Ma hei siu chi

Despite the fact that Circus Kid is probably the weakest film in Yuen Biao's absolutely brilliant filmography, this means that due to Yuen Biao's ridiculously brilliant high standards, this is still head and shoulders head of other martial arts films.

Directed by Wu Ma, who one year earlier directed Yuen Biao in the all-tome classic Kickboxer, makes the best of a relatively poor script written by `gweilo in exile' Bey Logan. This film also stars Donnie Yen, who thankfully has few scenes in this film as his acting is stilted to say the least, although he stars in some fantastic fight scenes.

The film focuses on a circus troupe who are bombed out by the Japanese (this film is set in the second world war). The troupe is headed by Wu Ma (who also directs), and features Yuen Biao as his apprentice. The troupe travel to Beijing and one of them gets a job in a factory, unknown to them, which sell opium. Donnie Yen plays a policeman.

This film has a pretty poor script, thanks to Bey Logan, who also fights Donnie Yen. Bey Logan is terrible and very slow against the very fast Donnie Yen. Some of the twists the plot takes are illogical and takes Yuen Biao, and all his might to redeem this feature in some pretty spectacular fight scenes.

Circus Kid also stars Lili Li, who makes a welcome comeback after Sang Kun's daughter in Young Master who fights Jackie Chan. (A piece of interesting trivia is that Yuen Biao played her brother in Young Master).

Despite being probably the weakest film on Yuen Biao's incredible filmography, it has some fantastic fight scenes, a fantastic performance by Yuen Biao (do you expect anything else?), competent enough direction by Wu Ma, and is head and shoulders better than other martial arts movies. So if you get the chance, don't miss it.

CIRCUS KIDS is an action-adventure film themed around circus entertainers - no surprise there - and directed by old-time star Wu Ma. It feels heavily indebted to DRUNKEN MASTER 2 in the mingling of big and little story, but it's noticeable low budget and hampered by pretty poor direction, particularly in the action sequences; too many heads are cut off and the like. It's a pity, as this makes up for with energy what it lacks in budget. Yuen Biao is always reliably good and well supported here by Wai Lam (in a serious role), Donnie Yen as an ass-kicking cop, and Ma himself. The villain duties go to Bey Logan and the great Ken Lo, who reprises certain elements of his DRUNKEN MASTER 2 role at the great climax.

This end fight is pretty decent despite the horrid camera work and the cranking speed of the film. I got bored of watching this movie at the start. Donnie can do a lot better and biao does save the film. Just fast forward to the last chapter and watch ken lo do some of his magnificent kicks like in drunken master 2. Biao does a lot of rope fights and well its worth a watch. The movie is about a circus and the acrobatics in it. There's a lot of child like scenes in the movie and its kinda a cross between jet lis enforcer and drunken master 2 yet not up to par with either movie... just scenes remind me of both. I was lucky enough to find this movie at walmart in the boxing day discount bin with high voltage so if you see it pick it up!

This is a film that almost makes it, but falls short due to some faults in direction and screenplay. Firstly, it must be said that the film starts off a little strangely, and has a mixed introduction between some brilliant, well, circus-routines, and almost hurried character introductions. It was a little hard to keep up with things to begin with. But, once the film settles, it goes about taking us along with a misfit group of circus performers, who, outside of the circus, fail to fit in smoothly with the rest of the population. These difficulties are compounded by the Japanese bombings during the second world war.

Yuen Biao, a trapeze artist within this group, is also an accomplished martial artist, and through various underworld dealings, he is forced to indulge in thee skills quite often. Unfortunately for him, Donnie Yen (the police superintendent) is quite often there to stop him. There are some nice mini action scenes between these two practitioners - you just need to be a little more patient than usual.

Wu Ma is the father figure, the ringleader of both the circus and the family group. His values are quite old-world, and he refuses to trade honour for pure survival - a scene where he forces the children to return stolen food is pivotal.

Although the film has a certain charm, there is a problem somewhere. I'm not sure if it's in the pacing of the scenes, or the attempt at resolving the many character ambitions, but, towards the end, a most of the detail has been lost, and we are faced with a pretty respectable string of action sequences. Yuen Biao is more of a brawler in this film, and his crisp clean kicks and flips are absent. In their place, there is more of a scrambling urgent style, (I think of some of the Dragonlord fighting when I remember this film). Donnie Yen seems criminally underused, and Bey Logan, the British writer/actor has a few scenes to show his physicality, and, he's not too bad.

The balance between the dramatic and action elements is a little uneven, and it seems that maybe too much was aimed for, the price being a drop in quality in all areas. However, do not think that this film is forgettable as it does do some things well. The set design, cinematography and performances are pretty solid. It's just a shame that there was less of a coherent culmination of the elements.