Le Héros magnifique

I really like this movie for a number of reasons. Way back in my early teens this was the first time I found the legend that it Samo Hung, and his magnificent brand of kung fu comedy. This film holds up well today probably because of the stellar crew behind the scenes including the legend Woo-Ping Yuen. Hung here plays Butcher Wing' the apprentice in a dojo who constantly finds himself caught up in mischief. Wing gets caught up in a series of events that conspire to make him enemy no.1 and lead to some truly amazing fight sequences that truly have to be seen to be believed. Where this film is a departure from the traditional historic kung fu movie is there are no grand themes or sense of the epic just a nice tight small story and some incredible scenes all laced with some incredible physicality both of the violent and comedic nature. A true kung fu classic. Enjoy it again and again.

Without the aid of their buddy Jackie Chan, the icons of Hong Kong cinema demonstrates that kung fu comedy exists before and after Jackie appeared on the scene. Magnificent Butcher is one of the many examples of great Kung Fu minus the action superstar, the story follows many strands of the Kung Fu genre with masters and schools coming against eachother, complete with climactic battles and a heavy dose of boys own humour that is the template of this succesful era of kung fu. What makes this one of the greats is its simple charm, Yuen Woo Ping breathes so much life into this movie by treating the audience to a feast of distintly Hong Kong movie ideas.

Only in Hong Kong action could their contain a scene whereby a characters uses the infamous farting technique to shame his opponent, or a blind begger mistakes a water vase being held by Samo as a toilet, and in the same movie contain an attempted rape, knives being plunged into the stomachs and the lead actor smashing his enemies head with a pray stone in extra slow-mo. Only in Hong Kong would a director attempt to gel these distinctly contrasting scenes and attempt to convey a cohesive story. And in Magnificent Butcher we have something close to success, as Samo effectively conveys emotions of comedy and extreme outrage in the blink of an eye. What is strange is how quickly these charaters forget their injustices and gripes which eventually lead to the climactic fight sequence where everything ends in triumpth, as we the viewer dispel with the plot and relish the movies subsequent closing. Magnificent Butcher, or Lin shi rong, is part of the era of Hong Kong movie making whereby anything that makes the audience laugh and cry for its duration was deemed a success, as the emphasis of movies made in this era was fun twinned with an element of truth, and this calloboration between Yuen Woo Ping and Samo sets the precedent for nearly everything that has been great about Hong Kong cinema ever since.

Kung fu comedy at its most shameless, an undeniable classic for fans of Hong Kong cinema.

The best place to start signing the praises of this truly "magnificent" film is to look at the names of all those involved with the movie. A venerable who's who of Kun Fu movies past and present rounds out this film.

The film is directed by Yuen Woo Ping, who would later become the master of fight scenes in such movies as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Once Upon a Time in China series, Kung Fu Hustle, oh and he also directed some great films such as this film and The Buddhist Fist.

The film's screenplay is by Wong Jing, who's notorious for his hit or miss HK films. The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk and Meltdown stand out in my mind as his best films, and from the humor shown throughout this movie it's obvious that Wong Jing had a hand in it, he is definitely "on" in this movie.

The Magnificent Butcher stars Sammo Hung, who unless you were living under a rock in the 1970s and 1980s you should know as one of the more competent kung fu movie stars of his era. Sammo plays the title character "Butcher Wing" (Lam Sai-Wing) one of the more notable of the real life disciples of Kung Fu hero, patriot, and Chinese healer Wong Fe-Hung. Butcher Wing getting his niickname as he was a butcher by trade in his day job, which often leads to many funny butcher jargon jokes during kung fu scenes in movies in which Buther Wing is a character. While not as funny as some of the double entendre fight dialouge in Once Upon a Time in China 5, there is a humorous scene in Magnificent Butcher where Sammo gets a lesson in cooking, mistakenly thinking he's getting a kung fu lesson. Sammo holds his own as Butcher Wing he has the build and demeanor for the part, and quite honestly as this is the only movie I know of featuring Butcher Wing as the main character, Sammo Hung as a big name actor was a good choice for the Role.

Tak-Hing Kwan makes a brief but memorable appearance in his typical role at the time of Master Wong Fei-Hung. This was THE guy, this is who Chinese movie-goers associated as Wong Fei-Hung before Jet Li revived the role in the Once Upon a Time in China series. Tak-Hing Kwan plays and older, queue-less Wong Fei-Hung, but a Wong Fei-Hung who is still a master physician and martial artist nonetheless. Yes this is the movie with the famous scene of Wong Fei-Hung demonstrating calligraphy as a self defense technique. The movie is worth seeing for this scene alone, even if you're not a fan of Sammo Hung you will get a kick out of Tak-Hing Kwan's defensive calligraphy style.

Yuen Biao is also in this gem of a film, one I highly recommend seeing if only to see what Wong Fei-Hung films were like prior to Jet Li. The 1970s and 80s were filled with low budget pure crap films, and rest assured this film is not one of them. This is a rare gem from that era, one that any kung fu fanatic must see.

Bravo, 20th Century Fox, for giving this movie a DVD release in North America! And not only with a gorgeous-looking print, but with the option of watching in the original Cantonese with subtitles, unlike other American distributors (coughcoughmiramaxslashdimensioncoughcough).

I hadn't heard of this particular Sammo Hung movie until tonight, when I spotted it at the video store. I took a chance, and I'm really glad to have done it! Completely entertaining, and never dull for a minute. The fights are "old school", but they are still pretty swift, and the various acrobatics and moves are absolutely amazing. Plenty of comedy as well, pretty low-brow slapstick for the most part, but won't help but bring a smile to your lips several times.

Now, as others have said before, there are some brutal and deadly serious moments, and they will seem out of place to most westerners. But from what I've seen from other Hong Kong movies, this kind of thing isn't that unusual. At the very least, such moments like this just further the ways as to how this movie will be unique to anyone raised on western filmmaking.

Don't think this is the cheap kind of martial arts movie you see on Kung Fu Theater or on public domain video labels - give it a try. You won't be disappointed.

This has everything you want from a classic kung fu film - lots of superbly choreographed action, plenty of cheesy but fun humour, and even a reasonable plot, which actually gets quite nasty at times. The fighting really is the main reason to see it though, it really is something to behold. Plenty of somersaulting, using props, and crazy moves with ridiculous names, theres even a bit of weapon fighting too. The film never gets the coverage or respect it deserves unfortunately, but if you read this, I hope it will move you to watch it, love it, and tell all your friends. Trust me, if you're into old style kung-fu along similar lines to Drunken Master, you're in for a treat.