Seven Steps Of Kung Fu: Viewer Comments

Overall, the story was not really that interesting to me, but the end fight was impressive.

Nonsensical plot (at least relative to the English dub) revolving around a pupil (Tiger) and his teacher (Mr. Lee) as they fight off the “Five Fist Gang” and their leader, a white-haired Pei Mei-like character. Apparently the Lee knows the gang (or at least of them) and they of him (at least his name) but even this isn’t entirely clear. One of the gang members, who happens to live in the same town with the Lee character, but neither knows it until other members of the gang show up, uses the teacher to train his son. To confuse issues more in some scenes the “son” is the Tiger character, in other scenes Tiger is just some unknown kid. This could be a dubbing issue, but without the original soundtrack this reviewer cannot tell.

So what about the action? Well that’s the redeeming quality of this movie. The Fu is very solid and entertaining. All fighters are fast punchers and kickers, and most of are quite acrobatic to boot. If it weren’t for the solid fighting in this movie it would rank among the plethora of forgettable independent Fu flicks of the 70’s. The finale fight between Lee and Tiger against the leader of the Gang is worth waiting for, even if a few frames are speed up (which didn’t need to be done to make it look fast and brutal), it ends abruptly (as does the movie with thee fight), and the gang leader is losing his wig for much of the fight.

With the fights this is a decent 3 star movie whose plot will confuse but fights will keep you watching.

Not a big fan of Ricky Cheng Tien Chi, but you cannot dismiss the guy's impressive acrobatic and screenfighting skills. And in this movie, he gets to show it all off, under the guidance of Tommy Lee. Who I think is one of the most underrated fight choreographers ever. They also found some really nice and interesting Taiwanese locations here. Which gives the look of a Higher budget movie, when it most likely is not.

There are tons of fights in this movie, all great. But the real showstopper is without a doubt the ferocious finalé. Where Ricky and his master tag teams the evil whitehaired general. That is hands down, one of the best two on one fights I have seen.

There is a little physical comedy here and there, but it's pretty well executed, and not as annoying as in many other flicks of this era. I also detected some brief moments of rather obvious undercranking in a few fight scenes. But again, nothing to get upset about. A great, and in my opinion, underated little old skool gem.