A rebellious teen named Gucci (Isabel Chan) winds up in a correctional facility after a barroom incident and upon release discovers her mother is dead. She moves in with her grandmother (Helena Law), a Tai Chi master, and the two do not get along until they learn to share in each other’s heartaches.

The Wong Fei-hung mythos gets a contemporary and dramatic interpretation in this coming-of-age story for a teen who learns valuable life lessons from her noble grandmother. Kung Fu Master is My Grandma! is a conventional family drama offering angst, heartbreak, light-hearted comedy, romance, and very little violence. The script is served with a thick slice is reality and is actually very good, as is the acting. But some poorly stylized direction, a dominating synth-pop score, and an ingrained Hong Kong-style propensity for melodramatics shoots holes through an otherwise welcome alternative to the fantasy antics of most martial arts inspired Hong Kong films.

Relative newcomer Isabel Chan steps up in her first starring role as Gucci, an average 17-year old girl living in Hong Kong with her single mother, while working at a cyber cafe in the evenings. She has a knack for acting without thought and when her friend is accosted by a would-be suitor in a bar, Gucci clobbers the kid over the head with a bottle. This leads to a second altercation with the same youth. She’s arrested and put in a woman’s correctional facility for a number of months. Once released, Gucci discovers to her horror that her mother has been killed in a traffic accident and her grandmother is now her legal guardian. The two already have a sour relationship and living together following this tragedy provides no comfort for either of them. Gucci resumes her night job and begins courting an older man who tends bar where all her trouble started. Though intensely quiet, he finally opens up to her and the two share an innocent romance that turns into heartbreak for Gucci when she discovers a secret of his that forces them to part ways.

A turning point occurs for Gucci when she is rescued by her grandmother from troublesome street kids. The aged woman unleashes years of Tai Chi practice in a single, fluid attack that causes the kids to scatter. Though still separated by age, the two resolve their differences and an almost surreal world is opened up for Gucci. Her grandmother’s real name is Wong Fei-hung, a name any Hong Kong resident would easily recognize as belonging to the famous Chinese martial artist, doctor, and folk hero of Southern China (also famously portrayed by Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in China series). She is also known as sifu to a group of elderly students and friends who practice Tai Chi in the park under her tutelage. In keeping with the Wong Fei-hung legend, several of her friends fill out roles similar to Fei-hung’s famous pupils, Bucktooth, Porky, Auntie 13, and Ah Foon. Gucci comes to appreciate the humorous and close-knit friendship these people share. But a looming tragedy that reveals the truth about her mother’s death and her grandmother’s nobility forces her to face her selfish nature.

Coming into this film, I had high hopes for a unique drama that would show a different aspect of martial arts as a lifestyle. Overall, the film met those expectations. Paul Chung’s script in not particularly original but cuts through initially superficial situations to reach the triumphant core message. For instance, Gucci’s relationship with the bartender seemed wrong, despite her efforts to make it work. Just when I thought the filmmakers had forgotten her relationship with her grandmother, the story swings back and ultimately finishes strong. Isabel Chan eats up every scene she’s in. She runs through the full spectrum of emotions, a bit exaggerated by American standards, but appropriate for a Hong Kong production. She’s also extremely charming and beautiful and shows great potential for superstardom. Chan never does any martial arts and it should be stated that this is not a film to expect to see much action at all. Helena Law is the improbable ‘action’ star of the film. She’s an experienced actress whose body of work dates back decades. It makes a difference for she displays a lot of quiet authority and nobility trapped in an aged body. I also applaud the way in which she is first portrayed from Gucci’s stilted perspective and later proves to be a very different and likable woman. The rest of the cast are incidental, but fit in well. The only exception being the youths who pester Chan for their naughtiness seems a tad contrived as excuse for Fei-hung to show off her skills.

While experiencing these positive elements, the viewer is sadly subjected to what amounts to bad judgment or worse, lack of skill on the part of the director. Bowie Lau’s contribution to Hong Kong film since 1995 is a mixed bag and he shows no panache in presenting a story on screen. In fact, he only makes awkward attempts at stylizing the film and it doesn’t work at at. Slow motion with faded sound and split screens are just distracting. Add to that poor pacing that results in overlong melodrama that is nearly drowned by horribly generic synthesizer melodies and pop tunes only diminishes the actors’ performances. Having watched a Takeshi Kitano film recently, it seems that Bowie could have used some of Kitano’s minimalist approach to much greater effect. These faults will make it difficult for most Western viewers to receive the intended impact of the film.

Kung Fu Master is My Grandma! wants to be a touching art film, but is hampered by the limits of its misfired direction. There isn’t enough action to attract anyone wanting to see more than a drama, although I do not count that as a fault. If you can pocket your cynicism or a need for butt-kicking, you’ll find great performances and a story that exemplifies an often overlooked aspect of Chinese kung fu. In a nutshell, it amounts to living your life in such a way that you leave behind a positive legacy regardless of how long you live. Wong Fei-hung could not have been a better model.

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