An old beggar convinces two young troublemakers to be his kung fu students and help him get revenge on a monk (Kam Kong) who killed his brother many years ago.

Elaborate tag team kung fu action features prominently in Tai Chi Shadow Boxing, another inferior rip-off of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978).

Shaw Brother veteran Chui Chung Hei stars as the archetype drunken beggar with killer kung fu who meets two young misfits. In a slight twist, it’s the master who at first recruits the two as students by force and later pleads with them to continue their training. But not even the presence of his pretty daughter is enough to keep this pair of lazy blokes about. The beggar has an emotional breakdown, revealing his promise to avenge the death of his brother and find his lost son. Jacky Chen turns out to be that lost son and though he keeps it a secret until the end, he too has an emotional breakdown. Ugh!

Although the melodramatic acting is tiresome, it doesn’t last long. The beggar puts the pair through some rigorous training. Its all pretty standard stuff with comedic elements thrown in. The only portion worth mentioning is the parallel bars training, which is somewhat unique but not altogether useful. There is no real mention of styles apart from some hilariously elaborate names for stances being shouted out. Don’t look here for good examples on Tai Chi boxing, regardless of the title.

The connection made between our heroes and the baddies in the story is extraordinarily weak with only a very thin plot holding them together. Kam Kong learns that the beggar is training pupils and plots to kill them before the obligatory end fight we know is coming. First he sends Lung Fei who doesn’t last long despite having brought along a rubber spider to poison the old man. Then Kam Kong sends Wong Gwan, an attractive gal who first attempts to use trickery and then a vicious snake style in order to kill our two heroes. The resulting fight is quite entertaining with a good performance from Gwan who gets all tied up in a tree by the end.

In one of those classically cheap moments in film editing, Kam Kong in his lair states his intention to take care of the beggar himself and a split second later he’s facing the beggar out in the open. The resulting fight is modestly well choreographed. Jacky Chen and his pal use combined tactics to take on Kam Kong.

Kam is probably best remembered as the title character in Jimmy Wang Yu’s Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976). It looks as if Chen was attempting to cash in on that film’s success by dressing Kam up in monk’s robes. But without that deadliest of weapons, Kam isn’t quite as menacing. Nevertheless, the three-way battle sans weapons works well. It’s not undercranked much, if at all which is refreshing. The movements are a little slower than average as a result, but this should still appeal to anyone who appreciates elaborate, upper body sparring.

Even with some decent kung fu, Tai Chi Shadow Boxing rates fairly low for having cheap production standards, bad editing, worse acting, and not enough creativity in the story or choreography. In addition, the film drags until the last 20 minutes. It’s recommended for diehard genre fans and collectors only.

by

Related Topics:
 •   •