is not 100%, he decides to wait which really is a subversive way of making Lung Chen Tien lose face in front of his students because of how Lung Chen Tien will not recover.

As a result, Lung Hsia decides to confront Ling Ko Fung himself. Of course, Lung Hsia is completely outclassed here and gets his ass severely whooped. At the end of this encounter, Ling Ko Fung shoves the medicine he attempted to provide to Lung Chen Tien down Lung Hsia’s throat. Let me say right here that Lung Hsia is kind of an asshole and pretty stupid. Despite how he’s clearly no match for Ling Ko Fung, he persists in pestering Ling Ko Fung, even though Ling Ko Fung is merely toying with him. I can’t say that Lung Hsia has a good heart either because he’s mostly just annoying and headstrong so it’s hard to really get behind him in this movie.

When Lung Hsia returns, his mother demands that he hand over the medicine. Lung Chen Tien believes that the medicine was meant to be poisonous, although the mother thinks otherwise. Suddenly, a bizarre old man who had been spying on Lung Chen Tien earlier appears as a drug seller. He offers Lung Chen Tien a huge “pill” for which Lung Hsia, of course, comes over and starts messing with this guy. Lung Chen Tien tries to get his son to stop misbehaving but Lung Hsia decides he has enough with the bum and tosses him. That causes the beggar’s pack to explode on the ground, releasing a ton of frogs. In the chaos, the beggar seems to hijack the gold pendant without anyone noticing. Nonetheless, in the end, Lung Hsia kicks the beggar out for good.

At night, Lung Chen Tien continues to experience excruciating chest pain. He removes his shirt as his wife brings a special medicine in the form of a piece of brown paper. Underneath his shirt, Lung Chen Tien shows several marks like those of fingerprints. A flashback displays a younger, hornier version of this guy and we see how Lung Hsia was conceived. The problem in this version of Lung Chen Tien is that he was a naughty, dirty wretch and ether gagged his wife. Her father accepted their marriage but to hide the fact of his misdeeds as well as their child. That doesn’t stop Lung Chen Tien from continuing to be aggressive against her. However, she smacks him in the chest, demonstrating that she used a special kung fu that has caused that injury. Either way, this just makes Lung Chen Tien less sympathetic as a figure in this story and illustrates how Li Hua is a bit of a harsh bitch.

However, Li Hua hears a disturbance outside, turning out to be Lung Hsia. The two have a small fight which shows her superiority over him. He almost runs off until she calls him out and mentions how Ling Ko Fung instructed him on running if one cannot beat their opponent. This Ling Ko Fung honestly does not sound like a bad guy when you examine the larger picture.

The following day at the school, two new faces bust inside as the students practice. Naturally, they destroy the students easily while Lung Chen Tien is summoned. Ling Ko Fung comes in to literally introduce the two guys as “Red Man” and “Green Man.”

That has to be one of the best lines in any movie. On hkmdb, these two are formally called “Red Monster” and “Green Monster.” Neither look like an actual monster but once again the bad dubbing makes this movie so much better especially because everyone (except the hero and the beggar) are trying to be serious here. Also, the music in this scene is ominous where you have to think the dubbers are just cracking themselves up with these names.

Regardless, their purpose is to act as judges on behalf of Ling Ko Fung challenging Lung Chen Tien. They have a ceremony before engaging in a one-on-one. Lung Chen Tien manages to hold his own with his Dragon’s Claws technique so Ling Ko Fung switches up his style to incorporate what people know Hwang Jeong-Ri for: his kicks. This, of course, defeats Lung Chen Tien but his wife accuses Ling Ko Fung of “cheating” even though he says that there are no rules insisting on using the Dragon’s Claws technique. So he grabs a fake pendant and takes off with his two assistants.

As Lung Chen Tien slowly dies, he requests for his wife to teach Lung Hsia their special kung fu. Of course, at the end of the day, Li Hua for whatever reason decides not to blame her husband anymore for what happened. On the other side of town, Ling Ko Fung celebrates with his men and realizes that the pendant is a fake. In turn, he revisits the school as the students and Lung Chen Tien mourn over the teacher’s passing. He isn’t welcome there and Ling Hsia tries to fend him off but fails miserably, getting his chest bashed in with the Dragon’s Claw. Then it’s Li Hua’s turn to get involved to save her son. But no one is a match for Ling Ko Fung and he issues an ultimatum to hand over the real pendant.

