Kung Fu vs Acrobatic
Director: Taylor Wong
Year: 1990
Rating: 6.0
Ah. While watching this I thought to myself
this sure feels like a Wong Jing film but it is directed by Taylor Wong who
was behind some solid films - Spiritual Love, Rich and Famous, Tragic Hero,
Return of the Deadly Blade. Oh, and a film in 1982 called Buddha's Palm.
But the scattershot style of this film has Wong Jing written all over it.
Literally as it turns out since he wrote the script.
The title of the film is a bit misleading. At least it sure fooled me since
there is really no kung fu or acrobatics in it of any note. The translated
Chinese title is much closer to the mark - Modern Buddha's Palm - as it
is in an idiotic way a salute to the old Buddha Palm films of the 1940's
and 50's (with a few clips of old films that open this movie) in which the
characters waved their arms around and low tech special effects did the
rest.
This though is an out and out comedy that jumps around like a man getting
electric shock from one scenario to another with no logic. Admittedly though
it does hit the mark from time to time and cracked me up. Throw enough pies
at the wall and a few will stick. It stars Andy Lau who looks like he is
a somnambulist - sleep walking through the role - and this is probably the
case. Back in those days Lau was famous for often working on two to three
different films at the same time - one in the morning, one in the afternoon
and then one late at night. He is teamed up with Nat Chan which should immediately
cue one in that this will be a silly comedy - no subtlety allowed.
They go off on a work assignment to the hinterlands of China - throw in
a few Mainland insults of course as HK film could get away with back then
- and after some misadventures fall into a cave full of snakes (bite on the
ass coming up of course) and skeletons. They eat a pill which gives them
Buddha Palm powers and they discover two maidens who have been in suspended
animation for 700 years. Lucky them that one of them is the stunning Joey
Wong with her servant Cutie Mui. She had been a princess. In the cave also
in suspended animation is the villain played by Yuen Wah. Yuen Wah. That
gave me hope that there would actually be some amazing martial arts as he
is one of the best. No such luck - the best we get is him dancing while watching
TV, which he becomes addicted to.
The two men and two women go back to HK and play house - Nat sees the stomach
of Cutie Mui and is obliged to marry her - but as Andy says "At least she
is a virgin. You won't find many of those in HK". Yuen Wah comes looking
for them and the Buddha Palm starts going on. And the hijinks continue. Of
note are two parts - one played by Lau Shun who was the Eunich in Swordsman
and as Nat's father the great Walter Tso Tat-wah who was in about a million
of those martial art films of the 40's and 50's often portraying Wong Fei-hung.
Once you reconcile yourself to the fact that this is not a legit martial
arts film but just more Wong Jing nonsense it is a lot more palatable and
even moderately amusing at times.
