Yi dan er li san gong fu

FISTS AND GUTS is a great little vehicle for action star Gordon Liu, just reaching fame thanks to his starring roles in the likes of THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN. It's a knockabout action comedy that has some of the grace and finesse of a rival Shaw Brothers product, even thought it was clearly made on the cheap. Liu plays an undercover monk (with a hat and long hair!) who's investigating the attempted theft of a Buddha statue and with the aid of a couple of goofy guys must seek to prevent an undercover bad guy from putting his plans into action.

The film features direction and action choreography from Liu Chia Yung, who also plays one of the accomplices. He delivers action in spaces and much of it is very good thanks to the talents of the main actors. Liu is on fire as a martial artist and he never disappoints here. My main surprise - and delight - was seeing an almost unrecognisable Lee Hoi San cast as one of the heroes for a change. This bald actor is usually the guest villain but here he plays a totally different buffoonish part - and he has hair too! - and nonetheless excels in the action stakes.

Lo Lieh is on hand and contributes one of his stock villain parts although he's sorely underutilised. FISTS AND GUTS follows the action comedy template well, building to a climax of sorts in which Liu enters one of those booby-trapped temples you always see in these films and has to contend with all manner of crazy and dangerous implements and rooms which are designed to skewer him. Music is ripped off from the PSYCHO soundtrack quite liberally. The ending of the film is brief but satisfying.

This is a superb kung-fu film, complete with some of the most incredible fight scenes ever filmed, with everything that makes a movie fun, illogical, and mind-blowing. Kung-fu lepers, a great Lo Lieh villain who can impersonate anyone using secret agent disguises, Gordon Liu as a good-natured hero with the wickedest moves you ever will see, a plot so wild and convoluted but infused with so much energy and enthusiasm that you couldn't care less. The comedy is genuinely funny, the fights harrowing, and all the actors dynamic.

The story involves a stranger, Liu, searching for a treasure stolen from him by Lo Lieh, a master of disguise. Liu meets two hard-headed criminal-types who agree to help Liu recover his treasure, in order to become wealthy men. Thus begins the three adventurers quest to find the invisible thief Lieh and the treasure. What ensues is a series of fantastic one-on-one conflicts between this thief and Liu, who turn out to be more than mere men, but representatives in a duel that has gone on hundreds of years before they were born.

Highlights abound, and in one of the many fabulous kung-fu conflicts, Liu and a masked assassin battle in a locked-room in which neither can make a noise without risking instant death. The scene is so well-edited and remarkably choreographed that it becomes otherworldly, with every savage blow and flawless technique, down to the stifling of pained exhalations, creating an unforgettable moment that makes you smile whenever you think about it.

This movie is undeniable, heartfelt enjoyment. A top-ten choice for any kung-fu movie fan trying to point out the best in the genre. Pure greatness.

FISTS AND GUTS (1980) is a vaguely comedic kung fu tale in the mode of such similar items as HE HAS NOTHING BUT KUNG FU, DIRTY HO, RETURN OF THE MASTER KILLER and MASTER OF DISASTER, all of which also starred Gordon Liu, as this film does, and two of which were also directed by Lau Kar Wing, brother of Lau Kar Leung (who directed the other two). However, FISTS AND GUTS isn't terribly funny and, despite four top-of-the-line kung fu performers, it's saddled with a plot that shrouds its main characters in such mystery that the viewer learns very little about them until the final scene. By that time, it's too late to supply the dramatic tension needed to make viewers care about what happens.

Gordon plays a mysterious traveler who enlists two hapless con men in a plan to get back what he claims are family heirlooms stolen by an errant housekeeper (Lo Lieh) operating in various disguises. The people he targets keep turning out to be the wrong ones. The con men (Lau Kar Wing and Lee Hoi San) are first seen participating in a ridiculously dangerous con game, in which Lau takes the place of a prisoner on death row and gets `killed' in their place, surviving the firing squad thanks to hidden metal sheets which block the bullets. He then collects money from the real inmate's family. How the real inmate gets out of the prison is never explained. None of this makes any sense. That the two grifters agree so readily to help Gordon in exchange for a cut of the treasure is increasingly hard to accept as Gordon keeps making mistakes and the venture proves increasingly unprofitable.

The final bout between Gordon and Lo Lieh includes a belated revelation of the actual cause of their dispute. Until then, the fight scenes are all somewhat gimmicky and more stunt- and prop-oriented than actual combat. The scenes would be much more clever if the characters made sense and the story had some urgency. Instead it all gets tiresome quickly. The poor English dubbing doesn't help. It's a poor use of four superb actor-fighters and an inadequate showcase of Lau's otherwise expert directing skills, as seen in HE HAS NOTHING BUT KUNG FU and ODD COUPLE.

The movie opens with Gordon Liu getting on a train. He looks at sketches of men. He goes to an inn and asks about escort services. Cut to prisoners working on the railroad. An imposter sneaks in, replaces a victim in an execution, a metal plate protects him. He does this for pay from the family. Gordon wants to meet this con man.

Lau Brother Co. (L&B) and made 1978 Dirty Kung Fu, 1979 Fists and Guts, 1980 Carry On Wise Guy and 1980 The Fool Escape. I have never been able to find a copy of "The Fool Escape" and suspect it was never finished or never released. The important thing here is that we are talking about the Grandmaster of All Martial Arts Movies, Lau Kar-Leung (aka Liu Chia-Liang) and his look-alike except for the mole over the right eye brother Lau Kar-Wing. There are some excellent moments of fight choreography to be found in this movie. Otherwise, the story line is vague and the scenes just incidents strung together. More fights would have improved it. Also deleting the "leprosy kung fu" fight would be better.

My copy is a digital file made from the old Ocean Shores 1984 VHS tape. It has the expected screen size, resolution, and English dubbing. Overall, I rate it only average and suitable only for hard core fans of the genre.

The action is fairly standard, not super, not bad, definitely watchable. The broad plot is a standard one, involving finding stolen goods. However the details of the plot wander around the movie, mostly as vehicles for showing some action scene. They have the required comedic characters, as well as the Shaolin monk whose kung fu is so good that he can beat people with one hand tied behind his back. Overall it is a decent flick, although it doesn't have the attention grabbing action that usually makes these movies so memorable. The shots are fairly long, so at least you know that the action scenes are "real". The fighting style is not quite the "punch-pause" style, but it definitely isn't Jackie Chan speed.

Still, a fun and watchable "Samurai Sunday" style movie.