jethro
03-21-2006, 03:31 PM
:D Kust giving my opinion.
Now ever since my work started blocking ALL websites at our computer at work, I've had a lot of trouble getting into sites, but this is one of the few. So I decided to devote my work time to reviewing all kung fu movies ever, one day I seriously plan on reviewing all of these. It took me like an hour to find this one, since it is my favorite movie ever, I had no problem doing this. Now if you have read any of my reviews, you will see that I just like to tell you if it's good or not becuase I don't like watching a martial arts movie already knowing whats gonna happen. But this is my fav.
Now what makes this the greatest movie ever? Well I'll tell you. Imagine all of the kungfu movies you have ever seen, legend of a fighter is just like them all, except for one thing. IT DOES EVERYTHING PERFECTLY. It's the same movie as drunken master, snake in eagle's shadow, iron monkey, etc, except that it manages to hit you hard as hell on EVERY scene. In all of his other movies there is always at least one scene where you say that was stupid or that could have been better, but for the actors that were in this movie, this was the best that it possibly could have been.
First of all the opening sequence has gotta be the sickest kungfu style I have ever seen on screen done by the great phillip ko. His form is so perfect that I would tell you to watch this movie for his form alone. So right away we learn that Phillip Ko's character doesn't let anyone watch him and his son's practice. the guy can break an egg by freaking looking at it, so of course he will be cautious in who he teaches. Well his son Fok Yun Gap being a scrawny little guy won't be taught kung fu by his dad cause Phillip Ko feels he would shame the family name. Well just arriving in town is Fok Yun Gap's teacher, looks like he is gonna learn books instead of the MA's. His teacher obviously doesn't know kungfu so is not a threat to Fok's dad, and would not want to watch them practice even if he had to. So now (all of a sudden sadly) we learn that Fok's teacher is a spy for the Japanese who is trying to learn more styles. Now this point was covered briefly in the film, but not enough. It went over how the Japanese are progressing ahead of the Chinese because of their ability to keep studying more and more styles and the chinese only keeping it within the family. It did not go over how all japanese matial arts come from the chinese. This may be a problem with my inferior version but still makes me a little mad. One of the few things that could have been better in this movie. Well we soon learn that Fok's teacher is just here to try to learn(steal) Fok's dad's form.
So the Japanese spy(Yusukai Kuratu) teaches Fok Yun Gap some kungfu(oh yeah, he's also the top fighter in Japan). So Fok chellenges the people who beat them up before and beats them, but then the master of the group tries to kill Fok and the Jap steps in and WHOOPS UP ON THIS DUDE. Kuratu has one of the most unbelievable screen kicks in this scene, and he may be the best fighter I have ever seen under woo-pings control. So the Jap kills this guy and has to leave, he gives Fok yun Gap his kungfu manual that belonged to his master before, then Fok gives the spy his jade pednant.
So Fok continues to secretly study and grows up to be very strong and flexible. Right when it switches actors to show the growth of Fok a challenger arrives at the Fok family home. So of course the previously mentioned Phillip Ko can take on anybody and will, but when he comes out you see that he is looking very sick. He can hardly stand. This is a great touch(I don't know if it was woo-ping's ot not) to the movie where because his sons aren't living up to him, Phillip Ko is just ready to die. So the challenger decides to break the Fok family home sign, but wait a second, Phillip Ko has another son named Fok Yun Gap, and nobody knows how good he is. So Fok saves the sign and family honor and beats up the challenger in a grat fight even though the 2 actors didn't look like real martial artists. BUT THEY DID IN THIS SCENE FOR SURE. I know Beardy is not a fighter, but he did look better than the guy he was fighting. So if what I am thinking is true, that REALLY shows how good woo-ping is by filming such a sweet fight between these 2 guys.
So Phillip Ko apologizes to Fok and names him the family heir. This happens a little too quickly, but what do you do when you have to make a 90 minute or less running time. The least greatest scene appears next on a ship where woo ping puts in his patented stupid comedy but out of nowhere a REALLY GOOD serious
moment happens. A chinese white man's lackey tries to get a girl to sleep with the white man he works for. The woman;s husband shows up and wants a piece of the white man and his lackey, so the lackey(fung hark-on) shows him some chinese boxing. Out comes a pipe smoker to defend the chinese and gives the lackey a real ASS-BURNING. So while the smoker is just lighting up the lackeys entire body, the white man himself decides to shoot the pipe smoker, but out of nowhere comes Fok Yun Gap and puts his finger in the trigger and forces the gun to the white man's face. This is one of the best and most serious moments in kungfu history and left me breathless.
