Mantis Combat is your standard independent, low budget old schooler that sells itself on the fame of kung fu star Chan Sing and the promise of scintillating animal form boxing. It delivers both, but only in part.

Chan Sing is an aging bandit with a single-minded desire to get his hands on a treasure map he’s sure his former partner Lin Yao-fu has. When Yao-fu fails to produce the map, he and his wife (Chen Yan-yan) are murdered. Upon returning home, Yao-fu’s son Chiu-er (Barry Chan) vows vengeance and goes in search of the killer along with with a portly family servant and Chiu-er’s tae kwon do-kicking buddy. While on the road, the trio are joined by a temperamental young woman (Liu Hsiu-chen), who has just lost her family to the bandits. Love blossoms between the girl and Yao-fu as they gradually contend with interfering bandit thugs on their way to the inevitable showdown with Chan.

This simple plot is strung out horribly by sluggish pacing, way too much awkward conversation, amateur acting, and not enough kung fu action throughout. The extended flirting between Barry Chan and Lu as they fumble over just trying to learn each other’s names is asinine beyond belief. The whole first hour is dominated by the sort of mindless fluff that was likely thought up on the fly to fill in large gaps between fighting. When the movie isn’t languishing in this morass of brain-withering boredom, which is sadly most of the time, it kicks out some very respectable kung fu, especially towards the end.

He doesn’t have much charisma, but Barry Chan is a pretty decent screen fighter. Anytime a stunt actor actually has callused knuckles, it’s a good sign that they’ve put in more than your minimum level of martial arts training. As the title suggests, he does perform mantis fist kung fu and this ends up pitted against Chan Sing’s tiger crane technique. Barry Chan’s fist work is nicely complimented by his onscreen fighting partner, who unleashes some decent leg work.

Somewhere past the middle point, there’s a very random fight between Barry and some guy decked out in cheap-looking Shaolin garb. It doesn’t have much, if anything to do with the story, yet it presents the movie’s first real match of any consequence. Up to this point, there has only been a couple short and forgettable action scenes. This and subsequent bouts are boosted by some well edited and creative framing and handheld camera work.

Genre regulars Kong Do and and especially Chan Lau are a rather weak warm up to the finale. It’s worth getting to though. It’s recommended that some fast-forwarding be applied to the useless non-action scenes leading up to it. Nobody will miss seeing Barrry and his buddies wandering aimlessly about, while the bandits pose as innkeepers and travelers in hopes of finding the generic plot device, er treasure map.

Barry and his pal take on Chan Sing for a good long match that could probably be considered the film’s only selling point. Excellent mantis, tiger crane and tae kwon do action from the three fighters unfolds with mounting intensity. A Sound of Music-like hillside and distant mountain range crowned by clouds provides a pleasant visual backdrop. The only complaint is the way too abrupt ending, where “The end” pops up before Chan Sing even gets a chance to hit the ground.

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