REVIEW: ‘The Buddhist Fist’ (1980)

Kung fu movie master Yuen Woo-ping joins forces with co-writer, action director and actor Tsui Siu-ming (THE HOLY ROBE OF SHAOLIN TEMPLE) to offer up this genre classic. It features members of the Yuen Clan in a wacky, comedic kung fu thriller filled with oddball assassins and highly inventive and enjoyable shapes action that only gets better as the movie progresses.

THE BUDDHIST FIST fits comfortably in between Yuen’s irreverent take on kung fu folk hero Wong Fei-hung in DRUNKEN MASTER and his crazy kung fu thriller DREADNAUGHT, yet possesses it’s own level of absurdity that could be seen as a transition leading to the Yuen Clan’s increasing exploration of wirework and outright surreal nonsense in future oddities THE MIRACLE FIGHTERS and SHAOLIN DRUNKARD.

The comedy that dominates the first two acts of the film won’t suit everyone’s tastes but it’s worth enduring to see Yuen’s build-up to a series of dazzling weapons and open-hand duels with standout performances from familiar genre faces Yuen Shun-yee, Fan Mei-sheng, Lee Hoi-sang, and Shan Kwai in an unforgettable role as a stiff and pasty-faced, hunchbacked master of “Holy Ghost Claw” kung fu.

A criminal known as Big Small Foot – because his feet are different sizes – is after a priceless jade Buddha statue that resides in a rural Shaolin monastery. He arranges to have one of the monks become drunk and lay with a prostitute in order to blackmail the monk into forcing him to steal the statue. An initial attempt to steal the statue is thwarted by none other than Yuen Clan patriarch Simon Yuen, better known as Beggar So from DRUNKEN MASTER, here playing a sleepy guard perhaps inspired by a similar sequence in John Woo’s romantic wuxia actioner LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY.

Enter Yuen Shun-yee as a lay student of the Shaolin monastery, whose efforts to make his fortune as a barber in the city comes to naught after getting into a brawl with a patron over an insulting mustache gaffe. He returns home with his friend (Peter Chan) in tow to discover that his father has gone missing. With little aid from the local, bumbling police chief, Shun-yee begins his own investigation which gradually draws him closer to the would-be jade Buddha thieves and a nasty plot to cover up their misdeeds. Meanwhile, the crooks hire a range of unusual assassins to stop Shun-yee.

The combat in THE BUDDHIST FIST is pure, vintage Yuen Woo-ping in all its glory. While a bit rough around the edges by today’s standards, it still holds up well thanks to the inventiveness and quirkiness of the choreography and the physical skills of the stars and stunt crew. Shan Kwai’s turn as the hunchback may be the most memorable but the technical proficiency of the subsequent battles Shun-yee finds himself in is impressive to say the least. A highlight is a weapons duel pitting Shun-yee with a bamboo staff against Lee Hoi-sang wielding a massive guan dao. There is slight undercranking being used, a technique to slow down the framerate of the camera to artificially speed up the action but it’s clear that Lee and Shun-yee have some very tight give and take going on.

A number of faults hold back THE BUDDHIST FIST from measuring up to previous Yuen Woo-ping-directed kung fu hits SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW and THE MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER. The most obvious problem is Yuen Shun-yee. While he’s a very competent stunt actor, he’s not leading man material. But still, it’s nice to see one of the less famous members of the Yuen Clan have their moment in the spotlight.

The budget is noticeably smaller than on some of Yuen’s other films from the era. This was probably because it was produced by Yuen’s own Peace Film Production Co. rather than Golden Harvest or Seasonal Film Corporation. This would also account for why Yuen Clan members are front and center as opposed to being relegated to supporting roles and the stunt team only.

The script or story, which was written by Tsui Siu-ming and future Hong Kong movie mogul Wong Jing, has a potentially poignant theme in the concept of a fallen Shaolin monk who was once forced against his will to join the monastery and now finds himself backed into a corner as an unwilling accomplice of the statue thief. This part of the plot dominates the second half of the film and is darker and more sober than the silliness of the first half. It’s also quite tragic to see the fate that has befallen Shun-yee’s onscreen father. I get the impression that Yuen Woo-ping may have directed the first half and left the rest to Tsui because there is a definite change in tone in the second half that trades light-hearted assassination attempts for more seriousness. Unfortunately for the film it creates somewhat of an imbalance.

Another issue I have with the film – and this may be partly the fault of the poorly-translated English dubbing on the version I have – is that the film is supposed to be based around the concept of the “Buddhist Fist” kung fu style that is taught to Shun-yee. The style and its strength is vaguely explained but aside from some notion of the practitioner’s own body weight being used to wear down an opponent it is never fully revealed or shown to my satisfaction. In the end fight, Yuen opts for more generic screen-fu with acrobatic Chinese opera flourishes and introduces rather sophisticated wire-fu action in a series of movements performed by Shun-yee’s opponent. It looks fantastic but there is no explanation or set up for this advanced skill that results in SHun-yee’s opponent climbing around on him like a monkey, somewhat like what Wong Yue did to Lo Lieh in EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN. Yuen has done a better job of clearly defining kung fu styles in other films and providing foreshadowing of a fighter’s abilities so as to tease the viewer with it. The only planned payoff here is a rather obvious revelation about the fallen monk’s true identity.

For an independent and rather modest effort on the Yuen Clan’s part in contrast to their more accomplished work, THE BUDDHIST FIST is still one of the better kung fu comedies of the early 1980s. In spite of inadequate star power, kung fu techniques that are vague and production design that looks like C-grade Taiwanese material at times, the comedy-fu in the first half is consistently amusing while the powerhouse dueling of the second half is on par with some of the best sparring of Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan at the time. If you count yourself a devotee of Yuen Woo-ping and haven’t yet seen THE BUDDHIST FIST you owe it to yourself to track it down. If you can handle a measure of silly comedy with exceptional kung fu, you won’t be disappointed.

THE BUDDHIST FIST was released on DVD in the U.S. on April 25, 2000 by Tai Seng. While now out of print it is still available for rent at Netflix.