Marital Arts: An Early Kung Fu Parody

Before I move away from the topic of the original Wong Fei-hung films of the 1950s (but don’t worry, there will be plenty more on this subject in the future), I wanted to re-post this entry on a Hong Kong comedy from 1962 that included a parody of the long-running kung fu series. The screenplay is by Eileen Chang, who also wrote the story “Lust, Caution,” which served as the inspiration for Ang Lee’s latest film.

THE GREATEST WEDDING ON EARTH (1962). Directed by Wang Tianlin. Screenplay by Eileen Chang. Starring Kitty Ting Hao, Kelly Lai Chen, Leung Sing-po, Liu Enjiu, and Wang Lai.

This is just a quick note about a historically significant film that has a tenuous but valid connection with my topic of early wuxia and kung fu movies. THE GREATEST WEDDING ON EARTH is not a martial arts film. It’s not even an action film, unless you include pratfalls in your definition of action. GREATEST WEDDING is one of a series of comedies, known as “the North-South trilogy,” which addressed the divide between Mandarin-speaking immigrants and Cantonese-speaking natives in postwar Hong Kong. The stars of the film are veteran comic actors Leung Sing-po and Liu Enjiu (Liu En-chia), playing successful and rather pompous restauranteurs in Hong Kong. The two men are business competitors and social antagonists, the Southerner mocking all things Northern and the Northerner prejudiced against the South. when their kids fall in love, the fathers are forced to negotiate the marriage terms or face the wrath of their respective families. With its emphasis on domestic comedy coupled with JFK-era fashions, the film’s tone recalls the old Dick Van Dyke TV show.

Left: Liu Enjiu and Leung Sing-po in THE GREATEST WEDDING ON EARTH. Right: Eileen Chang.

Midway through the story, a reconciliation meeting in a restaurant devolves into an escalating exchange of insults leading to a shoving match between the fathers. The brawl is presented as a parody of a kung fu movie sequence, as the filmmakers reference the popular Wong Fei-hung films. In fact, Leung, the Cantonese papa, rather improbably claims to be a student of Master Wong and uses the famous “no-shadow kick” to topple Liu, who responds by proclaiming himself a tai chi master. The joke is that both men are obviously inept. Leung flails his arms in a lame imitation of tiger/crane fist while Liu “waves hands like cloud” over and over again. They circle warily and jump back in fear whenever their hands accidentally make contact. Despite threatening each other with elaborately named kung fu techniques like “Tai Mountain Falling Down” and Black Dragon Steals Your Heart,” they end up in an ear-pulling, bear-hugging floor grapple which pulls in a would-be referee, while a hovering waiter keeps a running tally of broken crockery.

This scene, with its sly mirroring of the film’s theme with the North-South division that also exists in Chinese martial arts, was the work of screenwriter and novelist Eileen Chang. Now recognized as one of China’s most accomplished modern authors, Chang left her native Shanghai after the Revolution, living first in Hong Kong and then moving to the US in 1955, where she continued to write fiction and worked as a journalist. Her short story “Love in a Fallen City” was made into a film by Ann Hui in 1984. It stars Chow Yun-fat and Cora Miao. Eileen Chang died in Los Angeles in 1995.

Originally posted on February 6, 2007.