Yuen Biao Capsule Reviews
The Prodigal Son — June 26, 2013
Lam Ching-ying is one of the great supporting actors of kung fu cinema, and this is a great showcase for both his acting and fighting. He plays an opera actor (specializing in female roles, as Lam himself did when he was an opera performer) who reluctantly takes Yuen Biao on as his pupil and teaches him the ways of Wing Chun. At one point Lam and Yuen even sing a duet on stage while fighting, literalizing the oft-remarked similarities between martial arts films and musicals. The first half ends in an inferno, the intensity of which leaves the second feeling more than a little deflationary, despite the presence of Sammo Hung. Sammo doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but his entrance is marked by the Wong Fei-hung theme and he does some acrobatic calligraphy, so it’s got that going for it.
There’s something stewing around here about authenticity, about two rich boys who think they’re great fighters that need to be educated about the real world by an actor, a professional faker who shaves his eyebrows and hides his asthma.
Added July 29, 2017:
Maybe Sammo’s most sophisticated plot, at least structurally with all the doubling (rich failsons, masters, villains, even more villainous bodyguards, etc), but mostly just an exceptional showcase for Lam Ching-ying, who by all accounts performs some of the best Wing Chun ever seen on film. A kind of response to Lau Kar-leung’s ideal of authenticity of martial art forms: where Lam’s kung fu is pure but incomplete, only Sammo’s improvisations upon it are able to fulfill its true purpose, which is explicitly and unabashedly deadly violence. No spiritual mumbo jumbo for Sammo the materialist: kung fu is not an art, it’s about poking the other guy in the eye then kicking him in the balls. But with style.
Righting Wrongs — July 5, 2013
“So we had this theme, but there was too much dialogue. So I said ‘why not add some action, some fighting?’” — Yuen Biao
Stuntmen make the craziest movies.
Added March 4, 2018:
It’s like Corey Yuen and Yuen Biao watched the last 15 minutes of Police Story and said, “Anything Jackie can do, we can do better, crazier and more destructively.”
Shanghai Express — September 26, 2013
Like one of those all-star light adventure comedies Hollywood put out in the era between, say, Around the World in 80 Days and Cannonball Run (big cast, little plot, less character), but this one has Sammo Hung fighting Cynthia Rothrock so it’s pretty good.
Added July 30, 2017:
Maybe the best cast of any 1980s Hong Kong film, but it feels like it could have used another hour of plot. As it is, things don’t make a lot of sense and subplots are dropped wholesale during the big final fight (Jimmy Wang Yu and Shih Kien, for example). Tremendous falling from buildings though.
Eastern Condors — July 8, 2017
A little over four years ago, I rented this on a whim and was so taken with it I launched the Summer of Sammo, followed by a still-ongoing deep dive into Chinese Cinema. Revisiting it now, the shock of the new is gone: Sammo’s lunatic mixing of tones and iconography is more familiar, as are the faces of his supporting cast: the only one I knew the first time I saw this was Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Oscar Winner. But this is one of the most impressive collections of talent ever put together in Hong Kong: Corey Yuen and Yuen Woo-ping, Peter Chan and Wu Ma, Dick Wei and Billy Chow, Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah and Lam Ching-ying, Max Mok and Hsiao Ho and Yasuaki Kurata. But familiarity hasn’t dulled my appreciation: it’s still an amazing action movie, with some of Sammo’s best stunts (the leaf thing is still a killer) and prime supporting roles for Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah. The latter especially is astounding, maybe his best showcase outside of Kung Fu Hustle?
One thing I didn’t pick up on the first time: Joyce Godenzi and her Cambodian guerrillas are in Vietnam fighting the army there in 1976, which would make them agents of the Khmer Rouge. And it’s Godenzi who kills Haing Ngor. That’s messed up, even for Sammo.
Don’t Give a Damn — July 11, 2017
On the one hand, this movie (also inexplicably known as Burger Cop) is an incredibly silly farce with some decent undercranked fights where Sammo sports a hideous mullet and all the women cops (and there are a lot of them) are desperate to hook up with the male cops and Yuen Biao and Takashi Kaneshiro spend the last 20 minutes in blackface. On the other hand, its ending is exactly the same as Taste of Cherry.
Sample dialogue:
Sammo, Yuen and Kaneshiro at dinner:
SH: He is wonderful. he is my boss. A smartass, invincible, well-educated yuppie, Officer Tang.
YB (nods to TK): Sir.
TK: Don’t call me “sir”. When we are in the office, I am his boss. Now we are off, we’re friends, right? You may call me anything.
SH: Well… Jerk, order anything you like.
Sammo interrogating Sean, an injured African-American gangster (note that Sammo’s dialogue is subtitled, while Sean’s is in English) Also, Sammo’s character is named “Pierre”:
Pierre: You bastard! How dare you bomb the police station? Who ordered you?
Sean: Fuck you, I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ motherfucker.
Pierre: You just know talking about the sex organs! You have to use that for pissing!
Sean: Stupid motherfucker. What the fuck you doin’ in here? Get the fuck out. When I get better, I’m gonna bust a cap in your ass. I swear, fuck, by the moon and the stars. . . .(loses consciousness).
The Legend is Born: Ip Man — April 1, 2019
It’s at least three different movies, only one of which is any good — the one that one has a bunch of really cool fighting in it. The rest is either undercooked (the romance with Lam Suet’s daughter) or just bizarre (Japanese sleeper agents infiltrating Chinese martial arts clubs for reasons I guess).
I like Dennis To, but he hasn’t had much of a chance to do anything interesting since. Apparently he was in the Jeffrey Lau movie that came out last year that I haven’t seen yet.
