Bo ming dan dao duo ming qiang

This movie portrays old rivals,played by Sammo Hung (King of the sword) and Lau Kar Wing (King of the spear) who meet every 10 years to find out whose weaponry skills are better.These duels always end up in a draw and as the two warriers are aging they decide to each take on a pupil so that the duel may continue. What makes this interesting is that Sammo plays Lau's student and Lau plays Sammo's student. Some amusing scenes eventuate. This from the video cover: "Skillful balletic duels between the sword and the spear rival even the best work of Jackie Chan and Liu Chia Liang in their intricacy" With these comments I would have to agree. However this film would have to be the silliest Sammo hung movie I have ever seen. There are some scenes which I don't feel contribute much at all to the overall plot. Having said that, The duels between the elderly Sammo Hung and the elderly Lau Kar Wing with their respective weapons are masterpieces. Their mastery of these weapons has to be seen to be believed. So too, the duels between the young Sammo with the spear and the young Lau with the sword as the students of the elderly masters just goes to prove how versatile and how skilled these men are. Towards the end of the film they unite to defeat a common foe in a brilliant fight sequence and then go on to fight each other to a draw just as their old sifu's had done in another incredible fight sequence so ultimately the riddle of whose weaponry is better goes unanswered. An unusual movie with some really silly scenes but a lot of great action.

I'm amazed this film isn't better known among kung-fu fans. I didn't get to see this film until recently, despite being a fan of Hong Kong fight films since 1972 (when KING BOXER (aka FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH in the US) was released in the UK - a movie that pre-dated the Bruce Lee craze by a couple of months.

As the 1970s wore on, I kept up with the kung-fu films, even after the first wave of "fans" moved onto the next craze. I saw DRUNKEN MASTER when it came out and thought Jackie Chan was great - and I even liked his fat pal Sammo. And while I also caught up with early Sammo classics like WARRIORS TWO and THE VICTIM, somehow Bo ming chan dao duo ming chuang managed to pass me by. And that's a real shame ...

Flash forward twenty-odd years and I'm helping out as technical consultant on the UK partwork mag "Hong Kong Legends" and I'm asked to analyse the action sequences for an old-school film called ODD COUPLE. I figure anything with Sammo in it has to be at least worth a look, but I wasn't prepared for the overall excellence of the martial arts skills on show here. The combination of Sammo and Leung Kar Yan is nothing short of electric and some of the kung-fu techniques they display are jaw-dropping. Especially worthy of note is the sequence where the Old Sammo and old Kar Yan are duelling and Sammo is one moment disarmed by Kar Yan's pole and the next has neatly recovered his sabre and carries on fighting. Bravo!

If you appreciate solid martial arts skills, you could do a lot worse than check out ODD COUPLE.

The combo of a youthful Sammo Hung and the legendary Liu Chia Liang's brother Liu Chia Yung is a perfect match here. While not as elaborate as the Liang's classic "Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu" the fights between Sammo Hung and director Yung are absolutely incredible.

The plot is simply this: Two old kung fu masters, the King of Swords and the King of Spears can't defeat each other after 15 years of annual fights to the death. They are also known as the Naughty Old Man and the Dirty Old Man. They decide to see who can train the best student and make them fight each other in ten years. Cut to ten years later, the students are sent out to find the other and fight but suddenly an old enemy of the two old masters reappears and captures the students. The old men must now rescue their students.

There's a lot of Chinese humor, some visual and some spoken which doesn't translate well. Many of the secondary characters are classic Chinese comedy characters and the humor is broad and exaggerated. There's a guy named "Potato" who's got buck teeth and the strangest hairdo or hairy moles on his head. Sammo and Yung are in great acting form here and both seem to be really enjoying their dual roles. They play the old men and the two students! Breezy and fun, the film should be very enjoyable for kung fu movie fans. Unusual for this type of movie the film doesn't immediately end after the bad guy is dealt with, it keeps going. Sammo and Yung have lots more energy to show.

A film that is here for unabashed kung fu talents to show themselves. Very well done and recommend for those who enjoy watching real physical talent on screen. And there's actually a moral to the story!

This one goes in my top ten kung fu movies as one of the silliest. the weapon fighting scenes are excellent. As with any good kung fu movie, it contains a lot of over-top-characters:

* The king of the spear * the king of the sword * The exthortionist at the market (what a moustache!) * The king of the spears' sidekick, Potato (with the funky ummm.. hair) * The king of the swords sidekick, the humpback * And last but not least: Mr. Rockin', who has his own theme music.

All in all, an excellent and very funny martial arts movie.

Amazing weapons choreography and a double dose of Sammo and Lau Kar Wing in dual roles! This is one of the finest weapons fighting films ever made!