Hao xiao zi di xia yi zhao

I wasn't too sure what to expect before watching this. Then again, never judge a movie by its cover or title.

It's a tale of revenge with non stop kung fu action. The actor who plays the son looks like the real deal and his martial arts are displayed throughout. Great kicks!! That goes the same with most of the actors which made it more authentic. The sidekick who provides comedy relief even kicks butt! There are many different fighting styles and the way the hero learns them adds some interesting twists. Plus, the villain is a REALLY bad guy who doesn't spout corny lines, but rather prefers to kill. This film is dark and has a somber ending. One of my new favorite kung fu flicks.

Two questions are common to the story of many martial arts movies. First, if you can kill a guy after demanding his kung fu manual is the manual really worth anything? Second, when will Chinese women learn that the only thing the men in these movies enjoy more than a good fight is a good after fight rape? So that's the opening sequence and the rest of the story is about John Liu getting revenge for mom's rape.

It's good to get that out of the way because this movie is really all about the fights. The fights are frequent and fabulous. There is also an unusual twist. In the martial arts world there is an unwritten rule that the student must be devoted to his first master and never learn from anyone else. That rule is stupid in reality and John Liu kicks it right out the window in this movie. Is there anything he doesn't kick in this movie? Nothing that I noticed. I counted a sequence where he lifted his leg and did sixteen kicks before putting it back down.

Overall I rate this movie above average for the year and genre and consider it mandatory viewing for fans of martial arts movies of the golden age 1967 to 1984.

Twenty years after the death of his parents, a kung fu master sets out to avenge their deaths. Disguising his identity, he pretends to have no knowledge of the martial arts, but the dangers on his journey keep forcing him to demonstrate his fighting skills.

John Liu displays his outstanding kicking in this decent, yet standard Kung fu revenge tale that is bolstered by some good characters, a comic sidekick who is helpful for once, a nasty villain and a refreshing idea of the hero learning from more than one Kung fu teacher. The second half is better than the meandering the first half - the comedy is quite good, but of course it's the fights that dominates with great skill.

This is a later kung fu movie in the career of the stupendously talented star shining actor John Liu. Unfortunately the plot is incredibly weak, involving Johns mission to seek out and be trained by various Kung fu masters to avenge the death of his parents. Original! Along the way he picks up an acrobatic sidekick and encounters many masters. Of course the superb action compensates for the plot, with loads of fights showing off Johns bootwork mastery, especially the training sequence involving another superkicker. Plus the final fight includes one of the finest use of a crash zoom I've ever seen! If your a kung fu movie fan check it out, ya probably shouldn't if not.

Usually bad dubbing is the sign of a bad movie. I'm looking at you Netflix originals but perhaps it's nostalgia because I saw this movie originally back in 2001 or 2002 but it really did add to the movies charm especially with the little guy with the really annoying voice over dubbing guy. MASTER MASTER! I have drilled in my head now. I have seen this movie at least 3-5 times and I still have no idea what any of their names are.

There are times the fighting in this comes off as almost interpretive dance or borderline break dancing. You hear this thud almost every time someone blocks or takes a hit. However no one would ever fight like that in real life. What surprised me was John Liu was in a movie I saw recently called "New York Ninja".

The theme to the movie is composed surprisingly well to the point it could be a ring tone or something. There's a very minimal amount of story, one you've heard a hundred times but somehow it works.

I'd love to know what movie they used for the North American movies cover where one man is choking the other with his leg. I even tried reverse image searching it and nothing.