B.W.'s Top Twenty Favorite Kung Fu Actors : The Top Ten

We're back, like a former 98 lb martial weakling, fully trained in secret combat techniques and prepared to avenge our father's/brother's/sister's/mother's/sifu's untimely death at the hands of a villainous bastard who's rubbing his mustache and laughing cockily, thoroughly unfazed by this latest challenge; unaware that we've mastered the ancient counter-style, thought lost for years, and he's in for some serious foot-eating, in grueling slo-mo. Movement eight'een, Peacock displays his fancy ass-feathers to Buddha! Here's my top 10.


  10) Liu Chia Hui  The youngest of the Liu's behind Chia-Yung and eldest Chia-Liang, Gordon "Master Killer" Liu's instantly recognizable even to those beyond the HK fight club, appearing in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series, after having a long and rich career in the Shaw Brothers productions of his older brothers and others; some of his best appearances coming in movies like Martial Club (1981), Heroes of the East (1978), Legendary Weapons of China (1982) and, of course,  The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978).


  9) Ti Lung  One of Shaw Brothers' early stars, the ever noble Ti Lung lends his unmistakable air of class to productions like The Deadly Duo (1971), Five Shaolin Masters (1974), and The Kung Fu Instructor (1979), as well as modern works such as John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986) and Liu Chia Liang's Drunken Master II (1994) opposite Jacky Chan.

 
   8) Kuo Chui   Number Four, the Lizard. My favorite Venom, Kuo usually plays a drunk or a wanderer or a beggar...or a drunken wandering beggar... in iconic Shaw Brothers productions for Chang Cheh like Daredevils of Kung Fu (1979), The Flag of Iron (1980), Five Element Ninjas (1982), as well as the aforementioned Five Venoms.


 7) Liang Chia Jen  We've come to "Beardy" himself! Though he's always been technically excellent, dating back to early Shaw flicks like Five Shaolin Masters (1974) and Marco Polo (1975), I prefer repeat viewings of his work in later films like Warriors Two (1978), Sleeping Fist (1979), The Victim (1980), Thundering Mantis (1980),  and Knockabout (1979) these days. All of his stuff is worth checking out, really.



  6) Billy Chong The Indonesian Willy Dozan was often billed as "Bruce Lee of the 80's" and was number one on my list for a long time, too,  often sparking arguments among us before and after many a kung fu class back then, but I stood firm on my choice, using movies like Super Power (1980), Kung Fu Executioner (1981), and Crystal Fist (1979) as visual evidence. Still a favorite.


  5) Liu Chia Liang The mere screen presence of this fight choreographer-turned-director, the elder statesman of the genre bar none,  uplifts any production to a must-see status. Though those appearances numbered ninety-three at the time of his death in 2013, with many glorious fights that instantly spring to mind, one only need bear witness to the spectacle that is the final fight in his own Legendary Weapons of China (1982) vs. his brother, Liu Chia Yung, to see a perfect jaw-dropping illustration.


  4) Fu Sheng  My favorite Chang Cheh regular has to be "Alexander" Fu Sheng, hands down. His comedic abilities, mischievous spirit, and general likability are top notch, and only matched by his prowess as a pugilist, having long trained under the tutelage of none other than Liu Chia Liang. Were it not for a tragic car accident in 1983, his international star would have surely rose to more dizzying heights, transcending the martial arts genre into mainstream comedy, as evidenced by the success of Hong Kong Playboys (1983).


  3) Bruce Lee Undoubtedly the King of the Kung Fu movie, and the Gold Standard by which all cinematic martial artists will forever be compared to. The four movies completed at the time of the iconic little tough guy's death in 1973, are all required viewing, for sure: Big Boss (1971), Fists of Fury (1972), Way of the Dragon (1972), and Enter the Dragon (1973).


  2) Jacky Chan In one instant, this former Peking Opera performer-turned-stunt man rose to the top by single-handedly revolutionizing the kung fu film with his own unique brand of physical kung fu comedy, performing all legendarily inhuman stunts himself along the way. Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), Drunken Master (1978), Project A (1983), Police Story (1985), Armor of God (1986)...his list of excellent action movies is lengthy. If you've never seen his early classics, you're really selling yourself short as a film fan.


