CrazyFrog
06-23-2008, 07:27 PM
The Master (1980)
Directed by Lu Chin Ku (Tony Liu)
One of the Shaws latter day efforts, this is a good but standard film displaying the screen skills of Chen Kuan Tai, Wang Lung Wei, Yuen Tak, Fan San, and Zhou San-zhao. It works and it's fairly entertaining as well, although Yuen Tak's mugging is an acquired taste. Fortunately, his skills are not!
The basic plot goes something like this: Out of the blue, the Three Evils show up to Chen Kuan Ti's favorite teahouse and say something non-committal yet vaguely offensive like "We're here.We don't have any beef with you, so get out of our way!"???? Chen Kuan Tai, the Chinese equivalent of Clint Eastwood, retorts back about how he doesn't care for their "killing and raping" and he's going to cut off their arms!!! And he just about does it too but thanks to some subterfuge, they get out alive and Chen gets a dagger in the side. He makes his way to a kung-fu school (The Decent Martial Arts School- no, really) and is found by a ne'er do well orphan (Yuen Tak) that moonlights as a student bullied by the school's instructor and two top students. He hides the wounded master in his bunk (which he doesn't share with anyone? how's that in China?) , especially after he learns his current master has some animosity towards the wounded man. The Three Evils come looking for Chen Kuan Tai in town, and through some subterfuge and mix-ups, the student is shamed and tortured. He runs away right before the Three Evils
***SPOILER ALERT**** take care of business by killing Chen Kuan Tai and take over the school by murdering most of the students and forcing the incompetent master's hand*****END*****
That's about all the plot summation I like to do; really, revenge is in the air along with some sweet come-uppance for his kung-fu school bullies. Would it be too much to know that the bumbling student learns REAL kung-fu from the wounded master? And that he becomes proficient enough within a year or so to exact revenge against Three Evil masters? Do these movies ever go any other route?
This movie has excellent action quotient in it and the choreography is crisp and focused. I really like the way the action is presented here and I wish modern movies would take note. Anyways, Chen Kuan Tai really demonstrates charisma and power in his first role as a "master". This kind of role suits him beter to my tastes then some other roles I've seen (such as Executioners of Shaolin). His form is soild and he looks formidable. However, he does have noticeable stand-ins with acrobatics that veer on distracting from the action but are just enough to be ok. Yuen Tak has some great opportunities to shine, especially is his fight with Fan San, the blade-wielding Evil. His opera training is evident and he is more graceful than powerful but is still convincing in his fights. Fan San seems to be my favorite baddie, as he really has some strong combinations of powerful weapons skills and some tiger claw? kung fu. Need to watch their fight again.
Overall, this movie does it for me. The debate on other threads about the ratio and formatting of the movie took a backseat and it really did not affect my viewing experience. It seemed the proper aspect for a widescreen display, so I did not notice any irregularities. Some of the scenes were filmed quite well in my opinion, especially the face-off between Yuen Tak and Zhou San-zhao. One small failing for me were the comedic elements, mostly Yuen Tak's mugging and cross-dressing. While the guy is a little goofy, it doesn't translate in comedy gold automatically. His tormentors have the usual superior smugness possessed by older students found in most old school kung-fu movies but their frequent abuses just aren't that funny. I don't know how Sammo and Jackie did it, but Yuen Tak needs to learn a little more on the comedy front before I jump into a movie he leads again. One small note is the slightly gratuitous brothel scene which features a few topless lovely ladies being subjected to the lecherous knife-throwing Evil; not a biggie for me but I almost gave this movie as a gift for my Mormon uncle!
A solid movie, one I'm glad I got, with a great performance by Chen Kuan Tai, good action from Yuen Tak (but bad comedy), and a wish that more Shaws had come out during this period.
3 and a half out of 5 evil stars
Directed by Lu Chin Ku (Tony Liu)
One of the Shaws latter day efforts, this is a good but standard film displaying the screen skills of Chen Kuan Tai, Wang Lung Wei, Yuen Tak, Fan San, and Zhou San-zhao. It works and it's fairly entertaining as well, although Yuen Tak's mugging is an acquired taste. Fortunately, his skills are not!
The basic plot goes something like this: Out of the blue, the Three Evils show up to Chen Kuan Ti's favorite teahouse and say something non-committal yet vaguely offensive like "We're here.We don't have any beef with you, so get out of our way!"???? Chen Kuan Tai, the Chinese equivalent of Clint Eastwood, retorts back about how he doesn't care for their "killing and raping" and he's going to cut off their arms!!! And he just about does it too but thanks to some subterfuge, they get out alive and Chen gets a dagger in the side. He makes his way to a kung-fu school (The Decent Martial Arts School- no, really) and is found by a ne'er do well orphan (Yuen Tak) that moonlights as a student bullied by the school's instructor and two top students. He hides the wounded master in his bunk (which he doesn't share with anyone? how's that in China?) , especially after he learns his current master has some animosity towards the wounded man. The Three Evils come looking for Chen Kuan Tai in town, and through some subterfuge and mix-ups, the student is shamed and tortured. He runs away right before the Three Evils
***SPOILER ALERT**** take care of business by killing Chen Kuan Tai and take over the school by murdering most of the students and forcing the incompetent master's hand*****END*****
That's about all the plot summation I like to do; really, revenge is in the air along with some sweet come-uppance for his kung-fu school bullies. Would it be too much to know that the bumbling student learns REAL kung-fu from the wounded master? And that he becomes proficient enough within a year or so to exact revenge against Three Evil masters? Do these movies ever go any other route?
This movie has excellent action quotient in it and the choreography is crisp and focused. I really like the way the action is presented here and I wish modern movies would take note. Anyways, Chen Kuan Tai really demonstrates charisma and power in his first role as a "master". This kind of role suits him beter to my tastes then some other roles I've seen (such as Executioners of Shaolin). His form is soild and he looks formidable. However, he does have noticeable stand-ins with acrobatics that veer on distracting from the action but are just enough to be ok. Yuen Tak has some great opportunities to shine, especially is his fight with Fan San, the blade-wielding Evil. His opera training is evident and he is more graceful than powerful but is still convincing in his fights. Fan San seems to be my favorite baddie, as he really has some strong combinations of powerful weapons skills and some tiger claw? kung fu. Need to watch their fight again.
Overall, this movie does it for me. The debate on other threads about the ratio and formatting of the movie took a backseat and it really did not affect my viewing experience. It seemed the proper aspect for a widescreen display, so I did not notice any irregularities. Some of the scenes were filmed quite well in my opinion, especially the face-off between Yuen Tak and Zhou San-zhao. One small failing for me were the comedic elements, mostly Yuen Tak's mugging and cross-dressing. While the guy is a little goofy, it doesn't translate in comedy gold automatically. His tormentors have the usual superior smugness possessed by older students found in most old school kung-fu movies but their frequent abuses just aren't that funny. I don't know how Sammo and Jackie did it, but Yuen Tak needs to learn a little more on the comedy front before I jump into a movie he leads again. One small note is the slightly gratuitous brothel scene which features a few topless lovely ladies being subjected to the lecherous knife-throwing Evil; not a biggie for me but I almost gave this movie as a gift for my Mormon uncle!
A solid movie, one I'm glad I got, with a great performance by Chen Kuan Tai, good action from Yuen Tak (but bad comedy), and a wish that more Shaws had come out during this period.
3 and a half out of 5 evil stars