Xue zhi huan

Inspired from the Bruce Lee movies such as Big Boss and Fist Of Fury, this hidden gem is the first Singapore martial art movie starring Peter Chong as the hero Fei Pah. Despite all the ambition this movie was forbidden to be released and didn't viewed until the successful site YouTube released it and after two weeks it got 50 000 views.

Fei Pah works at a restaurant that owes money to the crime boss known as the Iron Mask, after a few punches he still refuse to pay them then he get his house burned and some casualties involves. Fei Pah get instructed of Martial Art by his uncle and learn to fight. Years goes by and Fei Pah is united with his family but the rivalry with the iron mask still continues, now Fei Pah will go on a personal vendetta.

If one is a true Bruce Lee fan then this is a must to see, unlike the Hong kongers this Singapore movie try not to copy Bruce Lee too much and is its own movie and also follow a true Bruce Lee movie style. Peter Chong is charming and a great actor choice for this character. 10/10 this movie is must to see.

His Singaporean martial arts film (apparently the first one up to that point) was banned upon completion, apparently because the government was trying to clean up the country's image and found the organized-crime story hook offensive. Otherwise, it's a pretty mild film that surely wouldn't have run into censorship trouble anywhere else. Star Peter Chong (who preserved the only existing print in his refrigerator all these years until its recent restoration) plays a humble noodle seller who refuses to pay "protection" money to thugs in the employ of a mysterious masked mastermind in an underground lair. But they rough him up repeatedly, and when his blind mother dies as a result of an arson fire, he goes off to gain fighting skills in order to combat them. Cue training montage, followed by climactic faceoffs.

It's a very simple, artless, crudely written but watchable film padded out with irrelevant scenes at a zoo and a silly underwater sequence. While the widescreen photography and library-sounding soundtrack are conventionally polished enough to put this on the technical-adequacy level of a lesser Hong Kong action movie of the era, the fighting and stuntwork are aren't terribly impressive. By far the most entertaining material is at the villain "Iron Mask's" hideout-these scenes have a somewhat surreal flavor reminiscent of Mexican Santo movies and 1960s superspy cheapies, with the occasional psychedelic touch. The climax is also fairly fun, with some good outdoor location choices.

Anyway, the curious will probably find it worth checking out as a long-lost historical oddity, but without the novelty of its particular backstory, there would be nothing much here of interest. The restoration is very good (in the print I saw, there's an intro showing you the pinked-out, wobbly original print it was restored from), but the color is still pretty faded.