The Magic Beggar (1987)

The Magic Beggar (1987)
Aka: Beggar Prodigy; The Godly Beggar
Chinese Title: 神丐
Translation: God Beggar

 

Starring: Wang Qun, Xu Yuan-Guo, Chen Yong-Xia, Woo Ying-Kit, Zhang Bin, Wang Li-Qun, Yang Jun-Liang, Yin Tie-Guang, Zhang Xiang-Wu, Li Xi-Da, Ma Ming
Director: Gao Tian-Hong, Wang Feng-Kui
Action Director: Chen Xiao-Wang, Wang Qun

 

Another day, another obscure kung fu movie from Mainland China to review. I have two or three more on the list before I go back to watching some movies that I have had in my collection for a long time now. I was interested in this one because of a review that gave it a perfect five out of five score on account of its martial arts content…yeah.

Like Disciples of Shaolin Temple, the version I saw didn’t have any subtitles. As this one emphasized the drama a lot more than the action, it was hard to follow what was going on. I do know that it tells the story of the creator of Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. Nonetheless, we’ll take a look at some of my observations regarding the film.

·        Wandering fighter goes into town

·        Challenges cocky guy to fight. Gets beat down by dude’s tai chi.

·        Wanderer (Yang) tries to study Tai Chi with dude’s master; but is refused.

·        Wanderer starts wandering around and finds a kung fu school.

·        Wanderer leaves kung fu school after master gets arm cut off by rival.

·        Wanderer becomes a beggar and returns to the town of the tai chi master.

·        Meanwhile, tai chi master and his daughter get into a bunch of fights with rival schools or something.

·        Three fights involving the girl, who uses the tai chi sword technique, occur in the first half of the movie. Those are the best fights, even though they are “not bad” at best.

·         Attempts to use wires are pretty clumsy.

·         In the second half, not much happens. Beggar Yang ends up becoming a servant at the Tai Chi master’s house for some time. After a while, he finally is allowed to learn tai chi.

The movie ends with a fight scene that comes across as being tacked on. Some random guy that the Master’s daughter had maimed in the first half randomly appears dressed as a Shaolin monk wanting revenge. Yang takes the dude on and beats him in like one minute. The end. There’s no build-up, no tension, nothing. It’s as if there had been so little fighting in the second half that the filmmakers felt that they had to put in at least something. A disappointment.