Kung Fu Cult Master (1993)

With his parents having been forced to commit suicide, Chang Mo-kei grows up suffering the effects of the “Jinx Palm” which doesn’t allow him to learn kung fu. Although favored by Wu Tang’s leader, Chang is cast out by a rival. He is cured by a crazy monk who is tricked into teaching Chang the “Great Solar Stance,” a powerful martial arts technique with magical properties. Chang then seeks revenge on the various clan leaders responsible for his parents deaths while trying to keep the clans from destroying each other.

What do you get when you mix a little Jet Li martial mastery, some Sammo Hung choreography, and a whole lotta Wong Jing tomfoolery? Well, if it’s anything like Kung Fu Cult Master, you better run for the hills because this film will mess you up!

As a filmmaker, Wong Jing is well known for his outrageous films that spoof just about anything and everything. But unlike the cartoonish City Hunter (1993) or High Risk’s (1995) carefully constructed parodies, KFCM has a narrative tricked out on speed and greased for maximum velocity. That is to say, you’ll have a hard time making sense of this film. A narrator zips through a lengthy bit of back story which eventually brings us to Jet Li as a grown man. Kung fu purists better look the other way. Jet Li’s character starts out unable to perform kung fu. But in a scene right out of Tsui Hark’s equally trippy Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, a crazy monk who has strapped himself to a giant boulder instructs Li on how to use the “Great Solar Stance,” a kung fu technique so powerful as to give its wielder the ability to leap above armies while hurling bolts of explosive energy. Now, that’s what I call harnessing your chi! Yet, Li does have several opportunities to show off his real skill. The best of which includes a very dynamic fight against a Shaolin monk within the halls of the Evil Sect. The other is at the end when Li is challenged to fight without using his supernatural power. Since his character never learned traditional martial arts, Sammo Hung instructs him in tai chi as he fights in a cleverly constructed scene.

This film’s plot involving a mammoth conflict between every sect, clan, or organization ever conceived of outside of the Chinese government is just too much to ask even the most seasoned HK film viewer to digest. And that’s not all — the film ends abruptly with Li and company running off to face the real threat which turns out to be members of the Ching government who purposely set the clans against each other. This second film was never made though and little wonder, considering how convoluted the first one is.

I have must confess that I still enjoy this film on a pure visceral level. One of the great aspects of HK cinema is the energy and pace of their films which is something you’ll rarely see anywhere else in the world. The film’s cinematography and visuals are sumptuous and easily draw you in even if you don’t know what’s going on. Sammo Hung’s choreography is terrific as usual. Only a few action directors could possibly keep up with Wong Jing’s insanity and still manage to keep the fights from becoming a mess of motion. A regular of Wong’s films, Chingmy Yau, who plays Li’s love interest makes a great action heroine and provides Li with one of his better female counterparts.

Kung Fu Cult Master came out at the height of HK’s fantasy/period epics of the early ’90s. It’s a perfect example of why more of everything does not make a better movie. Despite having top filmmakers, actors, and ambitious production standards, the film will fly above a lot viewer’s heads, unless you’re either attention-deficit or like your entertainment set to ludicrous speed.