Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei Ying (2016)

Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei Ying (2016)
Chinese Title: 擎天無影腳黃麒英
Translation: Great Strength Shadowless Foot Wong Kei Ying

Starring: Sun Hao-Ran, Li Le-Tian, Yang Liao, Chen Zhi-Hui, Hou Xu, Xie Ning, Jiang Ming-Yang, Zhou Xiao-Fei, Yu Yan-Kai, Zhang He-Li
Director: Guo Jianyong
Action Director: Liu Chunlei
Executive Producer: Corey Yuen Kwai

 

Master of the Shadowless Kick is well-known among fans as being a production of HBO Asia--in conjunction with China Central Television (CCTV)--in an attempt to reach a greater number of Chinese viewers without having to worry about the censors or other laws that might otherwise limit its distribution in a country of 1.4 billion avid moviewatchers. Corey Yuen (Fong Sai Yuk; Yes, Madam!; Righting Wrongs) served as the film's executive producer, which helped garner interest among Western fans. Indeed, promotional posters for the movie's eventual release on iTunes reminded more experienced movie watchers of his involvement in Lethal Weapon 4 and X-Men, both made almost two decades before. While his work was relegated to overseeing the project as a whole and whatever else an executive producer does--beg the powers that be for more money, probably--his protégé Guo Jianyong (Corey Yuen's co-choreographer during the 2000s, working on films like So Close; The Twins Effect II; and the Red Cliff movies), took over the director's chair. The choreography duties this time were passed to newcomer Liu Chunlei, who also worked on this film's sister project, Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So. The question is, did this film give us a 90s throwback with killer, over-the-top action, or something more akin to a lower-budgeted Fearless?

Newcomer Sun Hao-Ran (Generals of the Yang Family parts 1 and 2) plays Wong Kei-Ying, a kindhearted physician working in Guangzhou circa 1855. He lives with this wife, Moon, and his young son, Wong Fei-Hung. Moon has some health problems, probably related to asthma, or is recovering from a bout with tuberculosis--the film never specifies. What we do know is that Wong is going to receive a visit from his kung fu teacher, Luk Ah-Choy (Yu Yan-Kai, who played the villainous martial arts teacher in Blade of Fury), and Moon needs to buy some food for the visit. Luk is stopped in town by a masked martial artist and a bunch of armed, ninja-esque guards. Moon stumbles onto to the fight and takes off running, with some assassins in hot pursuit. The strain is too much for her and she keels over dead, while Luk is defeated by the masked killer, who presumably works for the Qing government, and taken prisoner.

Some time later, the local governor Wei (Chen Zhihui of Fearless and White Vengeance) is up to his armpits in refugees from a neighboring province in the midst of a drought. The benevolent magistrate opens the food reserves for the people and even starts cracking down on the opium dens ran by criminal Ma Mo (Zhang Heli, looking like a Qing Dynasty member of the 80s rap group The Fat Boys). Ma Mo sends his lieutenants, Hung Sam (Ameera's Hou Xu) and Deadly Woman (Zhou Xiaofei, who played the Hsing-I master in Ip Man 4), to kill the governor and Wong Kei-Ying, who was present for one of the assassination attempts. The two team up to take down Ma Mo for good, but surprisingly enough, the British opium dealers are still hanging around Guangzhou afterward? What's going on? 

There's also a subplot about Wong Kei-Ying receiving a long-term visit from his sister-in-law, Snow, also known as Sap Saam Yee ("Thirteenth Aunt" or "Aunt Yee" to OUATIC fans). She doesn't contribute much other than to look pouty or overact as the scene requires. Indeed, her inclusion in the film is little more than "Well, she was in Once Upon a Time in China", of which this film visibly drew most of its inspiration. What's lacking is any dimension to her character, or even an attempt at creating a dichotomy between Wong Kei-Ying and the traditional ways, or Snow and her Western ways. She could be a hick girl from Hainan Island and the story wouldn't change a bit. There's also a subplot about Wong Kei-Ying trying to discover a natural remedy for opium addiction and getting himself addicted in the process. The scenes of him trying to kick the habit are reminiscent of the 1993 film Heroes Among Heroes, because of course they are. There's even a scene ripping off Once Upon a Time in China 3 in which a character is kicked out of his gang, but not before getting beaten and left for dead in the pouring rain, only for Wong to show up and rescue him.

I like the focus on Wong Kei-Ying as a character, as he's usually eclipsed by is more-famous son, Wong Fei-Hung. There are only two major productions about Wong Kei-Ying that I can remember, those being the fan favorite Iron Monkey and the TV series Fist of Power. Usually, he's just a supporting character in movies about his son. We do get to learn where he learned his kung fu and where the infamous Shadowless Kick came from. Sun Hao-Ran does an alright job as Kei-Ying, playing him with a reserved display of impeccable righteousness, even when his wife dies. He only starts displaying real emotion when he gets addicted to opium, and then he overdoes it a little. For the record, Wong Fei-Hung is only a child here and has little to contribute to the story other than to cry and whine and look scared. In any case, there isn't much to be expected from the acting here.

A derivative story, uninspired references to previous films and forgettable performances could be overlooked if the action was any good. It's not that great, if you ask me. One of the problems is that after the first half hour, the fighting practically ends until the final ten minutes or so. There's too much story, too many characters, too little character development and not enough kung fu goodness. The earlier fights are probably the best, even if they aren't particularly memorable. The first fight is between Luk Ah-Choy and the mysterious fighter. There's a neat move where Luk deflects a blow from a saber and makes the attacker cut off his own arm. He then takes the severed arm, still holding the saber, and stabs someone else with it. That's followed by big brawl between the Qing soldiers and Ma Mo's men, including Hung Sam, which is solid. Almost as good, but a little shorter, is a fight between General Wei, Wong Kei-Ying and Ma's assassins, who are armed with bows and arrows. Sadly, this group is being led by Deadly Woman, who established in the previous scene that she was a baguazhang expert. Sadly, she doesn't actually get to use that bagua, in that scene or in any other. Why establish that you have a secondary villain who knows a cool internal style and then not have her use it? Bad action direction, folks!

The big finale is a rip-off of both Once Upon a Time in China IV and Mahjong Dragon. Wong Kei-Ying must save his loved ones, who have been captured by the villains. First, he fights on a platform against a Thai boxer, not unlike Billy Chow in OUATIC 4. The rule is that if his arm or leg touches the ground, the bad guys will break a corresponding bone in one of the captives. He then faces off with Chinese fighter trained in European fencing, just like Chin Kar-Lok in OUATIC 4. The game here is that for every slash that Wong takes, the main villain will rip off an article of clothing from Aunt Yee. This two fights are probably the best fights in the movie, their derivative nature notwithstanding.

It comes to a head with a fight against the main villain. The movie betrays its own internal logic here: earlier, Luk Ah-Choy points out that the main villain's weak spot is his footwork, since he was trained in Southern Shaolin Boxing. So what happens when he squares off with Wong Kei-Ying? That's right, he pummels him with flashy Northern Wushu kicks. Bad action direction, folks! The fight then becomes a rip-off of the finale of Fong Sai Yuk 2, because of course it does, and ends with an "updated" CGI version of the Shadowless Kick that looks like a special movie from a Final Fantasy game. And thus ends a movie that reminds me of another Mainland rip-off film, Fist from Shaolin (1993), but without that movie's kick-ass wushu displays, leaving you with 80 minutes worth of reminders that you should be watching 90s movies instead.