Lei tai

Although it carries a run-of-the-mill plot, with the Japanese occupying China and a band of rebels standing up against them, The Big Fight, from directors Sung Ting Mei (The Traitorous, The Silver Spear) and Sun Sheng Yuan (Immortal Warriors), in what would be their directorial début, is still a pretty exciting wee film!

With decent performances from all, The Big Fight is a pretty serious affair focusing on a tournament organised by the Japanese in a bid to kill or cripple the Chinese fighters. He film has plenty of fight scenes courtesy of Chen Chin, and features some great battles including that with weapons, mixing in judo, sumo and karate with the kung-fu, that come fast and often.

It also features a pretty decent cast with Tin Peng, from A Touch Of Zen, Dragon Gate Inn, and 18 Bronzemen, as the leading-man, with Cheung Ching Ching of Fearless Fighters & One Armed Swordswoman fame, by his side. Plenty of faces from Taiwanese classic kung-fu films help fill it out such as Cheng Fu Hung (Fearless Hyena), Choi Wang (Beach Of The War Gods), and Jack Long (7 Grandmasters) to name but a few...

The Big Fight won't ever go down as a classic or come up in any fans top-ten, but it sure is far from terrible and clears its 90 minute running time at a great pace. Although there are plenty of fights throughout, the last 40 minutes is just non-stop with many highlights leading up to the all-out frantic finale, which is brilliant!

Think of it like an early 70's Ip Man without the gloss and star-power.

Overall: Has most likely slipped under the radar of most kung-fu film fans, but The Big Fight is certainly worth the watch!

The Japanese have taken over China (well, this part of China at least) and are throwing their weight about the place, making the locals none too happy (except for the locals who side with them). It's up to our hero and his female sidekick and their teacher, and some other guys (one of which is a young man in an old man mask - don't ask) to sort them out.

However, the Japenese ain't daft and set up a fighting tournament so that their best guys can waste any good fighters in town, therefore eliminating any threats to them. So you get kung fu versus karate, sumo and judo, which isn't something you encounter often in martial arse films.

There's not much story but plenty of fighting, and a good few mega-massacres to keep you going. Our hero is also a bit handy with a sword so that gets the bodies piling right up too. Very violent, even for a kung fu film.

There's never a dull minute in this one and it was a nice surprise for me to pull a film out at random and have it turn out to be this good.

This film is set during the Japanese occupation of China circa WWII. In it, the Japanese occupiers (and the Chinese Quislings who work for them) are portrayed as total monsters who kill children and rape all women. The heroes are resistance fighters who oppose the occupation.

My transfer of this film is not of very good quality, and the pan and scan is terrible, cutting out a lot of the action. The dubbing, however, is better tan most films of this type.

The acting and character development are remarkably good, despite the dubbing. The fight scenes are well done, and feature some interesting weapons work (in one scene, the female lead uses a cloak lined with sharp discs as a weapon). The tournament that fills the last 30 minutes of the film has some interesting contrasts in styles, pitting Chinese Boxers against judo, karate, and sumo stylists.

All in all, this is a passable feature, and will please fans of the genre, especially if your copy is of better quality than mine.

Set during World War II in Japanese occupied China, a group of resistance fighters hit back at the invading oppressors and their Chinese collaborators.

This is another in the long line of martial arts action movies that came out of south-east Asia in the 70's. There is nothing truthfully especially good about this one and it follows the well-worn formula of good guys against evil rulers. If there was one angle that this one had that was a little distinctive though, it is the fact that it features a fighting competition which is set up by the Japanese with nefarious motives in mind, where various characters combat each other using different martial arts styles. To that end we have judo, karate, sumo and kung-fu all used against each other. Look out too for another common feature of this sub-genre where we have bits of famous music from big American films simply spliced into the flow. In this case it was the remarkably unsuitable pioneering synth music from A Clockwork Orange (1971) that finds itself scoring a bit of the action.

Given that this is dubbed and contains a number of stereotypes in it, this isn't a bad plot. I would have rated it a bit higher if the political incorrectness wasn't so obvious, with no comment on whether it is realistic or not.

The dubbing is fairly well done and is not terribly noticeable. Lots of fight scenes and other than being rather one sided in the outcome, the choreography is fairly realistic. Weapons include a scale mail cloak, Japanese and Chinese swords, knives and bayonets on rifles in addition to numerous makeshift items.

Fighters include Japanese specialists in judo, karate and sumo fighting local champions. Character development is reasonable and the invaders are put to rout. No real comic relief anywhere in this movie. Abrupt ending in the cut I saw.