Invincible Kung Fu Legs (1980)

Invincible Kung Fu Legs (1980)
aka: The Leg Fighters
Chinese Title: 南北腿王
Translation: North and South Leg Kings

 

Cast: Dorian Tan Tao-Liang, Peng Kang, Hsia Kwan-Li, Wang Hsieh, Tsai Hung, Sun Jung-Chi, Shih Ting-Ken, Chin Lung
Director: Lee Tso-Nam
Action Director: Peng Kang

Anyone who has paid attention to my reviews (both long and micro) has probably caught on that I'm a fan of cinematic superkickers. It is true that some of my favorite martial arts actors can kick like the dickens, like Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee, Donnie Yen, Yukari Oshima, and Yuen Biao. Why I am like this? It's probably do that (admittedly) wrong notion that I've always had that you can gauge how physically talented a martial artist is by the types of kicks that he/she could do without wire assistance (Yeah, I know that sounds stupid, but I don't know how I can word it). I guess that anyone who watches a kung fu movie can imitate the handwork if they watch closely enough, but when you see Alexander Lo Rei perform a triple no-shadow kick that Jet Li has to use wires for, it becomes an object of fantasy and awe to us viewers.

The irony of this mode of thinking is that any martial artist will tell you that fancy kicking is one of the least practical things you can do in a real fight, unless your Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee. Most masters of different martial arts will tell you right off the bat that the only kicks that are effective in a real fight are kicks aimed at the groin, knees, or sweeps. Nonetheless, martial arts cinema has rarely followed this counsel, and thus people like John Liu, Ken Low, Yuen Jeung (the guy from Operation: Scorpio, and many others have built solid careers on flashy kicking. One of the original superkickers who had a career built around this was Tan Tao Liang.

Tan Tao Liang was a Korean-born tae kwon do stylist who was best known in his films for having a left leg that he could use with as much coordination and flexibilty as a third arm. Although he wasn't much for the aerial kicks, he could throw multiple high kicks, or combinations of kicks at various heights, without letting his foot touch the ground. The sad thing about his career is that he was quickly relegated to roles in low-budget Taiwanese movies and too many choreographers never knew how to milk his skills for all they were worth. On top of that, the truth was that Tan was never much more than his legs; he wasn't that good of a weapons user and his hand techniques were a bit weak. Furthermore, the man knew one style of acting: stoic hero, which really limited his roles. While his career was solid, his students, like John Liu and Yuen Biao, really had better careers and showcase films than he did.

The Leg Fighters was one of his later films, and probably one of his best overall films, period. The film was Taiwanese director Lee Tso Nam's attempt to make a kung fu comedy of the Seasonal formula: arrogant kung fu fighter resents new teacher, gets humiliated or loses a family member, trains more seriously, and then fights the bad guy. Here Tan plays the teacher, as playing the arrogant kung fu fighter would've been far past the man's acting range.

The movie begins with Master Tan (Tan Tao Liang) taking on the head of the Ground Kick school. Master Tan is able to beat him and, when the rival master tries to use treachery to win, Tan simply kills him. His brother (Peng Kong, Woman Avenger) swears revenge.

Meanwhile, a spoiled rich girl named Phoenix (Hsia Kwan Li, Woman Avenger) is training with what appears to be a sadistic kung fu master who's trying to force her legs into painful, but flexible positions. Her servant, Chin, tries to step in and help her by knifing the master to death, but gets humiliated and then beat up for his troubles. The next day, the master declares that he's leaving Phoenix's house to tend to his sick wife, and that he has asked for a friend of his to continue Phoenix's instruction.

That day, Phoenix and Chin are looking for an opportunity to show off their kung fu skills and see a group of men trying to rape a girl in public. A side note here, I would like to walk through a typical town in China during the 19th and early 20th century just to see how many people are randomly dueling in the street or dragging women off with the intent to rape. In these movies, it seems to happen every other day. Phoenix and Chin beat the guys up, but seem intent on killing them when Master Tan shows up and humiliates Phoenix, telling her that she's gone too far. Lo! and Behold! Master Tan is her new master and she immediately takes a disliking to him.

After your usual comic interludes of failed methods to get rid of Master Tan (including a weapons duel that Phoenix pointedly loses), Phoenix and Chin go to a restaurant where they run afoul of an arrogant kung fu master named Master Ding Dong (because he wears a bell on his person, honest!). Having beat him, Ding Dong goes for his colleague, Dong Dong (I swear I'm not making this up) and together they start getting the best of her. Only when Master Tan shows up and (if I heard correctly) suggests that Ding Dong and Dong Dong rape Phoenix that Phoenix agrees to take Master Tan as her master and Tan steps in and beats them up. After that, Phoenix begins her training.

Meanwhile, remember the guy who swore revenge at the beginning? Well, he has begun a campaign of death in order to find Tan's whereabouts. No sooner than he has found Tan, then Tan must make a decision whether to stay at the manor and risk the family's life, or take on the Master of the Ground Kick by himself.

Yeah, so there isn't a whole lot of difference between this film and Drunken Master or Hell's Wind Staff. Heck, even the laxative gag was taken from the latter film, made two years before. Kind of makes me wonder if the makers of Major Payne saw these films when they wrote that gag into the script. The only real difference between this film and the other kung fu comedies made from 1978 on is that main protagonist is a beatiful woman, and not a guy. Other than that, the film's emphasis on kicking techniques from practically all characters is also a bit different from most films of the era.

I guess I'm a bit stupid for complaining about the plot, but the truth is that it's not put together all that well. It takes far too long for Phoenix to accept Tan as her teacher and, when she finally begins her training, we're already in the last act of the film. The training sequences aren't all that memorable, either. In Drunken Master, the training portions of the film took up practically the entire middle portion of the film and were both interesting and funny, to boot. That's not so much the case, here.

Nonetheless, the saving grace of so many of these films is the action and action director Peng Kong does a fine job here. Tan Tao Liang looks as good as you could expect him to with some fine bootwork, especially the film's later fights. Hsia Kwan Li gets to perform some very flexible kicking and some solid weapons work (maces, pole, and sword). Peng Kong also looks great, performing a Ground Kick style that utilizes a lot of tumbling, somersaults, and kicks, in addition to some Southern Eagle that he calls the "Nine Birds Technique". Kudos goes to Peng for the fight between Tan and a chi kung/iron vest fighter, as Peng comes up with a very novel way for Tan to beat the guy without the usual one weak spot method.

I give this film a hearty recommendation for accomplishing what it sets out to do: show off lots of bootwork. Tan kicks great. Hsia Kwan Li is very beatiful and mixes some of Yukari's Oshima's flexibility with a happy, arrogant Polly Shang Kwan Ling Feng style of acting. Peng Kong is a solid villain and a good action director. The film isn't art, but the martial arts sequences are.