Challenge of the Masters (1976)

I enjoy this movie because while the fight scenes are incredible to watch, it also emphasizes the value Kung Fu brings to the individual. Kung Fu is not just a skill used in movies to exact revenge upon those who have done you, your family, community, country, etc wrong. It is an internal skill promoting self awareness, peace and co-existence with the world around you. Having all 3 Laus in one movie is quite a treat. Leung, Wing and Gordon feed well off each other. The battle between Wing and Leung is the best fight of the whole movie imho. It ends as as expected in these movies - Leung's character getting the upper hand despite the Wing's skillfulness.Wong Fei Hung (Gordon Liu) wants to learn Kung Fu but is denied by his father, who feels Wong doesn't "have the knack" for it. Officer Yuan Ching (wing) sees the potential in Wong Fei and wants him to pursue Kung Fu studies. Lu Ah Tsai (Chen Kuan Tai) agrees to take Wong Fei on as a student, despite Wong Fei's father's apprehension.Wong Fei an Lu Ah Tsai are gone for almost the usual 3 years to study Wushu. Wong Fei wants to avenge Officer Ching's death, but stops short of killing Ho Fu (Leung) because Tsai's lessons of true Kung Fu avail in time. Ho Fu is instead taken to the local magistrate to stand trial for his many crimes, including killing Ching.Wong Fei's return home coincides with the local annual Lion Dance competition/Festival. Something in which his father's school hasn't participated in for years due to a fighting incident with another local school (the evil one, of course).Master Pang (Shut Chung-Tin) is less than thrilled with Wong fei's return and devises a devious way to ensure Wang Fei and his classmates don't win anything at the festival. The plan seems to be working, until Wang Fei remembers Tsai's teachings and does as his sifu instructed, helps his fellow man by giving one of Pang's students, Yeung Chung (Fung Hak-On), a firecracker so Pang's school also wins the competition. I was waiting for Yeung Chung to continue on the "evil student" line once he received the firecracker. However, his human side appears and he celebrates the gift by demanding his school stop fighting with Wong Fei's school. Both schools celebrate as a whole.I know revenge is usually the way to go with 98% of Wushu. However, I enjoy a movie that teaches a stronger lesson like this one does. I highly recommend this film not only for the moral, but to see the Laus working together.

During the mid 1970s, famed Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh and equally famed Shaw Brothers action choreographer Liu Chia-Liang had an unspecified falling out which meant they would never work together again. The good news for genre fans is that both Cheh and Liu went their own way making rival products during the latter part of that decade which turned out to be among their very best work. While Cheh concentrated on the Venoms and heroic bloodshed cinema, Liu went for more classical martial artists like Gordon Liu and delivered films all about technique.CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS is such a film. While it's not as profound as MARTIAL CLUB, later made by the same team, it's still a solid watch and a must for fans of the star or director. What I enjoyed about this film is the plotting, which is more intricate than expected and gives the major stars different roles to the norm. The most standard of the bunch is Gordon Liu himself, who undergoes the usual gruelling training regime found in most of his films from the era, although the twist is that he's playing Wong Fei-hung himself.Liu Chia-Liang plays in support as a bandit expert, kind of like the role he played in DRUNKEN MASTER II but with a much darker edge. His fight scenes are invariably the highlights of the picture. In a star-studded picture, we also get Wong Yue in support as well as Lily Li and even Chen Kuan Tai, playing something other than the usual stock hero or villain he essayed. Liu Chia-Liang gets to battle his own brother at one point and it's another hit. The episodic nature of the production takes in rival school material, some comedy, some lion dance episodes, and a moralistic ending that I enjoyed. Regular screen thugs Chiang Tao and Fung Hark-On have a good double act. There are even bit parts for the likes of Yuen Biao, Eric Tsang, and Lam Ching-Ying if you can spot them.

I consider Liu Chia Liang (Lau Kar-Leung) the most important person in the history of martial arts movies. I call him the Grandmaster. No man can better tell any story about Wong Fei-Hung. Liu Chia-Liang learned martial arts from his father, a student of Lam Sai-Wing, who was a student of Wong Fei-Hung himself. Liu Chia-Liang honed his skills as stunt man and then action choreographer beginning in 1953 with the Wong Fei-Hung series of movies starring Kwan Tak-Hing. His personal golden age of directing martial arts movies began in 1975 with "The Spiritual Boxer." His other movies "Challenge of the Masters", "Executioners from Shaolin", "Heroes of the East", "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin", "Dirty Ho", "My Young Auntie", and "Legendary Weapons of China" are among the top ten martial arts movies of all time. I am often asked "What was the best martial arts movie ever?" and my subjective answer has been "Legendary Weapons of China". I am also often asked "What was the best fight scene ever?" Like the other question this is really impossible to answer. It is totally subjective and how does one even define the qualities that make the best fight scene ever? Yet, I can tell you this with no doubt, on May 7, 1976 (the release date of "Challenge of the Masters") the best fight scene ever filmed as of that day was the fight scene in that movie with Liu Chia-Liang against his brother Lau Kar-Wing. The runner –up would be his fight against Gordon Liu in the same movie.

This is the "other" Wong Fei Hung coming-of-age film that 'fu film fans rave about whenever the subject of Jackie Chan's far more famous "Drunken Master" comes up. And there's good reason for the raving. Director Liu set out to make a film about the discipline of kung fu, not a "fight film." There's action aplenty here, don't worry about that; but it is significant that there is only one death in the whole film, and this brought about by a gimmick rather than skill. Liu successfully makes the case that kung fu is a matter of self-discipline, requiring prolonged and constant study, and not a weapon for beating people up (although of course it can do that too).The acting is excellent, the production values high, the script solid. Finally, it must be remarked that this film is considerably more true to the memory of the real Wong Fei Hung than Jackie Chan's. Definitely a classic of its genre.