Next Fok Yun Gap has to go fight a russian fighter who has never been beaten in a boxing match. Fung Hark-on's dad makes a VERY VERY funny guest appearence here and of course Fok annihilates this guy. Next there is a Japanese fighter who wants a piece of Fok Yun Gap. Why you ask, because it's a kungfu movie *******. But this guy is going around beating up everybody. There is a great scene where the wonderful Charlie Chan is showign the eagle style to everyone and saying that if you only know half of it you can beat anyone around here, then when he gets his ass kicked buy the jap, he says that guy can't fight he just knows how to punch, that's all.
Now the thing that I love about the Japanese part of this movie is they used 2 real Japanese actors to be the 2 main opponents of Fok Yun gap. The guy who whooped up on Charlie Chan is bald but can kick with anybody. And Kuratu needs no explaining. So Fok beats this Japanese guy and the jap kills himself. Well it just so happens that he was the student of Yusukai Kuratu, aka Fok's teacher, aka top fighter in japan. Kutatu doesn't want to fight Fok but knows that he must. So in the end we get the inevitable match that we all knew would happen when we first saw Kuratu's smiling face hit the screen.
So he shows up to the Fok home and Phillip Ko is back in top form. One thing that you will notice is Ko and Kuratu definitely have grey in their hair from the last time they met. Then Kuratu announces he is the one Fok will have to fight. Fok cannot believe this but his father even more. He decides to test the jap spy, but quickly has his own methods work against him. Phillip Ko finds out that he was a spy and has learned the secret family style. And Fok is absolutly erupting inside over this. The reason I brought this scene up though is the great director's touch of having Phillip Ko's character sick earlier on but once he found out that somebody is around to carry on the family style, he is back to tip top shape. It is things like this that make this movie a masterpiece.
The traing by kuratu in this fight is some of the best I've ever seen. He is litterally doing pushups on bricks THAT HAVE JAGGED ROCKS ON TOP OF THEM. They did not just show one pushup but many.
Now the final fight scene I believe is still missinturpeted by many fans even of this genre. At the start of the fight Fok can't bring himself to hit the jap. So Kuratu pulls out the jade pendant that he was given and breaks it in front of Fok. So of course fok wins in one of the best screen fights in cinema history, a bit supernatural but great none the less. The thing with the jade pendnant was that when Fok was repeatedly punching Keratu at the end the real pednant fell out and was revealed. So the one he broke was a fake. Why would he do this? Was there even any chance he was going to kill Fok? He did it cause he was still his teacher, and yes he would have killed him if he was better. That is sort of a contradictory statement but it's true. the jap made a fake pednant to break because he wanted to give fok one final teaching. If he could have given him more than one final lesson, he would have, but there was only one oppurtunity. So he keeps egging on Fok with racial slurs until he brings out his full potential. So even though he had to die, he still gave the young man another lesson both in martial arts and in life. They would have been friends if they could have, but instead he decided to find out what Fok was made of and he found out just the way he was hoping. I'm not saying Kuratu wanted to die, but he did what he could for Fok Yun Gap.
So I have to admit I ordered the dvd for this from amazon and the thing said it had dual languages, interviews, and deleted footage! It had none of this, but I don't care, i got my favorite movie ever. The picture isn't cropped very much at all, the picture has no line or distortion whatsoever but is not remstered, and the dubbing is acceptable. The ONLY thing I was mad about when I watched this is that I only have a 87 min. version. Even 30 more seconds of woo ping's masterpiece would be worth like a 20 to me.
