The Master of Kung Fu
黄飞鸿
Hong Kong, 1973, colour, 2.35:1, 96 mins.
Director: He Menghua 何梦华.
Rating: 6/10.
Conventionally structured but expertly packaged action drama centred on real-life legend Huang Feihong.
STORY
Guangdong, Guangzhou province, China, early 20th century. Rivalry is running high between the martial arts schools of Huang Feihong (Gu Feng) and his cousin Mai Gen (Zhan Sen), and fighting breaks out during Chinese New Year. However, despite being pressurised by his students, Huang Feihong refuses to teach them his deadly Invisible Death Kick, which he once mistakenly used on his own brother, who had been goading him. Gordon (Shi Lukai), an American dealer in opium, organises a martial-arts tournament in which the winner will become his personal bodyguard. The gangster Li Tiandao (Wang Xia) is invited to take part. Mai Gen also enters the tournament – against Huang Feihong’s advice – and is heavily beaten by Li Tiandao, who cheats by wearing concealed elbow plates. Huang Feihong sends two pupils, Liang Kuan (Lin Weitu) and Su Nan (Xu Shaoxiong), with medicine to help Mai Gen recover, but Li Tiandao poisons the medicine. When Mai Gen dies, Huang Feihong goes into hiding. Li Tiandao tries to force Liang Kuan and Su Nan to reveal the whereabouts of Huang Feihong, but they refuse and are rescued by Da Hong Hua (Chen Ping), the niece of Gordon’s henchman Deng Xi (Huang Kan), who promptly falls for Liang Kuan.
REVIEW
Many of my introductory comments to The Blood Brothers 刺马 [released in the UK as Chinese Vengeance] also apply to He Menghua’s 何梦华 The Master of Kung Fu 黄飞鸿 [released in the UK as Death Kick], although the latter’s moral stand is more clearly established from the very start. Huang Feihong [whose name forms the film’s Chinese title] is quite positively the “hero”, and the villains of the piece are boldly etched in black from the opening sequence of an unprovoked attack on a rival martial arts school. The plot follows the customary lines of those dramas set in a single town: attack, retaliation, shows of strength from both sides, innocent death, the “hero” pushed to near-breaking-point to transgress his code of peace, and the final showdown. The Master of Kung Fu contains little in the way of innovations but is expertly put together and attractively packaged with music by Chen Yongyu 陈永煜 [aka Chen Xunqi 陈勋奇/Frankie Chan] and rather clearer colour photography than is usual in Shaw works. Interestingly, the film’s moral pyramid once again places the Westerner at the bottom: ultimately the cause of all the strife, the American Gordon (looking like the Colonel Sanders of fried chicken fame) is painted in far blacker colours than either his henchman Li Tiandao or the rival martial arts instructor Mai Gen. Like any good Shaw film, each champion has his bizarre speciality: Mai Gen is given, in moments of frustration, to driving his fingers into brick walls, while Li Tiandao breaks all the rules by wearing concealed metal elbow plates. Huang Feihong is master of the terrible Death Kick (with which he once accidentally killed his brother), and only at the end, under extreme provocation, does he use it in earnest. This deadly skill provides dramatic binding throughout the film, in much the same way as the heroine’s reticence to fight throughout Hap Ki Do. The Master of Kung Fu is a relatively “pure” Shaw Brothers production, with super-heroism giving way to something approaching Golden Harvest’s concepts. The scene in pouring rain, in which Huang decides to do battle with his deadly skill, is genuinely memorable: with Chen Yongyu’s uplifting music, Huang launches out on some wooden stakes, finally standing erect and triumphant, his old trauma expunged. The Master of Kung Fu (the film is based on a real character) has a performance of quiet strength in [lead actress] Chen Ping 陈萍 which contributes greatly to the work’s unusual depth.
CREDITS
Presented by Shaw Brothers (HK). Produced by Shaw Brothers (HK).
Script: Ni Kuang. Photography: Cao Huiqi, Kuang Hanle. Editing: Jiang Xinglong. Music: Chen Yongyu [Chen Xunqi/Frankie Chan]. Art direction: Chen Jingsen. Sound: Wang Yonghua. Action: Yuan Heping, Yuan Xiangren.
Cast: Gu Feng (Huang Feihong), Chen Ping (Da Hong Hua, Deng Xi’s niece), Wang Xia (Li Tiandao), Lin Weitu (Liang Kuan, Huang Feihong’s pupil), Xu Shaoxiong (Su Nan, Huang Feihong’s pupil), Zhan Sen (Mai Gen, Huang Feihong’s cousin), Yuan Manzi (female servant), Huang Kan (Deng Xi, Gordon’s henchman), Shi Lukai (Gordon).
Release: Hong Kong, 12 Sep 1973.
(Review section originally published in UK monthly films and filming, Sep 1974, as Death Kick. Modern annotations in square brackets. Read the review of The Blood Brothers here: https://sino-cinema.com/2015/12/07/archive-review-the-blood-brothers/.)