  1) Wang Lung Wei  Johnny Wang, who is without a doubt, the epitome of villainy in Asian action movies, naturally tops my list of favorites. "Who else... coooooooooould be", to quote Hwang Jang Lee. To Kill a Mastermind (1979), Martial Club (1981), Shaolin Temple (1976), and This Man is Dangerous (1985) contain some of my favorite vintage Wang assholery.

"Crystal Fist" (1979) d/ Hwa I Hung

From the instant lead pugilist Billy Chong's title sequence form kicks into high gear over the opening credits, you should already know what a tempest whirlwind of martial action you're in for. Tonight's review, also known under it's alternate "Jade Claw" title, is Chong's starring debut; a Kung Fu Theater staple throughout the eighties on Philadelphia and New York stations like WPHL and WWOR, packed to the gills with quality kung foolery, beautiful training and form sequences, and breathtaking fight choreography from Simon Yuen's sons Brandy and Shun-Yi (who also doubled for Chong and elder Yuen during the trickier maneuvers), so much so, in fact, that it bears striking resemblance to Yuen's elder son's (Yuen Woo Ping, for those keeping track) groundbreaking genre work with Jackie Chan, leading to the inevitable 'Chan copycat' tag that would wrongfully follow the Indonesian action star for years to follow. Pay such damning comparisons no mind, especially in the case of tonight's focus: a classic in every sense of the word.

 
Farcical physical slapstick humor? Check.
Young Wen is orphaned when Master Yen(Chu Tiet Wo) erase his father(Hau Chau Sing) from the equation with his deadly Double Phoenix Eye fist and help from his two henchmen, Deaf and Blind(Brandy Yuen, Addy Sung). Now a young man (Billy Chong) looking to learn martial arts to exact revenge, he poses as an instructor to gain entry to a local kung fu school, and is taken on as a kitchen hand to the Cook (Simon Yuen), when he's not being used as a punching bag by Fatty and Skinny (Lung Ga Chun, David Woo),  the assistant teachers. Feeling sorry for Wen after much pranking (of the prosthetic smashed big toes variety and then some) transpires, the Cook begins to teach him the Eagle Claw technique through a painful-looking montage of training exercise and sheer physical endurance, and it isn't long before Wen is an adept enough fighter to protect his nation's honor against a cocky Russian ( Alexander Grand), but the tail end of his humbling lesson is witnessed by Yen, who instantly recognizes the Eagle Claw technique of his rival, and attacks Wen on his way home.

 
Impossibly difficult training sequences that border on the sadistic, really? Check.
Yen and his thugs viciously beat the young pupil, burning his hand in a fire and smashing the jade his father had given to him, but he manages to escape with his life. When the cook sees Wen's broken jade, he realizes who he really is, and vows to teach him the shadow eagle's claw style to defeat Yen's Phoenix Eye and avenge his father's death.Cue: dramatic forms sequence, and Wen's ready to dole it back out in droves.After he puts a jerk off nobleman who lets his German Shepard eat off a restaurant table in his place and beating the stuffing out of Fatty and Skinny, he squares off against Blind and Deaf and double handicaps both of them.When he finds Yen, he's laughing maniacally, having just set the young man's digs on fire. Man, this guy is hardcore. With the building burning to the ground behind them, the men majestically fight to the death, both with weapons and finally, barehanded, where Wen unleashes the secret shadow eagle's claw upon his foe, and in an acrobatic slo-mo, crushes Yen's throat, leading to a Shaw-esque final freeze.


Avenging a father's volent, untimely death at the hands of a power-mad warlord? Check.
Chong would follow up this hit for Eternal Films with another Hung film,  A Hard Way To Die(1979), and 1980's Super Power. The two would work together again the following year in the legendary Kung Fu Zombie(1981). The Ocean Shores clamshell VHS under the Crystal Fist title boasts of the only uncut print I've seen of the movie, with the profanity and fight violence excised from the television edit intact, though I can't say I've given any of the cheap bare bones dvds I've seen of it much attention. If any classic golden era kung fu movie needs a special edition widescreen restoration, this one gets my vote. As one my all-time favorites of the genre, I'd write about it all day if you let me. If you're into this sort of thing, you can't go wrong. Highly recommended. Four wops.


"Attack the heart, and then the lungs... Tired?? TOO BAD!!!"

"Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave"(1984)d/Li Chao

...and then there's the wrong way to mix kung fu, horror, and comedy.Let's give Eternal Films and director Li Chao a little credit for something, though.With tonight's review, they failed epically.As a Billy Chong fan for decades now, I couldn't help but be embarrassed for the guy to have lent his name to this.Three years earlier, he scored himself a kung fu horror-comedy hit with Kung Fu Zombie(1981).He obviously should have quit while he was ahead.It's no wonder he returned to Indonesia afterwards to salvage his career there.After a porcelain bomb of this magnitude, it's remarkable that he was even able to do it.Grave is kinda like reinvisioning Ghostbusters(1984) as a kung fu flick centered around one impressive martial arts expert with a crew of incompetent fuck ups, a supporting cast of orange belt forgettables, Woolworth-level Halloween costumes, special effects that'd get trumped by a high school production of Mary Poppins, and an overall budget of, I dunno, how much you have on you right now?
The problem that Chong, aka/"The Bruce Lee of the 80's", frequently faced in his movie career, squaring off against unworthy opponents, having to rely on camera trickery to make the fights seem interesting, is never more glaringly apparent than right here.Though Lo Lieh has always been a fantastic cinematic villain, and he turns in an appropriately demented performance here, he's simply too old to keep up with Chong's hyper-flexibility and acrobatic style.Add an insultingly fucking ridiculous plot to the mix, and you're in the neighborhood, alright.

Place onion, garlic, and two hearts of humans killed at the point of orgasm with Worchestershire sauce or marinade into wok, cook with magic for thirty seconds or until they break down into a bubbly red paste...
A narrator tells us that this is the seventh month of the lunar calendar, where the dead rise from their graves, and on the 14th, townspeople make offerings to the ghosts, or visible fishing line, that clumsily lifts pineapples and fried chicken into the air, and ghostly green hands.Whichever you wanna believe, man, it's all good to me.Pissing all over the notion of staying indoors while the listless dead walk the earth, Chun Sing(Billy Chong) gung fu-trains out in the courtyard, no superstitious 'fraidy cat he.A ghost that drops in on him gets wicked kicked upside the head and knocked over a wall.Incredulous, the ghost says "Whoa!", and reveals himself as the spirit of Chun's pop, urging him to bring a blood vendetta against the dirty mischiever what sent him to Hell(he bribed his way back to earth to visit his namesake).He tells his concerned mother that he's off to get revenge.Cut to two kung fu wizards gliding across the ground in the midst of an epic sword match, complete with shoddy fireworks, over a fabled book of magic.The baddie spits poison into the eyes of the righteous pugilist, blinding him before introducing his tai chi blade to his labonza.Chun stumbles upon the body before the evil wizard can score the magic book from it, and, pissing all over proper crime scene etiquette, buries it in a shallow grave right then and there.While hollowing the earth, the pommel of the sword he's using comes loose and reveals ...the magic book(didn't see that coming).He puts it back in the sword, leaving it near the grave.Wait.What?Meanwhile, the victorious black wizard prepares a magic spray derived from two human hearts, stolen at the point of orgasm(he cooks it down in a wok), which he spits all over Kam(Lo Lieh), one ruthless-assed motherfucker looking to become impervious to all weapons.For now, though, he's just fucking gross with blood all over him.The wizard tells his two cronies that he needs another two human hearts in three days to finish the process.

Wait, what's Dick Cavett doing here, and why's he dressed like Dracula?
Chun shows up at Kam's crib with the tale of his father's ghost, kicking the asses off of all of his bodyguards and demanding that the murderer reveal his father's burial spot, give away all his money, and finally, kill himself.Kam declines, allowing Chun to go knuckles up with his magical lazy-eyed wizard, instead.After losing two rounds to the magician, due to his uncanny ability to make himself be seen through a kalaidoscope lens(which apparently makes him unhittable and his blows unstoppable), the young expert surmises, after also having to put the spinning wheel kicks to some undead zhosts(zombie-esque hopping ghosts), that there must be some magic behind all of this.Remember that book of magic you discarded earlier, mamalucco?Yeaaaaaah, that one.After meddling with the dark arts inside a courtyard yin/yang, Chun calls the attention of some nearby ghosts, who happen to be listening for magical activity with a bamboo antenna jutting out of their coffin.I'm not shittin' ya.Aligned with the living dead(and a hunchback), he revisits Kam, who's wizard summons two demons in black and white dunce hats with impossibly long tongues, on the defensive.Chun incinerates the duo with cheap laser effects that shoot from the book itself, forcing the wizard to retaliate the only possible way at this stage:throw a handful of American cash into the air, and as it magically catches fire, call Count Dracula to come to your aid.One effeminately sassy Dick Cavett-looking vampire with dimestore fangs and cape screaming, "I'm coooooooommmmmmiiiiiiing!!" while flying in on visible wires later, Chun is forced to resort to the old standbys(crosses and garlic)to thwart the pint-sized blood drinker in his tearing apart of the zhosts.Will the young martial expert somehow manage to vanquish Count Dracula, the evil wizard, and Kam in completing his blood vengeance and returning his chi to perfect balance?You'll have to do the unthinkable, and see it for yourselves to find out...

