Rating:

Aka: SECRET MASTER (wu tang collection title)

Stars: Leung Kar Yan, Yusuaki Kurata, Yuen Yat Chor, Phillip Kao

Director: Yuen Woo Ping

Fight Choreography: Yuen Clan

1980, Hong Kong, Seasonal Films

Huo Yuan Chia (Yuen Yat Chor) is forbidden to train his family style by his father (Phillip Kao) because he is too weak. Instead his father hires a teacher (Yasuaki Kurata) so he can study. But what he doesn't know is that the teacher is a master of Japanese martial arts and is after the Huo family style. He feels pity for Yuan Chia and teaches him some moves and encourages him to learn his family style by sneaking. Twelve years later now a formidable fighter Yuan Chia (now played by Leung Kar Yan) has to use his style when his father is sick and can't defend his school. Yuan Chia beats the challenger easily and rumours about his amazing skills spread throughout the country. New challengers arrive and are all beaten… One day a Japanese karate expert challenges him and is badly beaten. Insulted by the incident the Japanese send their best fighter, guess who!

 

Superb!!! This is one of the best kung fu films I've ever seen. This goes up among my five best films. It may not sound to great in my review but it really is something else. The story is great and it doesn't show the Japanese as evil bastards as other movies do. There's some comedy too but the story is more heroic than anything else.

It takes place in the time when China was invaded by foreign forces. Huo Yuan Chia (Fok Yun Gup in Cantonese) struggles from being treated disrespectfully to becoming China's hero and pride showing that anything is possible if you put your mind into it.

 

Leung Kar Yan has don it again. I mean this guy never stops to impress me. He is just great in every movie I've seen him in. He is so damn good with those southern hand moves, I guess he has a natural born gift. He looks heroic and respectable when he needs to.

The rest of the crew is also impressive especially Phillip Kao who looks so cool here. He does a lot of forms all great and his fighting is top notch too.

Kurata is great too by the way. He makes a great role here.

Yuen Cheung Yan appears in a scene as a funny smoking old guy and beats up Fong Hak On who plays a "gwailo" loving fool.

Yuen Woo Ping, some prise for him. He created classic after classic and most of the movies on my top ten list are films by him. I don't know why this classic didn't become as popular as "Drunken Master" and "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow".

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