Carry On Wise Guy
Director:
Feng Xiaogang
Year:
1980
Rating:
7.0
Aka - Warrior from Shaolin
Not in anyway related to the British Carry
On series.
Instead, it is a kung-fu comedy but a palatable
one for the most part. Kung-fu comedies tend to really aggravate me. The
kung-fu in them can be top notch but the unbearably infantile comedy parts
overwhelm them. The Dean Shek's and Karl Maka's of the world are radioactive
to good movie making and yet in their time they were very popular. Just one
of those cultural unexplainables. At times, this film edges into that direction
but just when you want to throw something at your TV, there will be some
remarkably pure old-fashioned martial arts that will make you sit up. This
was produced in 1980 when there was so much talent around - those brought
up through the Shaw Brothers system, others from Taiwan and the homegrown
ones that came out of the Opera schools and were migrating to production
companies like Golden Harvest.
The production background is a bit confusing
to me. The posters and lobby cards have the Shaw Brothers emblem on them,
but their name doesn't appear on the film itself and HKMDB has the production
company as Golden Princess and Lau Brothers Film. Two of the main actors
were still making films for Shaw Brothers while the rest were very much ensconced
in the Cantonese film world. The language is Cantonese in the film. Perhaps
Shaw Brothers was just a distributor. And as best as I can tell, this is
not considered part of the Shaw Brothers catalog.
It is set during the Japanese invasion of
China and needless to say the Japanese are swine - but the focus of the film
is a traitorous Chinese gang working for them. A patriot has stolen a map
from the Japanese that shows all their military positions. Peter Chan Lung
is helping them search for the man who stole it and he shoots him. Before
he dies the man gets to a Shaolin temple and tells them what he has and who
they have to give it to. The Japanese kill all of the monks except the cook
Chin Fu. Chin Fu is fortunately played by Liu Chia-hui. So you know the map
is in good hands and there will be some great martial arts ahead. He has
little to go by other than his contact has a lump on his back.
He begins his journey and then the kung-fu
comedy joins him in the form of Lau Kar-yung (nephew of Lau Kar-leung) and
Eric Tsang. They are conniving conmen always looking for a score. Tsang is
much thinner than later on but still called Fat Dragon. The two of them think
that Chin Fu is carrying something valuable in a case and keep coming up
with devious plots to steal it from him while pretending to take care of
him. Two of them are actually mildly amusing - one involving Hopping Vampires
and the other introducing Ching Fu to a prostitute (Meg Lam) in a brothel.
The brothel scene is silly but has some wonderfully well-timed antics involving
the package he is carrying and her bosom. The two idiots are generally annoying
as hell - but at the one hour mark the film completely jettisons the comedy.
Take a long sigh and from then it gets serious and there are some fabulous
martial arts set pieces.
The Japanese are still after the map and
know a monk has it. They hire a gang headed by Captain Wang (Lau Kar-wing
who also directs and is the brother of Lau Kar-leung) and his deadly moll
with hidden knives in her shoes played by the lovely Lily Li Li-li. When
those two take on Fung Hak-on and his gang, it is a thing of choreographed
beauty. Tsang and Lau finally realize what is at stake and they team up with
Chin Fu to take on the Japanese and the gang. Some great action ahead.