If that's his contract that Chong is holding, he should have burned it while he had the chance.
There's a lot of you who eat up low budget craptaculars like this one as if they were deep-fried s'mores and you were E. Wilford Brimley in the throes of a sugar diabeetus attack(I'm occasionally that motherfucker in question myself when it comes to rotten flicks).You might find yourselves guiltily digging this, in that case.If you're a Hong Kong snootmeister who grooves on only the finest martial epics, you'll feel soul-raped by the time this ejercicio en el absurdo draws to a close.So it's your call.From a technical standpoint, this is embarrassingly hokey shit that's difficult to endure.On the scale, it merits but a single wop, for the Chong presence alone.

Billy Chong uses poor old Lo Lieh as an escalator.

"Kung Fu Zombie"(1981)d/Hwa I Hung

Kung fu horror-comedies were pretty popular at the box office back in the glorious eighties, with titles like Mr. Vampire and Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind making lucrative bank in their theatrical runs.Eternal Films took their own shot at it with Hwa I Hung's Wu long tian shi zhao ji gui(say that five times fast with a mouth fulla beans, I dare ya), known internationally as Kung Fu Zombie, a briskly-paced supernatural mix of Asian blood-spitting magic, vengeful ghosts, supercharged Buddhist vampires, plenty of the martial stuff in-between, and a goodly portion of "Holy FUCK!" throughout.Normally, I'm not real big on mixing my genres.When I want horror, I watch horror.If I'm feeling like martial arts, then I throw one in.The one obvious exception to that rule would be this movie.Played mostly for laughs of a moronic nature and anchored firmly with a micro-budget, Zombie ended up being something of a hit in Hong Kong, earning HK$ 2,237,587, due to the highly enjoyable straightjacket insanity transpiring within.

Pang(Billy Chong) just wants his due.Got that? His...due.
Lu Dai(Jeng Kei Ying) is a petty criminal with a debt of vengeance to repay to a wise-assed young martial expert named Pang(Billy Chong), who meddled in his affairs and got him locked up for it.Aiding Dai in his quarrel are a merry band of blundering jagoffs that includes a Taoist priest(Chan Lau) who dabbles in the black arts.Their scheme is nothing if not fucking ridiculous: Lure Pang to the cemetery for a duel, then use magic to reanimate some cadavers to push him into an open grave with a coffin lined with daggers in it.Of course, it fails miserably, with Dai ending up poked full of holes and dead in the box...and struck by lightning of the hand-scratched film variety.His ghost, hysterical at the sight of his own mutilated corpse, demands that the fumbling priest find him a new body forthwith.During the body-shopping process, Dai uses his ectoplasmic invisibility to frame the priest in a busy restaurant, using ghost hands to feel up a prostitute, who turns and slaps six shades of spinning shit outta the innocent priest, who tumbles into an incoming Chinese heiffer's fat booze-umms, which he bounces off of repeatedly for optimum comic effect before she falls on top of him the way fat people often do in kung fu comedies.The priest's body-switching ceremonies don't go so well either, when he tries to insert Dai's spirit into a body at the morgue, it turns out the guy just happened to be a martial expert(Kwan Yung Moon) sleeping in a coffin for the fuck of it, until his big vengeance duel with the same young hothead Dai is after.Pang's father(Chiang Tao)trains him to endure fights that last two hours or more to be ready for Lung, who Pang cockily sends back to the morgue with precious little fanfare.The priest tries to insert Dai into the fighter's body a second time, but only succeeds in turning the murderous bastard into a full-fledged vampire!

