Huo Yuan-Jia

Kurata Yasuaki made quite a good living in Hong Kong, playing one Japanese bad-guy after another. He even played a Chinese bad-guy on occasion, as in Prodigal Boxer (the Meng Fe film). The only time in the '70s when I can remember him playing a good-guy was in a Japanese film, the Sue Shiomi film Dragon Princess.

As any one should know, who has seen the Jet Li remake of Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection, Fist of Legend (wherein Kurata plays an aging karate master), Kurata's acting ability is really quite broad and quite strong. that he got himself lost in Hong Kong type-cast as a villain is therefore a little disheartening.

At any rate, his performance in this film is really top-notch; and despite his being Japanese - and a spy - and despite his confrontation with the hero at the end, he actually plays a decent guy! His character - marvelously complex for this genre - someone we find easy to like - so that when the bad things start to happen, we feel as upset and confused as the young hero.

This is not one of those all-good or all-evil morality plays we often see in old-school chop-socky films. although this film technically still belongs to that tradition, the audience - as with the hero himself - is caught in a terrible grey zone where one must destroy those one loves, for the sake of a better future for all; and where one's heroes can prove nastier than one's enemies.

I should also remark that this appears to me to a quasi-autobiographical film for director Yuen Woo Ping - This isn't so far-fetched - the Yuen family is among the most respected for having produced martial arts instructors and Chinese opera performers -arts that involve considerable - and frequently harsh - disciplinary training.

At any rate, whatever the source, the writing of the film makes this one of the strongest of its genre and of its period.

I had high expectations for "Huo Yuan-Jia" due to the high rating here. I even had the luck to find an original Chinese language version so I was excited. The first portion of the film is very good, with the drama of the story unfolding, along with well-choreographed training sequences and intelligent, interesting dialogue between the central characters. An interesting story was unfolding. Sadly, before the halfway mark, the whole thing literally falls apart, eviscerated by some of the most ridiculous and embarrassing slapstick comedy. Out of nowhere came the guy with the rabbit teeth and painted on freckles and the circus sideshow began. Frustrating and so disappointing, as "Legend of A Fighter" had so much potential to be a great film of the genre. An opportunity to tell a great, serious story based on fact, was passed up for juvenile toilet humor. And it's not like I have no tolerance for humor in these movies; if it is done right it can be great fun. One example is "Mad Monkey Kung Fu," which is hysterical, mostly because the comedic elements were handled competently. But here it's just stupid. Another thing that sinks the production is it's lackluster sets and cinematography. Typically films of this genre are packed with eye popping colors and sets that are fascinating to look at at, but this one is very bland. Some good fight choreography is all this one has to offer, and it isn't enough to save it.

LEGEND OF A FIGHTER (1982) is a superb kung fu film directed by Yuen Wo Ping, famous these days for his fight choreography for THE MATRIX and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. It has a clever plot based on the turn-of-the-century Chinese martial artist Huo Yuan Chia (Fok Yuen Gap in Cantonese). Young Huo secretly learns kung fu from a Japanese tutor who has his own hidden agenda, which is to learn Chinese martial arts by secretly watching Huo's father, who has forbidden his son to study the art. The tutor ingeniously incorporates the training into Huo's book learning, e.g. using kung fu moves in the art of calligraphy. Years later, after Huo has grown to manhood and become an expert martial artist, his tutor comes back into his life through a twist of fate which dictates that Huo face him, not as a student, but as an opponent. It all leads to a heart-wrenching ending.

Leung Kar Yan, a mainstay of Hong Kong kung fu films, plays Huo as a grown man. Yasuaki Kurata, a Japanese performer who made many Hong Kong films (and appears as the Japanese master who fights Jet Li in the countryside in FIST OF LEGEND), plays the Japanese tutor. Yuen Yat Chor plays young Huo and several members of the Yuen clan are involved in the fight scenes. Overall, it's a film boasting excellent martial arts sequences, good acting, lots of welcome humor, and a bit of historical detail. This is arguably the best of Yuen Wo Ping's early work (1978-82), a period which includes such formidable titles as THE BUDDHIST FIST, THE MIRACLE FIGHTERS and two early Jackie Chan hits, SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW and DRUNKEN MASTER. (Warning: the English-dubbed soundtrack on my VHS copy of LEGEND has more hardcore profanity on it than any kung fu movie I've ever seen.)

ADDENDUM (Nov. 16, 2007): I watched LEGEND OF A FIGHTER again to prepare me for FEARLESS, a 2006 film starring Jet Li as the same historical figure, Huo Yuan Chia, who is the subject of LEGEND. The big difference between the two films is that LEGEND spends a good portion on the boyhood and training of young Huo, while FEARLESS is more about his late adult life. The adult version of the character doesn't even appear in LEGEND until about halfway through the film, thus giving a greater sense of the boy's burning desire to learn kung fu and how much he worked and struggled to achieve his skill level and status. We appreciate his later victories all the more because we see how much he earned them. In FEARLESS, less than ten minutes is devoted to the character's boyhood and training. Before the movie's 15-minute mark, we already see Jet Li emerge as the grown-up, full-fledged wushu champ of Tianjin. Also, the character of the Japanese tutor, so significant in LEGEND, is completely absent from FEARLESS.

The fight scenes in LEGEND display the simple, direct approach of old-school fight filming--put the camera in place with a wide enough angle to show all the action and let the actors do their stuff. Unfortunately, the fights in FEARLESS are marred by signs of too much computer manipulation--sudden slowing down or speeding up, apparently done during the editing process rather than in the camera. There's also more wire work than I'm comfortable with and way too many pointless overhead shots. Yuen Wo Ping, the director of LEGEND, choreographed the fight scenes in FEARLESS, which came 24 years later, but he clearly had more control in the earlier film.

Legend of a Fighter is one of the extremely few totally engaging and at the same time totally realistic kung fu movies. Nobody becomes a master overnight; oh no, the movie jumps ahead 12 years to show that it damn well takes time to master a decent kung fu style!

The fight scenes are nothing less than stupendous. This is old school wireless fighting at its best, helmed by Hong Kong's premiere martial arts choreographer, not to mention the stellar fighting skills of the great Ka-Yan Leung.

The story is also good, although the end, with the entire national honor of China at stake, perhaps stretches credibility a bit. But the yarn is structured very well, so the audience is engaging their emotions in the story, right up to the end.

If you're looking for a really good, classic kung fu movie with lots of action and lots of intensity, you can't do much better than this.

My rating: 9 out of 10.

Out of all the movies by Yuen Wo Ping, this is probably his best work. The movie goes beyond the normal routine of private feuds and senseless fights to reflect on the strong nationalistic pride before the Japanese occupation of World War 2 and the pride of a pugilist.

It also tells us how even someone who is weak and bullied can one day rise and become someone great if the spirit is willing. This is a very complex movie with many themes and invokes great respect for the main martial artists in the movie, not because they are great fighters -- but because they have great spirit behind their martial arts. A movie of inspiration, and of great nationalistic pride. This is a movie I continually watched to remind me of how even the weak can someday rise beyond that. One of my favourite movies even up to today, it has themes that will resonate throughout the ages. A+