Jimmy Wang Yu, the world’s first international kung fu superstar returns as fighter Ma Yung-chen in this sequel to Taiwanese kung fu “basher” FURIOUS SLAUGHTER (1972). This time he’s joined by screen fighting actress Nancy Yen who joins Wang Yu in taking on karate-fighting thugs and the murderous Axe Gang in an epic warehouse fight to the finish.
MA SU CHEN (aka THE REBEL BOXER) may be a sequel but its simple plot, along with frequent flashbacks to explain what happened to Wang Yu in the previous film make it easy to jump right in and follow this film without having seen its predecessor.
The story is about as basic and forgettable as they come. Ma Yung-chen (Wang Yu) has barely survived his previous fight with the Axe Gang. While recovering in hiding he sends his servant (Sally Chen) to notify his sister Ma Su-chen (Nancy Yen) but she ends up captured by professional fighters hired to find Yung-chen. Believing Yung-chen to have been murdered, Su-chen comes looking for revenge. This leads to a string of battles as Su-chen takes on a Japanese sword and karate fighter (Kong Nam), a portly black magic priest (Chu Fei) and countless Axe Gang thugs. She is eventually captured as well. As a recently recovered Yung-chen storms the Axe Gang’s headquarters, Su-chen escapes and the two take on the entire Axe Gang in and around a large warehouse.
Screen fighting is dominated by typical basher-style brawling with hard and direct kicks and punches more akin to Japanese karate than most forms of Chinese kung fu. Mixed among long takes of colorfully staged and highly coordinated group fights in and around a variety of indoor and outdoor locales is stylized editing to enhance the performance of the stars.
Although Wang Yu gets top billing and dominates at least half of the film’s fighting sequences, Nancy Yen is the real star of this movie. Returning action director Ting Shan-si gives her lavish treatment by genre standards with repeated dramatic zoom-ins similar to how King Hu memorably featured Cheng Pei-pei in COME DRINK WITH ME.
This was only Yen’s second fighting role, after her debut in Joseph Kuo’s THE MATCHLESS CONQUEROR (1971), and her first in the kung fu genre. She went on to become Kuo’s top female screen fighter at Hong Hwa International Films and even managed to have a few minor roles in some Shaw Brothers wuxia classics.
For sheer presentation, this is one of her best films although it’s disappointing to see her unnecessarily sharing gratuitous fight time with Wang Yu, whose role is so minor in this movie. It’s also unfortunate that Ting chooses to place heavy dependence on stylized edits during her fight scenes. Some of these scenes could be unfavorably compared to modern action films that rely heavily on post-production cut and paste work to make an unskilled screen fighter look competent. As example, the camera frequently cuts to close-ups during strikes or reactions and splices in split-second shots of mid-air flying kicks from multiple takes and/or angles. It’s the equivalent of the 30-second explosion where Hollywood loves to show the same explosion repeated from multiple angles and speeds for added visual effect. Despite this, Yen barrels through longer takes involving dodging props or attacks and dishing out leg and fist strikes against multiple targets. What I like best about Yen’s performance, aside from her icy stare and ability manage complicated group fighting, is her frequent return to a formal stance during and between engagements. This provides the necessary suggestion that her character is not just a street brawler but a classically trained kung fu practitioner. It’s not up to the impeccable standards of Lau Kar-leung in the late 1970s but it’s solid nevertheless.
The end fight goes on for over 15 minutes and while I normally love to see fighting films full of fighting, in this case I would say less is more. Where the earlier fights were well defined and purpose-driven, this pitched melee just drags on with too little distinction. Imagine fighting heroes relentlessly swinging at a mob of torch and axe-wielding thugs. While the actual choreography is good, the lack of diversity given the length of fighting is unfortunate. One exception is a sequence where Yen must leap over heavy metal barrels being rolled at her from every direction. The presence of fire adds an element of danger that is only mildly exploited when Wang Yu takes up twin torches. With no one’s clothes seen catching fire, the effect is diminished.
In summary, MA SU CHEN has a weak story with unremarkable villains apart from a goofy black magic priest who wields a skull shaker for a weapon. Production values are modest but adequate to the film’s needs. Unrefined fight choreography is plentiful yet overly dependent on trick editing and generic group fighting. Wang Yu proves to be exceptionally talented at fighting with multiple axes sticking out of his body and Nancy Yen is a potent female screen fighter who delivers a strong performance that could have been handled with more subtlety and care by the director. The film is a solid basher that should appeal to fans of this sub-genre of martial arts cinema. Others expecting a more engaging or well-rounded martial arts movie should look to similar, yet more competent basher films of the era including BOXER FROM SHANTUNG, KING BOXER and FIST OF FURY.
Related Topics:
Chen Shih-wei • First Films Co. • Genre: Basher • Genre: Kung Fu • Jimmy Wang Yu • Nancy Yen
- beardyj