Lu Dai(Jeng Kei Ying), put your old body away.It stinks.
To further complicate matters, Pang's father eats heart-seizing death while getting loaded and playing with the reward money for Lung's body, providing Dai with his final opportunity for a new body(you only get three chances,apparently)and revenge against Pang.The priest only manages to make half-good on his promise, causing Dai, now in Pang's dad's body, to hunt all his brothers-in-crime, who safeguard against him in a number of ways: one gets arrested(ghosts can't cross the law), one becomes a piss-poor excuse for a monk(he's kicked out after frying up a puppy!), and the priest, well, he just wears a leaf hat(!), that makes him invisible to Dai, and ridiculous to everybody else.Meanwhile Lung is rewriting vampire folklore, attacking people during the day, and kicking the heads off of peasants and leaning over the geysering neck stumps like a kid at a high school water fountain, to hungrily gulp down the red stuff(!!).Of course, this all leads up to the final confrontation between Pang and Lung, with the remaining members of Dai's gang trying to pull his spirit out of Pang's father's body in the process.During their supernatual rowdydow, Lung's fists and foot suddenly catch fire as his head starts to smoulder(!!!), with the vampire using them to strike at Pang.Somewhere out of left field, a monk appears and drapes Buddhist prayer beads around Pang's neck, slapping protective holy yellow post-its all over his torso, before pushing him back out into the battle zone.Huh?!!!The vampire's flaming extremities burn away most of Pang's protection, but in the nick of time, the young hero remembers to wrap the prayer beads around the vampire's neck, jump effortlessly into the branch of a tree some twenty-five feet up, strangling the blood drinker while breaking off a piece of branch stump and ramming it repeatedly into the top of the vampire's head, killing him.Whaaaa??!!??Insert four exclamation points here.

"I'm having dramatic slo-mo chest pains!Where's my Chinese Life Alert?"
Despite some sped up action and chase scenes(for Benny Hill-style comedy hijinks,methinks),Billy Chong is high-kickingly amazing as always, especially when squared off with Kwan Yung Moon, an equally impressive fighter.I should also mention at this point that Cheng Hong Yip played the character of "Hamster"(that's right).You should be able to snag a copy of this one for next to nothing at your local video clearance outlet or FYE, if you can't locate one on Amazon.A restored, remastered special edition is just crying to be released some day soon.It deserves no less.On the scale, the highest possible rating for nearly immeasurable laughs and martial arts entertainment.The right way to mix kung fu, horror, and comedy.

Let's see Van Helsing jump effortlessly 25 feet up a tree, strangling a vampire with buddhist prayer beads, before ramming a tree branch into the top of his head repeatedly.

"A Fist Full of Talons"(1983)d/Sun Chung

For kung fu flick fans, here is the holy grail of Billy Chong movies, bar none.Though it probably isn't the best of director Sun "Avenging Eagle" Chung's forty or so efforts in his storied career, it is clearly Chong's apex movie offering, packed with great kung fu, and more than one "Holy shit!" moment, but we'll touch on that more a bit later.The title eluded me for years before I could find a copy anywhere, ironically turning up as half of a double feature dvd marketed towards the hip hop crowd with a terrible washed out print that looks as though it has spent the past thirty years sitting in a sun-drenched Arizona storefront window.Hopefully I'll stumble across a nice Region 3 remaster one of these days, but for now, this'll just have to do, I guess.Try to ignore the hella goofy-sounding title that Eternal Films borrows from maestro Sergio Leone to ridiculous effect, Sun's ever-moving camera is used to optimum effect here with plenty of his signature mid-fight crane shots that both bring the viewer headlong into the action and isolate the star against his overwhelming surroundings, proving that though his days with martial giants, Shaw Brothers, may have been over by 1983, he still had plenty to offer filmgoers.For once, Billy Chong is paired up with a villain of equal or greater skill,in 10th degree Hapkido black belt, Whang Ing-Sik, who had previously worked with stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Angela Mao.The level of fight scenes is notably higher here than in any of Chong's previous films, but sadly, would be his last movie for six years.