So it is very surprising that this is not even listed as legend of a fighter, but secret master is certainly not an improper name for it. i don't know the quality of the videotape, but I strongly suggest that you buy it. And if you see the hong kong legends version than I hope you recieve the special edition unlike I did. But I also suggest that you snatch up every different version you can find of this until you find a definitive one(if there is one) and certainly list it on this site, because I will be doing all I can.:eek:
Now ever since my work started blocking ALL websites at our computer at work, I've had a lot of trouble getting into sites, but this is one of the few. So I decided to devote my work time to reviewing all kung fu movies ever, one day I seriously plan on reviewing all of these. It took me like an hour to find this one, since it is my favorite movie ever, I had no problem doing this. Now if you have read any of my reviews, you will see that I just like to tell you if it's good or not becuase I don't like watching a martial arts movie already knowing whats gonna happen. But this is my fav.
Now what makes this the greatest movie ever? Well I'll tell you. Imagine all of the kungfu movies you have ever seen, legend of a fighter is just like them all, except for one thing. IT DOES EVERYTHING PERFECTLY. It's the same movie as drunken master, snake in eagle's shadow, iron monkey, etc, except that it manages to hit you hard as hell on EVERY scene. In all of his other movies there is always at least one scene where you say that was stupid or that could have been better, but for the actors that were in this movie, this was the best that it possibly could have been.
First of all the opening sequence has gotta be the sickest kungfu style I have ever seen on screen done by the great phillip ko. His form is so perfect that I would tell you to watch this movie for his form alone. So right away we learn that Phillip Ko's character doesn't let anyone watch him and his son's practice. the guy can break an egg by freaking looking at it, so of course he will be cautious in who he teaches. Well his son Fok Yun Gap being a scrawny little guy won't be taught kung fu by his dad cause Phillip Ko feels he would shame the family name. Well just arriving in town is Fok Yun Gap's teacher, looks like he is gonna learn books instead of the MA's. His teacher obviously doesn't know kungfu so is not a threat to Fok's dad, and would not want to watch them practice even if he had to. So now (all of a sudden sadly) we learn that Fok's teacher is a spy for the Japanese who is trying to learn more styles. Now this point was covered briefly in the film, but not enough. It went over how the Japanese are progressing ahead of the Chinese because of their ability to keep studying more and more styles and the chinese only keeping it within the family. It did not go over how all japanese matial arts come from the chinese. This may be a problem with my inferior version but still makes me a little mad. One of the few things that could have been better in this movie. Well we soon learn that Fok's teacher is just here to try to learn(steal) Fok's dad's form.
So the Japanese spy(Yusukai Kuratu) teaches Fok Yun Gap some kungfu(oh yeah, he's also the top fighter in Japan). So Fok chellenges the people who beat them up before and beats them, but then the master of the group tries to kill Fok and the Jap steps in and WHOOPS UP ON THIS DUDE. Kuratu has one of the most unbelievable screen kicks in this scene, and he may be the best fighter I have ever seen under woo-pings control. So the Jap kills this guy and has to leave, he gives Fok yun Gap his kungfu manual that belonged to his master before, then Fok gives the spy his jade pednant.
So Fok continues to secretly study and grows up to be very strong and flexible. Right when it switches actors to show the growth of Fok a challenger arrives at the Fok family home. So of course the previously mentioned Phillip Ko can take on anybody and will, but when he comes out you see that he is looking very sick. He can hardly stand. This is a great touch(I don't know if it was woo-ping's ot not) to the movie where because his sons aren't living up to him, Phillip Ko is just ready to die. So the challenger decides to break the Fok family home sign, but wait a second, Phillip Ko has another son named Fok Yun Gap, and nobody knows how good he is. So Fok saves the sign and family honor and beats up the challenger in a grat fight even though the 2 actors didn't look like real martial artists. BUT THEY DID IN THIS SCENE FOR SURE. I know Beardy is not a fighter, but he did look better than the guy he was fighting. So if what I am thinking is true, that REALLY shows how good woo-ping is by filming such a sweet fight between these 2 guys.
So Phillip Ko apologizes to Fok and names him the family heir. This happens a little too quickly, but what do you do when you have to make a 90 minute or less running time. The least greatest scene appears next on a ship where woo ping puts in his patented stupid comedy but out of nowhere a REALLY GOOD serious
moment happens. A chinese white man's lackey tries to get a girl to sleep with the white man he works for. The woman;s husband shows up and wants a piece of the white man and his lackey, so the lackey(fung hark-on) shows him some chinese boxing. Out comes a pipe smoker to defend the chinese and gives the lackey a real ASS-BURNING. So while the smoker is just lighting up the lackeys entire body, the white man himself decides to shoot the pipe smoker, but out of nowhere comes Fok Yun Gap and puts his finger in the trigger and forces the gun to the white man's face. This is one of the best and most serious moments in kungfu history and left me breathless.
