Some facts about Challenge of The Masters:
- Lau Kar-Fai (Gordon Liu) plays Wong Fei-Hung
- One of the climactic battles is with his adopted brother, Lau Kar Leung
- Lau Kar Leung also direct the film
So yeah, Challenge of the Masters is pretty good.
It’s not perfect. I was restless for about the first 40 minutes and there’s not much story to be found, but the positive bits are really a lot of fun. There are two killer “dramatic” fights (ones that drive the meager plot) and a great training sequence tossed in for good measure. Watching Lau Kar-Fai, as Wong Fei-Hung, going through his normal training arc (zero to hero in 30 short minutes!) complete with perfectly timed helpings of “On the General’s Orders” was especially enjoyable for me. It’s like everything I like about martial arts movies distilled into one sequence.
And, yes, if you were wondering I have been binging a little bit on Hong Kong movies this year. I’m hoping to once again do 50-60 HK movies this year. There are a ton of Shaw Brothers movies I’ve never seen (or have never seen in any quality) and there’s probably three years worth of new stuff that I haven’t seen so I should be busy.
Good times.
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