Even washing a horse requires ample acrobatics,as Ching I Ming(Billy Chong) demonstrates.
At the outset, the Chinese have already wrenched governmental power away from the Manchu, forming a republic in their absence.Never ones to admit defeat, the Manchu scheme to regain control one region at a time under the leadership of Nai Sin(Whang Ing-Sik) and his six Tigers, who are searching for the patriotic Ding Wei Chung(Pai Ying), a mysterious tenant of Ching I Ming(Billy Chong)'s father.Ching attempts to connect with Ding, washing his horse(even the droopy bits) and waiting on him hand and foot, but Ding shuns the young man's friendship.While Ching is failing at making new friends, he has no problems in making enemies, engaging Manchus on sight with his comrades, beating them to a pulp, and cutting off their signature queue ponytails.Along the way, his violent activism attracts the daughter of a local sheriff, known only as Eagle Girl Ma(Hilda Liu Hao-Yi), who keeps birds of prey as pets.During a fight with some of the Tigers, Ding's horse is stolen by an unscrupulous young beggar, but Ching notices the man trying vainly to sell the animal in town and steals it back for his father's tenant, who has gone missing.

Ching doles out haircuts to Manchus, willing or otherwise.
Ching returns Ding's horse to him, convincing him to train him more thoroughly in the national fight against the Manchu, culminating in a dazzling sequence where Ching lights thousands of candles on a massive Buddha statue as Ding attempts to stop him and extinguish the candles.Meanwhile, Eagle Girl Ma has sent her eagles out to look for her love interest, also helped by Young Beggar who's had a patriotic change of heart.The Manchus beat the beggar to death in interrogating him for Ding's whereabouts leading to a martial battle between Nai and Ding,where Ding is mortally wounded.Ching arrives in time to rescue the official and assist in his fight.Nai proves too powerful for Ching to defeat alone, forcing the young man to use the crevices and crannies of the enormous Buddha to his advantage, but even this is insufficient for victory.Eagle Girl Ma joins the fight,and when Nai's leg armour seriously wounds the girl, her pet eagle swoops into the battle as well.With Nai focusing on Ching's attacks and Ma's feigned offensive, he is blinded by the eagle(!!), which he rips in half(yeah,real eagle ripped in half...on camera in slo-mo.Holy shit!) as Ching executes a flying double front kick to the back of his skull, killing him, and winning the day for the republic.I'll give you a second to catch up here.

Chiang Tao and Whang Ing-Sik aren't only treacherous Manchu bastards, they know how to accessorize, too.
Though Chong was finished with movies for the time being, Sun Chung continued directing,with titles like Lady in Black(1987), City War(1988),and Angel Hunter(1992) under his belt.He even tried his hand at horror with Human Lanterns(1982),which we'll examine at a later date.This would prove to be Whang Ing-Sik's last major screen appearance as well, after roles in everything from Way of the Dragon,Hapkido,and When Taekwondo Strikes in the early seventies to memorable turns in Jackie Chan's The Young Master(1980) and Dragon Lord(1982).In spite of the wince-worthy mondo moment that ends the film, this one delivers action by the fistful and scores three big ones on the ratings scale.You'll probably find it on an inferior disc in a clearance outlet for a buck or two, unless you score big with an Asian special edition, in which case, I'll be highly jealous of you, indeed.

Yeah.Exactly.Holy shit!

"Super Power"(1980)d/Lam Chin-Wai

A vengeful hex upon the rascals at Verizon for making it near to impossible to log in here at the Wop for the past week or so, it's a minor miracle I was able to do so tonight and get back to where we started from like Maxine Nightingale used to croon back in the mid-seventies.First up,we've got some kung fu for you to wrap your sashes around,so put your seven sectional steel whip down momentarily and read on,little brothers and sisters...
Tonight's review was another popular entry on Channel Five in the eighties, displaying the martial dominance of Billy Chong, a successful kung fu actor who rode the sash-edge of Jacky Chan to stardom during that exciting period in chopsocky flicks.When last we examined Chong's work, I expressed feelings that some of his films suffered from lack of competent villains to pair the gifted Indonesian-born expert against, and nowhere is that more evident than in tonight's movie, a kitchen sink of flowery named fighting styles juxtaposed against Chong's signature leg fighting and muscle tone.Hau Chiu-Sing tries his luck here,and his unimpressive lack of fluidity is simply no match for Chong, painfully evident from the first time we see him practicing his awkwardly named(and executed)Horse Face Fist.Director Lam tries to level the playing ground by inserting several phony trampoline-enhanced stunts, played both forward and in reverse, only succeeding in making the inequality between his star and his antagonists that much more evident.The soundtrack borrows tracks directly from familiar Hollywood fare like The Ten Commandments.Despite these shortcomings, Power does showcase its leading man quite well, with several solid form sequences and fights, and I'm confident that fans of Billy Chong will enjoy the movie anyway.Forward!

