The Tournament
 
Director: Wong Fung
Year:  1974
Rating: 7.5
When you have Angela Mao along with Golden Harvest, Wong Fung as the director and Sammo Hung as the action choreographer, the chances are it will be a pretty good traditional martial arts film. Throw in for me a few great scenes that take place in Thailand and I was a happy movie watcher. These four elements teamed up for some of Angela Mao's best films with Wong Fung directing nine of them and Sammo choreographing twelve of them. They were a cohesive team by the time of this film. Unusual for a Hong Kong martial arts film, there is a fair amount of Muay Thai boxing that is fast and hard - I wonder if Sammo choreographed that as well because it was out of his skillsets I would think but whoever did it did a great job. It felt like Raging Bull. In fact, not only was the action choreographed well but the camera moves with it brilliantly (by Danny Lee Yau-tong).



The film takes its time getting to the action (40 minutes before Angela warms up) - they have the audacity of trying to fit a narrative into a martial arts movie. And though there is a revenge element in it, what it is really about is honor, pride and Chinese martial arts. It begins with the daughter of a shop owner being kidnapped by some debt collectors and her brother and Angela's brother (Carter Wong) going to a Thai boxing  tournament in Thailand to win enough money to ransom her. But training in Chinese martial arts slotted into Thai boxing style and rules is a bad fit and both men get clobbered. As to the kidnapped girl? We never hear about her again.



Getting beaten by Thai's is a huge loss of face for the father and martial arts teacher and he is kicked out of the Martial Arts Association (Kwan Shan) and all his students leave him. A group of Japanese led by Whang In-shik come to their facility and say they want to take it over and then say the magic words - Chinese martial arts is no good. Those are fighting words in a Hong Kong film. Enough to finally get Angela angry - till now you would think she was just a filial daughter - and she proceeds to kick ass. Then the Martial Arts Association comes over and gives her a hard time - and she kicks way more ass including Sammo who was kind enough to choreograph himself getting crushed. I loved it.



But Angela wants to show that she and Carter can win against Muay Thai so they go to Thailand - get ripped off by a taxi driver - oh how I know - and don't really train in Muay Thai as much as observe it and figure out how to win. The fights with Carter look seriously brutal though the one with Angela is a bit tamed down. Muay Thai is all fast kicks - you can barely see them and then close in for rabbit punches and knees and elbows to your everything. A real legit match is something to see. From a film stand point though it is not as imaginative as all the movement in Chinese martial arts - just hard and brutal.  But that's not all - Maria Yi-yi (The Big Boss, Fist of Fury) is kidnapped and held hostage in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand filled with old ruins. And there is a big fight among the ruins. Frigging amazing. But that's not all again - they go home and the Japanese and this giant Gweilo (George Yirikian) have taken over their home. You know what is coming to them. And that's not all - we end up with a Dragon Dance. Great little film with a lot of variation and heart.

 




Also, on hand for getting beaten up are a number of Sammo's team - Billy Chan, Yuen Wah, Peter Chan-lung, Chung Fat, Yuen Bun, Eric Tsang, Yuen Biao, Corey Yuen and Ching Siu-tung (the great choreographer). Not that I was able to pick many of them out of the flying bodies but they are there somewhere!