Gong fu lian meng

Kung Fu League is a quirky Hong Kong action-comedy movie that goes back to the genre's golden era in the late eighties and early nineties. You will only fully appreciate this film if you are familiar with those movies as the four characters from the past who help the protagonist are obviously inspired by historical figures but also popular movies such as the Once Upon a Time in China and Ip Man franchises.

The story itself is rather nonsensical. A shy comic book artist has a romantic interest in a cute colleague and former school pal but their head manager also has an eye on her and humiliates the artist quite often. The depressed protagonist summons four legendary martial arts masters from his stories to help him. They arrive in present-day Hong Kong and are quite confused by contemporary customs. Upon meeting the shy artist, they want to help him participate in a martial arts tournament to face off against his bully and impress his love interest. The bully however has no intention to give his opponent a chance and turns out being even nastier than expected as he attempts to reach his goals by any means necessary. Things also start getting complicated among the four martial arts masters as three of them have a relationship with the same woman while the other one is an untalented impostor.

This movie convinces with excellent situation comedy and numerous quirky allusions to Hong Kong cinema classics. The fight sequences are intriguing and especially the final duels are truly intense. The clumsy protagonist and his innocent love interest are sympathetic and it's easy to root for them to get together.

On the negative side, the movie overuses special effects from time to time which gets particularly obvious in the final duels. A more natural approach to those scenes would have made them even more energetic. Not all the slapstick jokes work particularly well as some scenes are rather silly but the film's steady pace makes you forget those minor inconveniences rather quickly.

Invite your friends, switch your brain off and enjoy this nostalgic but energetic Hong Kong action-comedy movie to the fullest. It might not win any awards for creativity but it's thoroughly entertaining. Kung Fu League is a feast for genre fans and much better than its negative reputation.

I respect the cast members like Vincent Zhao, Andy On and Dennis To because they're legit martial arts practitioners but this movie is laughably bad. They wasted the martial arts potential of the cast. This movie almost makes a mockery out of kung fu heroes. There is a romance between the main character and this girl in which I didn't care about, there was barely any chemistry. The fight scenes are corny. So scenes were so corny that I laughed out loud.

I really enjoyed this. It was very silly and delightful. I enjoyed the romance and the over the top slapstick fighting

I particularly enjoyed the 13th Aunt.

"Kung Fu League" (aka "Gong fu lian meng") was a movie that I didn't even know about before now late in 2019. I was given the chance, and of course I did take it as I enjoy Asian cinema.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this movie, but I was convinced that it would be a martial arts movie. I hadn't expected it to also be a funny movie, so it was a nice experience to sit down and watch the movie.

Sure, the storyline wasn't all that impressive, but still it was entertaining enough, and the fact that the comedy, the acting performances and the martial arts helped lift up the movie definitely made it all the more enjoyable to watch.

The movie is over-the-top, so you shouldn't sit down and watch this movie with an intention of watching a realistic martial arts movie - but then again, how many realistic martial arts movies make it out of the Chinese cinema?

What worked well in the movie, for me at least, was the acting performances by the good ensemble of casted actors and actresses that they had managed to get together for the movie. That and also the comedy elements that the movie had to it.

My rating of "Kung Fu League" is six out of ten stars.

A film that brings together four legendary kung fu figures ever lived. The comedy and actions remind us of 90s hongkong action movies , so that who are not used to it will hate this film