Bo ming dan dao duo ming qiang

Creativity seldom describes movies from the golden age of martial arts movies from 1967 to 1984. This movie starts with a plot used many times before in which two masters settle a grudge by training students for a challenge fight.

Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-Yan both play younger versions of each other in the same time frame. That was brilliant and never done before. The movie is also a parody of all martial arts movies and of Peking opera too. Almost every added character adds a twist to the story. These movies also have a reputation for filming without as much as a script and making it all up as you go. To produce this movie required fine details and precise scheduling because the two leads had two different characters to play. I have been watching these movies in chronological order to determine some "Best" and "First" moments. As of the release of this movie I rate it the most creative so far.

None of this would matter if the fights were just average. The fights were some of the best of 1979 and likely also some of the best fights ever. The spear versus sword idea worked fabulously. Many other weapons were also used including improvising props for weapons. At first I rated this movie 9/10 but then I noticed something in comparison to the other great movies of 1979. I deducted a point because in this movie they forgot that women can fight. My other top movies for 1979, though male dominated, also had at least one excellent fight with a female.

My copy is wide screen and typical DVD resolution. There are English subtitles and dubbing. I recommend playing both because it's amusing how the spoken and written words rarely match. I rate this 8 of 10 and highly recommend it for all fans of the genre.

Amazing weapons choreography and a double dose of Sammo and Lau Kar Wing in dual roles! This is one of the finest weapons fighting films ever made!

The combo of a youthful Sammo Hung and the legendary Liu Chia Liang's brother Liu Chia Yung is a perfect match here. While not as elaborate as the Liang's classic "Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu" the fights between Sammo Hung and director Yung are absolutely incredible.

The plot is simply this: Two old kung fu masters, the King of Swords and the King of Spears can't defeat each other after 15 years of annual fights to the death. They are also known as the Naughty Old Man and the Dirty Old Man. They decide to see who can train the best student and make them fight each other in ten years. Cut to ten years later, the students are sent out to find the other and fight but suddenly an old enemy of the two old masters reappears and captures the students. The old men must now rescue their students.

There's a lot of Chinese humor, some visual and some spoken which doesn't translate well. Many of the secondary characters are classic Chinese comedy characters and the humor is broad and exaggerated. There's a guy named "Potato" who's got buck teeth and the strangest hairdo or hairy moles on his head. Sammo and Yung are in great acting form here and both seem to be really enjoying their dual roles. They play the old men and the two students! Breezy and fun, the film should be very enjoyable for kung fu movie fans. Unusual for this type of movie the film doesn't immediately end after the bad guy is dealt with, it keeps going. Sammo and Yung have lots more energy to show.

A film that is here for unabashed kung fu talents to show themselves. Very well done and recommend for those who enjoy watching real physical talent on screen. And there's actually a moral to the story!

This one goes in my top ten kung fu movies as one of the silliest. the weapon fighting scenes are excellent. As with any good kung fu movie, it contains a lot of over-top-characters:

* The king of the spear * the king of the sword * The exthortionist at the market (what a moustache!) * The king of the spears' sidekick, Potato (with the funky ummm.. hair) * The king of the swords sidekick, the humpback * And last but not least: Mr. Rockin', who has his own theme music.

All in all, an excellent and very funny martial arts movie.

I'm amazed this film isn't better known among kung-fu fans. I didn't get to see this film until recently, despite being a fan of Hong Kong fight films since 1972 (when KING BOXER (aka FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH in the US) was released in the UK - a movie that pre-dated the Bruce Lee craze by a couple of months.

As the 1970s wore on, I kept up with the kung-fu films, even after the first wave of "fans" moved onto the next craze. I saw DRUNKEN MASTER when it came out and thought Jackie Chan was great - and I even liked his fat pal Sammo. And while I also caught up with early Sammo classics like WARRIORS TWO and THE VICTIM, somehow Bo ming chan dao duo ming chuang managed to pass me by. And that's a real shame ...

Flash forward twenty-odd years and I'm helping out as technical consultant on the UK partwork mag "Hong Kong Legends" and I'm asked to analyse the action sequences for an old-school film called ODD COUPLE. I figure anything with Sammo in it has to be at least worth a look, but I wasn't prepared for the overall excellence of the martial arts skills on show here. The combination of Sammo and Leung Kar Yan is nothing short of electric and some of the kung-fu techniques they display are jaw-dropping. Especially worthy of note is the sequence where the Old Sammo and old Kar Yan are duelling and Sammo is one moment disarmed by Kar Yan's pole and the next has neatly recovered his sabre and carries on fighting. Bravo!

If you appreciate solid martial arts skills, you could do a lot worse than check out ODD COUPLE.