Ru lai shen zhang

Young Chien-Fei Lung is a terrible fighter, until he stumbles upon Ku Han-Hun, the Flaming Cloud Devil, who takes him under his wing and teaches him the eight movements of Buddha's Palm, one of the most powerful martial arts in the world. But Ku is blind and so Chien-Fei sets out to find the one item that can cure him; in addition, he's looking for Ku's rivals from 20 years earlier, including Pi-Ku, Sun Pi-Ling, Heavenly Foot and Liu Piao-Piao, all of whom have secret weapons and skills of their own, not to mention convoluted relationships and shifting allegiances. Can Chien-Fei use his powers for good, or will he be destroyed by all these martial arts masters?

I can't actually give a synopsis of this film, it's so completely wacky and ludicrous! It may help to know it's from the famous Shaw Brothers, whose martial arts films were so over the top that the only way to view them is to just forget about logic and go with the flow. This film is no exception - it's a wild mix of martial arts, "Star Wars" style light sabers, maniacal laughter and very strange special effects. Often one can tell if a character is a bad guy by his maniacal laugh, but most of the male characters in this film have maniacal laughs at one point or another, so that's no help. A lovely thing in these movies is that there are female martial arts masters as well as male, although for some reason the women are only allowed to learn four of the eight movements of Buddha's Palm, a restriction that is never explained. But there you have it, there's no point to expecting explanations (or logic or to some degree even continuity) with the Shaw Brothers, just go with the flow and enjoy it on its own very silly merits.

BUDDHA'S PALM (1982) is a wild kung fu fantasy filled with elaborate special effects that deals with clan rivalries among extravagantly costumed groups with names like Dark Moon Clan, Ten Thousand Swords and Heavenly Fragrance Cult. It's filled with superheroic characters, including one named Flaming Cloud Devil, who've mastered various degrees of the Buddha's Palm technique, which gives them the power to emit energy blasts from their palms to ward off such super-powerful opponents as Foot Monster, whose foot grows huge and extends out from his body by several dozen yards in order to kick or stomp an adversary.

Based on a popular Hong Kong comic book (which had been adapted before, as a series of films, in 1964), the film owes more than a little to Chor Yuen's alternate swordplay universe, as dramatized in such films as KILLER CLANS, THE MAGIC BLADE and CLANS OF INTRIGUE, as well as to earlier "wu xia" swordplay films of the 1960s (TWIN SWORDS, COME DRINK WITH ME). More importantly, it looks forward to the "wire fu" fantasy films of the 1990s (most notably THE MAGIC CRANE and KUNG FU CULT MASTER) and seems to have particularly influenced Tsui Hark, who made his first big splash a year after BUDDHA'S PALM with ZU WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (1983), another magical swordplay epic filled with wire-fu and enhanced effects, but with more of a mystical flavor than this film.

Directed by Taylor Wong, BUDDHA'S PALM does offer, in many ways, a more polished style of filmmaking than the Tsui Hark movies, which got by on a kind of raw, manic energy that carried the often crude effects on display. BUDDHA'S PALM was shot entirely on lavish Shaw Bros. studio sets and boasts a stunning array of attractive costumes and decorous period props. The camerawork is stunning and includes some moves that are quite ahead of their time. The special effects are generally achieved through optical lab work as opposed to the CGI which would be used today. The effects may call attention to themselves more, but they have a bold, graphic quality that befits their comic book origins. When the characters emit animated energy blasts (or energy rings) from their hands, they look exactly like comic book superheroes conjuring up astounding inner powers. The one effect that may give picky viewers pause is the man-sized flying dog-like reptile, Dameng, who is Flaming Cloud Devil's pet and helper. The creature is played by a man in a floppy suit who is onscreen in the frame in real time with the other actors. However, the character is much cuter this way and much more effective in eliciting believable reactions from the other actors than if they'd used more expensive, but more distancing, effects (e.g. stop-motion animation or animatronics). Overall, the style of effects chosen is much more appropriate to the high-pitched fantastic tone of the film than the CGI used in more recent comic book-based films such as THE STORM RIDERS (1998).

The film boasts an extremely lively cast of kung fu players, topped by Derek Yee (DEATH DUEL), who stars as Long Jianfei, a hapless villager who attacks his former girlfriend's powerful fiance (Ku Kuan Chung) and is rescued from certain death by Buddha's Palm master Flaming Cloud Devil (Alex Man), who teaches him the eight strokes of the Buddha's Palm. There are five important women characters, all of whom participate fully in the action alongside the men. Kara Hui Ying Hung plays Yujuan, one of the two sisters who become Yee's companions for much of the action. (The other is played by Candy Yu.) Kara is well-known to kung fu fans for her fighting roles in such Lau Kar Leung-directed films as MAD MONKEY KUNG FU, MY YOUNG AUNTIE, LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF KUNG FU and INVINCIBLE POLE FIGHTER. She wants to learn Buddha's Palm also, but faces a "qi" ceiling when she is told by the "Sifu" (master), "Only four strokes for girls." Also on hand are two kung fu icons, Lo Lieh (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH), as eccentric old master "Bi Gu of East Island," as he loudly announces, to great comic effect, every time he enters the scene, and Shih Kien (ENTER THE DRAGON), as Heavenly Foot (or "Foot Monster"), who leads the Ten Thousand Swords Clan and has the foot that can extend across a palace room.

