The Master of Kung Fu

Minor but well-mounted Shaw Brothers production based on the exploits of Wong Fei-hung, the turn-of-the-century kung-fu instructor/acupuncturist/Cantonese folk hero. (Liu Chia-liang later directed two Shaw films--"Challenge of the Masters" and "Martial Club"--with the young Wong Fei-hung as the central character, but "The Master of Kung-Fu" is about Wong as an adult.) Here he's played by Hong Kong's greatest character actor, Ku Feng (you've seen him in everything from "The One-Armed Swordsman" to "The Heroic Ones" to "Bruce Le's Greatest Revenge"), and this role gives Ku the relatively rare opportunity to show off his considerable fighting skills--both barehanded and with a three-sectional staff. The plot revolves around stolen jade ornaments and an attempt to frame Wong Fei-hung for the murder of a fellow kung-fu teacher, a hot-tempered man who had argued with Wong. Beautiful attention to period detail and, of course, great fight choreography by Yuan Hsiang-jen and Yuen Woo-ping--but you shouldn't expect a lot of bloodshed, since Wong strove to avoid killing or seriously injuring his opponents! A compilation of fight scenes from "The Master of Kung-Fu" is available on YouTube.