Chun Ming(Billy Chong) lives to: a)kung fu fight and b)tease Fatty.
Kang Si Man(Hau Chiu-Sing)is called to his dying father's bedside, where he's told of his father's shameful loss to five different masters years earlier.He's given a special training manual for the Horse Face Fist, a devastating technique that few have mastered and vows to defeat the modern proponents of those five teachers to return glory to his family name, with the help of his two brothers(Chiang Tao and Ho Kei-Cheong), two Eagle Claw stylists.Meanwhile, Mr. Wan(Lau Dan)is struggling to keep a tight rein on his impudent son, Chun Ming(Billy Chong), who shows little interest in the book studies he's being tutored in, or even Sau Yee(Annie Liu On-Lai), the young girl his family has arranged for him to marry.Kang challenges and defeats Wan's friend, Lin, then arranges for a dinner between all the masters, where he instigates duels between them, only stepping in afterwards to pick up the pieces.When Chun defeats Mr. Liu's son in a forest battle, Kang later blinds the young man in an attempt to frame Wan's son, but drops his snuff bottle at the crime scene, where the fight is witnessed by Sau, dressed as a man in public to glimpse her future husband.

"Before I marry a man, I'm going to see him." How picky of you, Sau Yee(Annie Liu On-Lai)!
Wan receives a challenge letter from Kang, which he sends back without a response, enfuriating young Chun, who prefers to settle all disputes with his fists and feet.Chun and Sau connect, despite the best efforts of each to remain unattached, and he playfully shows her the basis for his powerful Natural Fist style in the nearby forest through some impressive form work.Wan calls upon an old master, Chao Ming(Wong Chi-Ming, the film's fight choreographer) to instruct his son in countering the mysterious Horse Face Fist of Kang, but the stubborn Chun refuses to learn until the wily sifu bests him in a contest in a room full of antique valuables.Chao teaches him the basics of Northern and Southern Eagle Claw then prepares him for the circular attack patterns of Kang's technique using bricks and flour-dipped fists(!).Chun beats Kang's brothers one at a time, then cockily accepts his challenge letter, guaranteeing a victorious outcome.Ming mocks Kang throughout their final battle then dispatches him once and for all, returning glory to Wan's school and the Natural Fist style.

Don't mess with the Dohzan:Smell it...smell it...smell it...now take it.
Chong's always been one of my personal favorites, and tonight's review received regular screenings at my place through the years, despite the otherwise mediocre martial arts on display within, due to the enthusiastic superbly powered performance of its headliner.In days to come we'll be looking at more solid efforts from Eternal Films and Chong himself, so stay tuned for those, as always.On the scale Power rates two big ones, worth a look for those martial practicioners and enthusiasts who gaze upon Billy Chong with any sort of favour.Check it out.

As always, Chong's leg skills are second to none.

"Kung Fu Executioner"(1981)d/Lam Chin-Wai

We'll kick the night off here with a knock down, drag out slice of murderous martial mayhem from the Channel 5 days of mid-Saturday afternoon-in-the-eighties kung fu goodness.Now, some might be inclined to slag off the venerable Billy Chong as little more than Eternal Films copycat answer to Jacky Chan's worldwide breakout success at the time, and his earlier work in films like Crystal Fist/Jade Claw(1979) and Super Power(1980) might only reaffirm that notion for some, but personally, I've always felt Chong was a step above imitators or clones; a chiseled fighter brimming with screen presence and personality whose Tae Kwon Do-trained legs always stretched higher than most of his peers.Sadly for kung fu fanatics, he only managed to blaze through a handful of movies before dropping off the martial map, a direct result of Eternal's seeming inability to match their inexhaustible lead with a villain of near to or equal fighting skills(watch an early era Jacky Chan period piece to see what I'm talking about), causing them to close the distance during the final fight sequences in most of his work with more acrobatic stunt doubles for the antagonists, clumsily handled trick photography, or boosted film speeds.
Tonight's review, a period piece set in twenties Shanghai, reunites Chong with dynamite black-titioner Carl R. Scott, who he'd shared top billing with in the earlier American settler period-based Sun Dragon/A Hard Way to Die(1979).Executioner is a grimly disturbing pot boiler that borrows generously from Coppola's The Godfather(1972) with surprising levels of gore, sex, and mondo-style animal cruelty peppered in throughout the rare uncut Ocean Shores print, from which the scan of my custom cover(based on the Cantonese language print sleeve I scored in Chinatown all those years ago), as handled by the honorable Doctor-san, originates.A supporting cast headed by veteran belligerent bad guys extraordinaire Chan Sing and Chiang Tao keeps the derivative revenge-based tale flowing like sweet leaved tea.

Two times five across the eyes cuts Kuen Kong's(Billy Chong) opponents down to size.
Following an impressive form sequence by Scott and Chong over the credits featuring brick-breaking, escrima, nunchaku, and nine sectional steel whip kata, Li Kuen Kong(Billy Chong)returns to Shanghai from studies abroad to find his family immersed in a stand off with a gaggle of unscrupulous criminals,lead by ruthless murderer, Hung Chun Fai(Chen Sing) who's recently escaped from prison(and traveling on the same train as Li, who notices Hung's handcuff scars during the ride), over opium trafficking.Aiding Hung in pressuring Li's successful father into investing in the drugs, are Gawa Shima(Chiang Tao), a Japanese thug with an army of swordsmen at his disposal, and former brothel madam-turned-casino owner, venemous Chan Yim Hung(Lily Lan Yu-Li).At first, Kuen Wei does his best to keep his prodigal son from getting involved in the dirty dealings(several sneaky labonza shanks and throat slittings follow), preferring to allow Li to practice martial arts with his older brother, Ysun Nam(Chan Yau-San) and family friend, Donny(Carl R. Scott), but when Hung puts the squeeze on the elderly man, hanging Ysun Nam's dog's bloody, severed head from an awning(blech), and later botching Kuen Wei's public stabbing, the young martial artist is inevitably drawn into the mix.

The Godfather's severed horse head gets downsized in Asia.
With Kuen Wei hospitalized and Ysun Nam angrily locked away in a workout room after thugs kill his wife in their bed, Hung appeals to Li to sanction the business deal himself before more of his family meet their respective makers.Meanwhile, Chan uses Li's cousin, a degenerate gambler who's amassed large debts at the casino, to free Ysun Nam, who immediately rushes blindly to his wife's killers for vengeance.Hung and Shima oblige him by kicking his face through some plate glass.Meanwhile, Chan and Shima plan a side deal to become sole partners eliminating Hung in the process, which backfires when she tries to shank him after a graphic shower/sex scene.Hung repays her loyalty by cutting her throat.After Kuen Wei is finally dispatched while convalescing at home by Hung's signature sword-cane, Li and Donny leap into revenge-fueled retributive action at last.Hung's cabbie sporting blade man fights Donny at a paper mill, and ends up impaled through the chest on a spiked crane like a human log, ready for processing.Li digs into his suitcase full of weapons, taking on all of Shima's swordsmen in the forest with extendable nunchaku.He then squares off against Shima, kicking him into a bloody mess(cut from the television edit) when Hung arrives for the final showdown.A lengthy battle ensues with Li fending off Hung's cane sword with tonfa and nunchaku before both men square up for some good old fashioned hand to hand(foot to foot?).Li erases the criminal with a spinning double front kick to the throat that sends Hung flying backwards into a tree, smashing the back of his skull against the bark.Afterwards, Kuen Kong vows to pick up the pieces of his life with the help of his girlfriend and Donny.

Mr. Shima(Chiang Tao)'s facial forecast:Fully fucked
In some countries, tonight's review was confusingly packaged as a Carl Scott starring vehicle where he's referred to as "Black Jim".Though he enjoys several fights (excellently choreographed by Leung Siu-Chung) throughout the film, he's plainly on board in guest star capacity to Billy Chong's lead.Chong would follow this one up with the crazy Kung Fu Zombie(1981) and excellent Sun Chung collaboration A Fistful of Talons(1983) before retiring to his native Indonesia, where he married a pop star, fathered kids, starred in and directed a hit television series, and instructed martial arts to the country's military.Executioner is a solid effort, with some breathtaking fight choreography that Chong, who's always got a spot in my top 5, effortlessly executes as always.Three big ones.

I can't hear you, Hung(Chen Sing), you've got a flying side kick in your mouth.