The Crane Fighter
Director: Raymond Lui
Year: 1979
Rating:
6.0
An enjoyable Taiwanese martial arts film
with equal slices of action and comedy. It stars Chia Ling, Raymond Lui,
Ting Wa-chung and Chin Kang aka Kam Kong. The first hour is fairly light-hearted
and then at the hour mark it turns serious. That goes for the action as well.
The choreography is filled with complicated multiple moves from the actors
in which the timing has to be perfect. In the first hour it is nearly simply
forms and movement without anyone really being hurt or hit. It just looks
good. Then when it turns serious, that changes and there is a lot of hitting
- but still mainly an exercise in forms and styles.
As so many kung fu films do, it centers
around the Shaolin Temple and the opposition to the Mings. The film begins
with monks trying to escape the burning of the temple - most are caught and
killed by the Ming General (Chin Kang) - but a few escape. One of them Yang
Su (Chuan Yuan) moves to a small town, opens a bean curd shop and brings
up his daughter Ping (Chia Ling). He has forbidden her from learning kung
fu, but girls will be girls and she watches monks in a temple practice and
learns their moves - the Crane Style clearly a favorite. She then in turn
teaches their servant Shao Wei (Ting Wa-chung). All kept a secret from dad.
But not for long. A corrupt monk begins
extorting shop owners and Shao tries to stop him - but the monk is too good
for him and then our girl steps in and ends the fight with a few good kicks.
But this brings her to the attention of the idiot son of the head of the
town and he decides he wants to marry her. Only if you can defeat her in
kung fu says the father. Any man that defeats her will be her husband. No
one can till Blue Fan (Raymond Lui - also directing) jumps in to teach her
a lesson. He is the mystery man with great martial arts and a Prince Valiant
haircut. He defeats her but says he doesn't want to marry such an unattractive
woman. Fighting words! This is all Seven Brides for Seven Husbands sort of
good-natured messing around. Then the General shows up - realizes that the
father is a Shaolin rebel - and the fighting steps up considerably. The finale
with Blue Fan and Ping taking him on is terrific.