Next Fok Yun Gap has to go fight a russian fighter who has never been beaten in a boxing match. Fung Hark-on's dad makes a VERY VERY funny guest appearence here and of course Fok annihilates this guy. Next there is a Japanese fighter who wants a piece of Fok Yun Gap. Why you ask, because it's a kungfu movie *******. But this guy is going around beating up everybody. There is a great scene where the wonderful Charlie Chan is showign the eagle style to everyone and saying that if you only know half of it you can beat anyone around here, then when he gets his ass kicked buy the jap, he says that guy can't fight he just knows how to punch, that's all.
Now the thing that I love about the Japanese part of this movie is they used 2 real Japanese actors to be the 2 main opponents of Fok Yun gap. The guy who whooped up on Charlie Chan is bald but can kick with anybody. And Kuratu needs no explaining. So Fok beats this Japanese guy and the jap kills himself. Well it just so happens that he was the student of Yusukai Kuratu, aka Fok's teacher, aka top fighter in japan. Kutatu doesn't want to fight Fok but knows that he must. So in the end we get the inevitable match that we all knew would happen when we first saw Kuratu's smiling face hit the screen.
So he shows up to the Fok home and Phillip Ko is back in top form. One thing that you will notice is Ko and Kuratu definitely have grey in their hair from the last time they met. Then Kuratu announces he is the one Fok will have to fight. Fok cannot believe this but his father even more. He decides to test the jap spy, but quickly has his own methods work against him. Phillip Ko finds out that he was a spy and has learned the secret family style. And Fok is absolutly erupting inside over this. The reason I brought this scene up though is the great director's touch of having Phillip Ko's character sick earlier on but once he found out that somebody is around to carry on the family style, he is back to tip top shape. It is things like this that make this movie a masterpiece.
The traing by kuratu in this fight is some of the best I've ever seen. He is litterally doing pushups on bricks THAT HAVE JAGGED ROCKS ON TOP OF THEM. They did not just show one pushup but many.
Now the final fight scene I believe is still missinturpeted by many fans even of this genre. At the start of the fight Fok can't bring himself to hit the jap. So Kuratu pulls out the jade pendant that he was given and breaks it in front of Fok. So of course fok wins in one of the best screen fights in cinema history, a bit supernatural but great none the less. The thing with the jade pendnant was that when Fok was repeatedly punching Keratu at the end the real pednant fell out and was revealed. So the one he broke was a fake. Why would he do this? Was there even any chance he was going to kill Fok? He did it cause he was still his teacher, and yes he would have killed him if he was better. That is sort of a contradictory statement but it's true. the jap made a fake pednant to break because he wanted to give fok one final teaching. If he could have given him more than one final lesson, he would have, but there was only one oppurtunity. So he keeps egging on Fok with racial slurs until he brings out his full potential. So even though he had to die, he still gave the young man another lesson both in martial arts and in life. They would have been friends if they could have, but instead he decided to find out what Fok was made of and he found out just the way he was hoping. I'm not saying Kuratu wanted to die, but he did what he could for Fok Yun Gap.
So I have to admit I ordered the dvd for this from amazon and the thing said it had dual languages, interviews, and deleted footage! It had none of this, but I don't care, i got my favorite movie ever. The picture isn't cropped very much at all, the picture has no line or distortion whatsoever but is not remstered, and the dubbing is acceptable. The ONLY thing I was mad about when I watched this is that I only have a 87 min. version. Even 30 more seconds of woo ping's masterpiece would be worth like a 20 to me.
So it is very surprising that this is not even listed as legend of a fighter, but secret master is certainly not an improper name for it. i don't know the quality of the videotape, but I strongly suggest that you buy it. And if you see the hong kong legends version than I hope you recieve the special edition unlike I did. But I also suggest that you snatch up every different version you can find of this until you find a definitive one(if there is one) and certainly list it on this site, because I will be doing all I can.:eek: