The Fearless Duo
Director: Joseph Kuo
Year: 1979
Rating: 5.5
Aka - Fearless Master Fighter
Aka - The Incredible Three (which makes
more sense since there are three heroes)
It only takes a few minutes till you realize
that you are in a Joseph Kuo Taiwanese kung-fu comedy. A genre that usually
makes me break out in hives. But before I hit the delete button, I took a
look at the cast and decided to keep going till the hives started appearing
on my arms. They never did. This is less lethal than most in that genre because
they mix in a decent if familiar revenge thread. And the old theme of training
a bumpkin kung fu with various techniques that verge on cruelty. It doesn't
have a top cast but an interesting one - the villain is Hwang Jang-lee who
always is worth watching for his deadly kicks; the country bumpkin is Lau
Kar-yung, nephew of Lau Kar-leung, with a Prince Valiant haircut and nothing
but goofy expressions; and two female martial artists who get a lot of play
in the film and are very good.
One of them is Yuen Chu in her debut who
is very impressive with her acrobatics and went on to only make one more
film which is a damn shame. The other is Yuen Qiu whose name may be vaguely
familiar to some. She went to the same Peking Opera school as Jackie and
Sammo but when she started acting and doing stunt work, she never gained
the fame of other action actresses. She had a small part in The Man with
the Golden Gun. Then she married in 1985, retired, had two children and disappeared.
Till . . . twenty years later Stephen Chow saw her smoking and playing
mahjong and telling him not to bother her. She finally relented and became
the iconic landlady in Kung Fu Hustle with her hair rollers, drab nightgown
and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. She was actually attractive when
she was younger as in this film. She has gone on to a fine career ever since
appearing in the Kung Fu Mahjong series, From Vegas to Macau 3 and Europe
Raiders among others. And apparently in real life being arrested for gambling!
Lau Kar-yung plays a slightly dimwitted
man who tries to con people out of small sums. One of them involves a young
woman (Yuen Chu) selling wares and Lau and Yuen begin to fight and she sends
him flying. Her older sister (Yuen Qiu) throws in a few kicks of her own.
He swears revenge and walks off only to be bullied by someone till an older
man (Wang Han-chen) comes along and stops it. Lau follows him home begging
for him to take him on as a student and the older man finally does. And the
lessons begin. In one they break an urn in a field and Wang fixes it up.
In return a pretty ghost comes to him and has ghost sex with him. A man who
does not discriminated. So, Lau tries the same but gets a man who . . . err
also has sex with him.
The revenge plot enters in that the two
women are seeking the killer of their family - Hwang of course - and the
old man turns out to be their uncle who also wants revenge. But none of them
are good enough to take on Hwang so they decide to teach Lau all their various
styles so that he can take revenge. But first he has to be part of the family
and so marries the young sister - but gets no nookie till he can beat her
in a fight. A large amount of decently choreographed action - nothing fancy
- and more for show than realistic but nice clean moves. They keep Hwang
on the sidelines till the big fight at the end. When Lau finally shows his
wife how tough he is, he tells her now it is his turn to teach her sexual
positions - Sitting Buddha, the Jumping Frog, the Upper Twist, the Waiting
Style and the old standby the Upside-Down Style. No doubt familiar to most
of you but if not, she demonstrates the position. Never say kung fu films
don't teach you things.
