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An entertaining film directed by Wu Ma and starring the always underrated Yuen Biao. Biao stars as Lau Zhai, a wannabe student of Wong Fei Hong that runs into some nasty drug smugglers. This film is a cross between "Once Upon A Time In China" and "Heroes Among Heroes". It's not bad but could have been better, it is worth a look! | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| Well, I bought this movie awhile back because I'm a fan of Yuen Biao's work. The plot was about his character Lau Zhai, a protege of Wong Fei Hong's who tries to shut down an opium ring being run by some corrupt government officials and an ex-best friend of Lau's. During this time, he meets a newspaper editor who is the daughter of Panther, the chief of police, who at first brands Lau and his school as opium smugglers when Lau is seen with the enemy. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Panther teaches Lau what he knows about the martial arts so that he can go undercover to gain the officials' trust and hopefully, smash up the opium ring.
Well, this movie was chock full of action, but they could've done without some of the wirework, and the editing could've been a little better. Also...the lighting in some fight scenes weren't too good. Probably just the film aging with time, but other than that, the film was good and the fight between Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah was great too! I'm not totally disatisfied with this film, but nonetheless, it was a treat worth watching. |
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Sort of a comedy/martial arts mix. Yuen Biao gives a decent performance but too much wire is used (resulting in too much flying) plus too many action scenes are kinda of speed-up. I always found that Yuen Biao was better when he acted as a double (stuntman) with his brother in so many movies. As the main star in his movies, he never was, in my humble view, a great KF superstar, but that's me. Maybe he tried to much to be a comedian. In my view, he should have concentrated more on his "fighting" abilities as he was an excellent kicker. Overall there is enough action in this movie for a kung fu flick but I have seen much better. 3* is a fair rating, maybe 3½* if I'm generous....But if you don't like comedy, this movie is not for you. | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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| After the first thirty minutes of Kickboxer, it becomes obvious that this film would never have existed were it not for Tsui Hark's Once Upon A Time In China. The film seems to entirely unfold in the movie universe created in Hark's masterpiece. Along with borrowing some of Hark's visual style, there are pissy ponytailed gwailos who prove to be a problem, and a daughter of a local police chief who looks amazingly like Rosamund Kwan's cousin Yee (she even has one of the those cameras), and much of the costumes are the same (Yuen in one scene wears the round glasses and hat that Jet Li made famous). All these elements might be an attempt at parody that was completely lost on me.
Never fear though, this is a Yuen Biao movie after all. This isn't the Jean Claude Van Damme pile of crap that you catch on the Superstation every other week. Eventually, we get to what he does best, which is comedy and ass kicking. Biao's Zhai arrives at Po Chi Lam School to train under the legendary Wong Fei-hong. Master Wong is gone on a trip and Zhai must contend with his other followers as he learns the ropes.
Chaos awaits. Just about everything Zhai does backfires somehow, causing comic unrest in the rest of the group. This is a source of frustration for me, because in the many attempts at humor, Zhai is considerably dumbed down and not just naïve, only to be smartened up quickly when the story needs him to be.
Nonetheless, Zhai gets himself mixed up with an opium trader played by Yuen Wah. To clear his name, he infiltrates Wah's gang and works with the police chief played by Wu Ma (I think its him, not completely sure), who is wonderful as a no nonsense cop. The cop also dons a pair of metal slippers that serve him well in the various fights.
The fights are what you would expect. Fast, skillful, and acrobatic. Never boring. Unfortunately, a couple bouts unfold in dim lighting. I will continue to be confounded by these movies of decent budgets wasting film on murky fight scenes. But on the whole, there is plenty of eye-popping kung fu to go around. Catch another classic Yuen Biao-Yuen Wah duel here and know that these guys are at their best when pounding each other mercilessly with fists and feet.
Clearly one of the many under-rated little gems that Yuen Biao has packed quietly away into his filmography. |
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The Kickboxer is a tremendous martial arts classic, including kung-fu master Yen Shi Kwan. The film has great graphics, but some fight scenes are a bit difficult to see as they are shot from a complicated angle. The Kickboxer will make you want to watch it over and over again. It creates tense atmospheres at times with their mastered kung fu skill. This skill of kung fu is a real skill rarely seen. I finally conclude that this film is great but the problem is, that there are no women. This film is 9/10! | | LOG IN TO COMMENT ON THIS REVIEW! |
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