Despite everything, Ling Ko Fung sits and drinks himself in a depressed state at a brothel. A woman also called Li Hua is given to him but the name upsets him greatly where he slaps the shit out of her face then tells her, “You should change your name to Scarface!” Oh man, this movie is a riot. The fake Li Hua panics as the manager comes in and complains. The two assistants enter and kick the prostitutes out while making new plans to seize the real pendant.

The two assistants search the school and find it empty. Pretty much it has been abandoned with the students dispersed as Li Hua and Lung Hsia hide in a home in the mountains so that Lung Hsia can recuperate and practice kung fu. The two assistants continue their quests, encountering previous students and interrogating them and/or killing them in the process. Lung Hsia makes some progress but his mother is quite a hard teacher and he does not advance to her satisfaction. In fact, at this stage, Lung Hsia is embarrassing and even his comedic friend outshines him. However, Lung Hsia learns from his goofy friend that the drug seller/beggar taught him enough to be able to defeat Lung Hsia relatively easily.

In turn, Lung Hsia hunts for the drug seller, who hangs around in town and is resentful towards Lung Hsia for “kicking his ass” (they repeat this multiple times in this movie). This time Lung Hsia is far humbler in his behavior towards the old man, who suspects that Lung Hsia is still scheming. The beggar initially denies teaching Lung Hsia kung fu but still gives Lung Hsia a little payback in kicking his ass (this time requested by Lung Hsia). As Lung Hsia stumbles to the ground, Red and Green Man appear and punish Lung Hsia until the beggar steps in.

Impressed, Lung Hsia follows the old man to his place after they escape. The old man gets his own revenge against Lung Hsia until Lung Hsia hunches over from the internal injuries caused by the Dragon’s Claw move. He realizes that the situation is far more serious and takes Lung Hsia in, forcing him to swear to secrecy and refuses to allow Lung Hsia to call him master. At the same time, Ling Ko Fung has his men attempt to learn more about this old person.

The old man administers enough healing for Lung Hsia to return to his mother. While practicing, Lung Hsia has a brief episode from his lingering injuries for which his mother explains the ideas of vital points. Later, he returns to the old man, who gives him the awful medicine he’s peddling on the streets and starts Lung Hsia’s training. The assistants terrorize the countryside with their mission while Lung Hsia undergoes grueling studies.

There’s a fun little food scene with Lung Hsia gorging himself on some lunch. His mother tells him, “You’re like a pig.” They have a nice little food fight where the mom instills some discipline into the bratty Lung Hsia, who tries every trick to eat. But this scene is noteworthy just in the way Lung Hsia just over stuffs his face with food while the dub makes some ridiculous slurping noises.

Then in a completely random scene, the old man brings some kids to a river area where he gets them to pee in a jar. It’s pretty ridiculous just because the kids actually drop their drawers. You don’t see their wieners but it’s kinda messed up. One kid sprays the old man as though he had a water hose. In turn, when Lung Hsia goes to further his skills, the old man tricks Lung Hsia into drinking the urine. Supposedly, the urine will cure Lung Hsia’s ailments along with the medicine but I think he’s just fucking with the poor kid at this point.

Nonetheless, Lung Hsia actually improves drastically in the next stage of his training. His sturdier, faster and can deliver wood shattering blows. While returning to his mother, Lung Hsia encounters some bandits on the road, one of who tries to rape a woman. Lung Hsia delivers another kick for which this guy gives the best line in the movie, “Hey, he hit me in the asshole! Come and get the bastard!” Oh man, what is up with kicking people in their anus for this movie anyway?

Of course, this scene mostly is used to demonstrate Lung Hsia’s improvements. This dirties him up so his mother asks what happened for which he responds that he was practicing. She’s suspicious and the two have a fight for which he finally defeats her. As Lung Hsia’s takes off shirt, the mother notices that the bruises on his chest have disappeared so he reveals the identity of his teacher, her uncle who is the only person capable of curing him.

