Kung Fu Man 功夫俠
China/US
Contemporary action drama
2013, colour, 2.35:1, 85 mins
Directed by Ning Ying (寧瀛), Johnny Yuen (袁祥仁)
By Derek Elley
Mon, 22 July 2013, 09:30 AM (HKT)
Formulaic family action fodder, starring Tiger Chen and co-produced by Keanu Reeves. Genre events and ancillary.
Story
Yunnan province, southern China, the present day. Martial artist Chen Ping (Tiger Chen) works in a shop in the tourist town of Dalongwan (Big Dragon Valley), Yunshan municipality. One evening his boss Wu San (Johnny Yuen), on the run from some criminal associates he's double-crossed, drops off a hamper at the shop. Inside, Chen Ping finds an eight-year-old American boy, Christopher (Arman Darbo). Wu San is killed by his associates, led by Hama (André "Chyna" McCoy), who then come looking for Christopher at the shop. Chen Ping temporarily escapes with the boy, but next day the kidnappers, joined by their leader Susan (Vanessa Branch), return. Chen Ping and Christopher flee again, and Susan, pretending to be his mother, asks the help of the local police in finding him. Chen Ping and Christopher hide out with an English teacher from Beijing, Liu Jie (Jiang Mengjie), who helps them. Christopher is, in fact, the son of multi-millionaire John Schmidt (Aaron Horrell) and was kidnapped by Susan, his tutor, and Hama, his bodyguard, while attending a cousin's birthday in Burma; he was then smuggled across the border into China by Wu San, who betrayed them to make some extra money. Schmidt's assistant, Sean (Igor Darbo), who is secretly working for Susan, tips off the kidnappers that Schmidt and his wife (Joanna Riley Weidenmiller) are flying to Port City to rescue their son. Meanwhile, Chen Ping, Christopher and Liu Jie go on the run from both the kidnappers and the local police.
Review
Released in China hot on the heels of Man of Tai Chi 太極俠, Kung Fu Man 功夫侠 turns out to be an earlier collaboration between Mainland-born stuntman Tiger CHEN 陳虎 and Canadian actor Keanu REEVES that was shot almost four years ago. Chen's first leading role, and reminiscent of any number of straight-to-video Hong Kong action films of the '80s, it's an OK showcase for the diminutive, Sichuan-born martial arts champion but is more interesting for its production history than anything else.
A formulaic family action film centred on a Chinese martial artist who rescues a young American boy from kidnappers, it was planned around the same time as Tai Chi, to launch Chen — whom Reeves had got to know as a member of YUEN Woo-ping 袁和平's stunt team on The Matrix — as an action star in his own right. Reeves, who doesn't appear in Kung Fu Man, served as an executive producer, and the film finally started shooting in Yunnan province, southern China, in Nov 2009, subsequently vanishing off the radar after being certified by SARFT in 2011. Even more interesting is the directing credit, shared between another member of the Yuen clan, veteran action choreographer Johnny YUEN 袁祥仁, and NING Ying 寧瀛, heretofore known for her wry comedies For Fun 找樂 (1992) and On the Beat 民警故事 (1995), as well as other festival fare like I Love Beijing 夏日暖洋洋 (2000), Perpetual Motion 無窮動 (2005) and documentary Railroad of Hope 希望之旅 (2001), rather than commercial fodder.
With two directors, as well as two directors of photography (the US' Sean O'Dea, Red Sands, Mischief Night, and Hong Kong journeyman Daniel KWAN 關志勤), it's to the credit of everyone that the joins don't show. However, anyone looking for a personal signature by Ning, let alone anything remotely believable from a director noted for her grounded realism, will be disappointed. It's clearly just a professional job for her, and Hong Kong editor Wenders LI 李棟全 keeps things on the move during the tight running time. The utilitarian script is basically an excuse for a lot of chases — with the hero and young boy on the run from both kidnappers and police in a scenic small town — and characterisation is non-existent.
As the boy who dreams of super-heroes, French-born, Beijing-raised Arman DARBO, aged eight at the time, avoids being cute or annoying; but most of his dialogue with Chen is him asking whether Chen is a "superman" and Chen replying that he's just an ordinary guy, a "kung fu man". (The Chinese title actually means Kung Fu Knight-Errant.) The heavies are strictly cut-outs, as played by Spanish-born, US-raised stuntman André "Chyna" McCOY (who doubled Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix) and UK-born, Chinese-speaking Vanessa BRANCH (best known for her Orbit dental gum commercials, but also one of the leads in cross-racial romance Love in Translation 愛情國境線 (2008)). Mainland actress JIANG Mengjie 蔣夢婕 (the younger sister in Joyful Reunion 飲食男女 好遠又好近) has little to do, apart from translate for the kid, as an English teacher in town. Among several non-pros playing foreigners, Darbo's own father Igor pops up as the nefarious assistant of the boy's father.
Chen has an agile, whiplash style that's well showcased in a couple of big fights (versus McCoy in a yard, and versus a whole team in a house) but he doesn't show any personality or humour in the quieter moments. Animated inserts of battling super-heroes are well-employed during the finale, further positioning the movie as aimed at the family/youth market rather than adult action fans.
The actual English title on the print is Kung Fun Man, presumably a misprint as the film is hardly a comedy. The setting, with names like Port City and Big Dragon Valley, is fictional.
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