Rating:

Aka: STRIKE OF MANTIS FIST

Stars: Ting Hwa Chung, Lung Fei, Kam Yi Fei

Director: Cheung Kit

197?, Hong Kong

A young man named Hsiao Hai (Ting Hwa Chung) is servant under Master Lu (Lung Fei) who saved him from a life as an orphan. Hai gets bullied by Lu's other men but soon gains a liking from the master himself. He soon gets special teaching in Chicken Fist from Lu who now sees him as his favourite.

As time passes Hai's proficiency in the art grows as well as him getting a higher status in work. After helping a girl, Shao Hua, and her father whom both are Mantis Fist experts he learns from them that his master is not the man he thought.

 

No matter how familiar this may sound this movie pulls off its own qualities. Although not a masterpiece this entertaining movie is worth a look from any old school fan. It barely gets a 3, but with a very low budget and not too good actors it still is pretty entertaining and the kung fu is up to a 4 so it can more than puff up a rainy evening. The forms performed are great and I think they are real kung fu forms and no made up stuff. It also has a couple of entertaining training scenes. The downside of it is the sometimes silly comedy and the bad acting from some of the stars, I mean some are very bad. Some of the stars are pretty bad fighters too, there's a big fat guy whom I've seen in some movies but I really don't know why people put him in their movies cause he looks overweight and untrained and isn't a good actor either. I guess he had a lot of contacts.

The dubbing is bad too but with time, as a kung fu fan, you learn to not let it ruin your viewing plesure, just don't let it bother you.

 

Ting Hwa Chung is not much of an actor but he gets to strut his stuff and he's an entertaining stylist.

The co-starring girl just amazed me in her first fight. You can really see she has trained kung fu in real life and really controls the art. Her forms are nice too.

Lung Fei kicks ass! His Chicken fist is very impressive and his forms are great. He and that girl really stand above the rest of the cast.

The old Mantis man (Kam Yi Fei?) was pretty sharp too. Was he the Mantis stylist in "7 Grandmasters"?

The impressive end fight features two against one Mantis and Chicken Fist.

What more can I say, have a chicken and enjoy!

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