This review was requested by Arthur Robinson. Many thanks to Arthur for supporting Post-Credit Coda through our Patreon. Check out other reviews in this Martial Arts Retrospective.
Director: Sammo Hung
Writers: Sammo Hung, Barry Wong, Jing Wong
Cast: Biao Yuen, Ching-Ying Lam, Frankie Chan, Sammo Hung
Runtime: 100 mins.
1981
[Note: I watched this movie with subtitles. I peeked in at the dubbed version afterwards. I'd go so far as to say that it's so bad, it makes some of the more subtle scenes of the movie actively offensive. Sometimes it's fun to enjoy trash kung fu movie dubs, but this should be experienced in its original form if you can help it.]
Not one minute in, I had to pause the film to watch a sequence again. A camera descends into a freeze frame of a bustling restaurant. The still image then bursts into hubbub. My rewatch confirmed that the still image was actually live action: a dozen actors pack the frame, oh so still, gestures pregnant with motion. An ensemble moment of flawless craftsmanship.
Protagonist Leung Chang (Biao Yuen) is revealed with a fancy umbrella whisked away from his smirking face. He is the local kung fu street brawling legend, boasting over 300 victories. The restaurant burbles around him, including a table of stooges who mean to challenge Chang to a faceoff. They bicker amongst themselves as if deliberating which film trope to use. "Overturn a table," their leader says. "Not this table!" he is compelled to add after a henchman eagerly topples their drinks.
Already the world of the film is so rich. Director (and writer, and costar) Sammo Hung makes sure that each denizen of this restaurant is preoccupied. Whether it's how a customer eats noodles, or how they react to a brawl, every movement is distinct. Another standout blocking moment bifurcates a conversation held at another restaurant-- disembodied chopstick-holding hands pluck lobsters from the center of the frame one by one.
Hung is especially diligent at bringing small details back around. Remember the troublemaking fellows who seemed aware of their own embodied tropes? As it turns out, Chang is an unwitting fraud! His rich father has been paying off the entire village to lose. The self-aware playacting of the goons is thus doubly justified! It's like The Truman Show, but for kung fu.