BUDDHA'S PALM moves at such a frantic pace that one can easily forget the lack of a clearly-defined plot. The narrative plays as if it started long before the movie opens and will continue long after it ends. There are at least eight major characters and the film has to keep them all in play while pouring on special effects shots in practically every scene. While there is little in the way of authentic martial arts in the film, the supernatural combat on display clearly requires some level of skill on the part of the performers.

The film is among the new Shaw Bros. releases newly remastered (by Celestial Pictures) and made available in beautifully transferred widescreen DVD editions. The original language track, in Cantonese, with removable English subtitles, is supplemented by an alternate track in Mandarin. For this reviewer, this film makes it to the top of the list of Shaw Bros. rediscoveries made possible by these new releases, shooting just past the Chor Yuen films (MAGIC BLADE, et al).

This is maybe one of the fastest paced, most incoherent movies I've ever seen. Every five minutes feels like you walked into the middle of a different movie. There are SO many characters and SO much plot all compressed into some very small spaces that at some point you just have to smile and nod, like, yeah sure, the dragon's egg, it cures any illness and only appears once every century, and it'll appear tomorrow, of course.

Eventually threads of a plot do gradually emerge, but it's always slathered in this hyperactive editing style. The dub doesn't help matters either, with stilted dialog and strange performances. You'd almost be forgiven thinking this movie was supposed to be a comedy with how weird and over the top it is.

The sort of movie where 90 minutes feels like an eternity because everything is constantly happening all the time. It's honestly kind of exhausting. A fun, strange ride I'll probably only ever take once.

Towards the end of the Shaw film studio's days, they decided to pull out the stops and make their films as wild as possible. Full of gaudy lighting and crazy animated effects. Mainstay director Yuen Chor didn't do so well at this time as his films became studies in excess instead of entertainment. The Shaw's brought in some new directors and so Taylor Wong is here directing his second feature.

The plot, if it can be called that, revolves around a jilted lover who falls from a cliff while being beaten by his girlfriend's husband to be. He is caught by Dameng, a sort of flying Dog Dragon, and brought to the Old Devil, a master of the Buddha Palm. Of course he learns the Palm and gets involved with the Old Devil's past. The Old Devil has a number of enemies.

Where other Shaw films in this vein are rather stilted and old fashioned, this film is full of energy and inventive camera work. There are a number of camera moves that didn't become popular until the late 1990's. The lighting is frequently garish but done with some artistic restraint. The fight choreography is absolutely bizarre but it's well filmed and works because of it. Other films like this usually have lots of confusing movement that is only effective because it passes so quickly. Everything is very fake but that shouldn't dissuade you from enjoying it. There are two narrators who make comments from time to time. The narrator's comments make it clear that the film-makers didn't take any of this seriously.

Probably one of the best films in this genre. Recommended.

I remember I was a little boy whose even cannot read the subtitle or understand what the actors spoke when the first time I watched ‘Buddha's Palm'. But the impression I have that this is really an entertaining flick and I love it instantaneous. It fulfilled my child fantasy. The second view to me was when I'm a junior high school student in a matinee show. Once again I stunned by it charm, and I can appreciate it with more mature value. Now, thanks for the nice effort from Celestial Pictures, I can collect this as my own private home collection.

Buddha's Palm combines fantasy and Wu Xia blatantly and with it many colorful characters and novel plot it became one of the classic. Taylor Wong, as the director successfully made it with old school ambience and new wave influence altogether. See it for your self if you claim you're self as a Wu Xia fans. Maybe, the fantasy will disturb you if you seek for the plain Wu Xia plot, but in my opinion the fantasy element doesn't spoil the whole film's structure, instead make it more glorious. The year that the film made (1982) doesn't effected the up-to-date feel for a fantasy or Wu Xia film. Yes, you still can enjoy this even you now the F/X are dated. Buddha's Palm also featuring many Shaw Brothers beloved actors like Derek Yee, Kara Hui, Alex Man, Goo Goon Chung and many others. Their performance is over the top.

The only thing bothers me that Buddha's Palm got many character but doesn't build them well. It seem that the fast pace have make them to appears instantly. But, except that, I think this is a superb film that should be appreciated not only for the Wu Xia or fantasy fans.

8/10