After Lung Hsia leaves, their bald headed monk friend shows up at the mom’s place. He’s been injured and is looking for Lung Hsia. The mom offers to help him but he takes off. In turn, Red and Green Man are waiting and kill him off. More than likely the monk was a trap for the mom and the two kill her off as well.

Back at the old man’s area, the old man gives the full background on Ling Ko Fung to Lung Hsia, explaining that Ling Ko Fung wasn’t always evil. But Lung Chen Tien’s marriage to Lung Hsia’s mother effectively drove Ling Ko Fung mad (probably to jealousy) for which he traveled to Manchuria to practice kung fu but using it for evil deeds. Also, the old man hands back the actual pendant and tells Ling Hsia that he knew his father wouldn’t be able to protect it. While Lung Hsia has learned what he can to defeat Ling Ko Fung, the old man tells him that he had been practicing kung fu to defeat someone else. If Lung Hsia succeeds in his mission, then the old man will be able to defeat his own arch nemesis and goes off to search for this person.

From here on out, Lung Hsia discovers his mother’s body and becomes serious enough to defeat Red and Green Man. Afterwards, he shows up at his family’s school where Ling Ko Fung is residing and challenges him. They have a fight for which Lung Hsia defeats Ling Ko Fung and gets him to bow before the pendant.

So the story only leaves out the part for the old man’s revenge quest. That never gets resolved and we have no idea whom his arch nemesis originally was. But all the main loose ends are tied up for the movie. I think the only messed up thing is that Lung Hsia never gets to realize what a jerk his father originally was. I think at the end, his father repented enough with his injuries and that the mother finally relented.

For the most part, I found the movie to be adequately entertaining. The kung fu is more modern and not droning compared to say The Clones of Bruce Lee. Yet it’s still done in a comedic fashion so it’s hard to really get invested into the action. The training portions for me at least are kinda meh and prototypical at that stage. There’s bits that get used but it doesn’t feel as impactful compared to a Master Killer movie.

The person I was looking forward to watching the most was Hwang Jeong-Ri but mostly his assistants do the bulk of the dirty work. Ling Ko Fung feels like Hwang Jeong-Ri dialed down by 60% of what he’s really capable of since he’s working with a goofy kid rather than a hi end kicker. And most of the fights with him and Lung Hsia are relatively funny even though you can take Ling Ko Fung seriously as a villain just because it’s Hwang Jeong-Ri and you’re waiting for him to unleash himself.

With Lung Hsia, he’s just too goofy for me. He’s like a skinnier version of a Lo Mang type of character, someone with arrogance and not a lot of brains but gets himself into trouble because of those qualities. Usually with Lo Mang’s characters, he’s far more appealing in that role (probably because he dies) whereas Lau Kar-Yung is close to being insufferable because he doesn’t undergo that much change in the movie. And the arrogance early on is not earned because he’s not shown as being competent so it’s hard to get behind him as he undergoes his trials and tribulations. Instead, we’re just laughing at him because he seems to enjoy making a fool out of himself.

I will say that the mother was actually the surprise of the movie for me. Even though she played the typical hard ass tiger mom type, she fit the role and backed it up with her martial arts prowess. She really didn’t take shit from anyone and I was a little sad to see her meet her end. But that did provide ample motivation for Lung Hsia to seek his revenge (although he was still acting goofy in his fights with Ling Ko Fung)

The main saving grace in this movie though more than anything is the dubbing. Someone on YouTube extracted the best lines and probably is one of the best “Chop Sucky” (the series) videos the guy has because of how ridiculous the translations come out to be. I recall watching this movie with a friend one night and how we both just lost it on the “This is Red Man and Green Man” line. It really seems that the dubbers were having too much fun with the lines here. Also, a lot of the voices were nasally and infused with this low, growling bass vocals that made the lines even funnier.

At any rate, I’ll re-watch this movie from time to time just because the dialog itself is great for a laugh. The movie pacing isn’t bad but I think the “Chop Sucky” version is better suited for my taste because it distills the important stuff to me down and removes the time consuming parts. I don’t think the fights really are worth watching but the dialog is.

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