Miracle Fighters (1982)

Miracle Fighters (1982)
Chinese Title: 奇門遁甲
Translation: Odd School of Dunjia

 

Starring: Yuen Yat-Choh, Leung Kar-Yan, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung, Eddy Ko Hung, Yuen Shun-Yi, Huang Ha, Tino Wong Cheung
Director: Yuen Woo-Ping
Action Director: Yuen Clan

This film is the first in a series of four (five if you count Drunken Tai Chi) film directed by, choreographed by, and starring members of the Yuen Clan. By the Yuen Clan, I mean the sons of Simon Yuen, who are among the greatest action directors in world cinema. They are Yuen Woo Ping, Yuen Cheung Yan, Yuen Shun-Yi, Yuen Yat-Chor, and Brandy Yuen. Now, what separates these four films from most everything else they did is that the films revolve not around kung fu (although there is a good helping of it), but Taoist sorcery. Thus, here we have one of those films that mixes comedy, magic, and expertly-done martial arts in entertaining proportions.

The movie starts off with Kao (Eddie Ko, Hitman in the Hand of Buddha), the Emperor's martial arts trainer, being condemned for marrying a Han (Chinese) woman. After his wife his executed, he goes on the warpath and starts killing the emperor's guard, and is ready to kill the emperor. However, the court's sorceror, Sorceror Bat (Yuen Shun-Yi, Dance of the Drunk Mantis), shows up and flees with his majesty, leaving Kao to fight a white-faced kid in a jar armed with a paper sword. Surviving that fight, Kao takes the Emperor's young son hostage and is able to escape. Unfortunately, he squeezes the young prince to tightly and suffocates him. Kao finds an orphan and raises him as if he were the prince.

Some years later, Kao is a drunk living in poverty with Shu Gun (Yuen Yat-Chor, In the Line of Duty IV), the kid he adopted. Kao is finally discovered by the Court's assassins, who try to kill him and bring Shu Gun back to the palace. They fail, but Kao is blinded in the process. Shu Gun goes looking for medicine and finds it at the house of two quarreling magicians, a brother (Leung Kar-Yan, My Life is on the Line) and a sister (Yuen Cheung-Yan, choreographer of Charlie's Angels and Daredevil). The brother gives Shu Gun the medicine and tells him to return if he should ever need it.

Shu Gun restores Kao's sight, but the Sorceror Bat soon shows up and kills Kao. Discovering that Shu isn't the prince, the Sorceror Bat uses his black magic to put the birth marks of the prince on his foot, in order to return him to the Court and get promoted, so that he may take over the world (if he's such a master sorceror, why doesn't he just murder everybody in the court and take the place over?). Shu is able to escape and makes his way back to the house of the two magicians, where he's accepted as their younger brother, and thus begins to learn kung fu and magic with them...

Yeah, that accounts for a little more than half the film, and only a little bit of the craziness on display. This is one of those films that you want to describe more as a list of crazy things, rather than put it into paragraphs. As a film, you want to criticize the fact that in the last reel, the Sorceror Bat seems to abandon his plan of using the fake prince to get power and is more intent on beating Shu Gun at the wizardry competition. You want to complain that there isn't more kung fu on display. The fact of the matter is, there's so much weird stuff to see that you can't help but be entertained by it all.

Let's see, we have a ghost-in-a-jar with a paper sword. There's a fight gag where the brother magician retracts his head into his body and a hand with an eye in the middle appears where his head should be. There's the sister magician and her HUGE FRIGGIN' AXE. There's the Blair Witch kung fu stick man at the film's climax. There's a paper bridge over a snake pit that Shu Gun has to cross. There's a lot more where that came from.

The martial arts is restricted to the opening fights between Eddie Ko and the emperor's guard and the final duel between Shu Gun and the Sorceror bat. The choreography is as solid as anything else that bears the Yuen Clan seal and even as early as 1982, you can see their natural talent for enchancing action with wires in a way that makes things creative, but without substituting actual talent. Pity there wasn't more.

I think I like Shaolin Drunkard better, with its crazy ring fu, kung fu frog, and bamboo tank...but I enjoyed this one a bit and even laughed out a loud a few times. For those of you who need a good WTF injection, go with this film.