Tiger and Crane Fists (1976)

Tiger and Crane Fists (1976)
Aka: Savage Killers
Chinese Title: 虎鶴雙形
Translation: Tiger and Crane Shapes

 

Starring: Jimmy Wang Yu, Lau Kar-Wing, Lung Fei, Tse Ling-Ling, Chen Hui-Lou, Ma Chi, Lei Jun, Hsieh Han
Director: Jimmy Wang Yu
Action Director: Lau Kar-Wing, Yen Shi-Kwan

 

I imagine that by the mid-1970s, Jimmy Wang Yu had figured out that what with the Chang Cheh's Shaolin cycle of films featuring handsome actors like Alexander Fu Sheng and Chi Kuan Chun performing the hung gar style front and center, that movies featuring him wildly flailing his arms at evil Japanese villains just weren't going to cut it with audiences anymore. His principle strategy seemed to be out-weirding his competition, with crazy films like Master of the Flying Guillotine and Return of the Chinese Boxer.

With this film, however, he seems to be making an earnest attempt to ride the hung gar train that was taking Chang Cheh and the Shaw Bros. studio to box office success. Here the film not only highlights the tiger and crane styles that compose the bulk of hung gar's techniques, but he even brought in Lau Kar-Wing, brother of Lau Kar-Leung and a solid filmmaker, action director, and actor in his own right, to be the action director and co-star. Nonetheless, the film still ends up being an average film that would've faded into obscurity had Steve Oedekerk not resurrected it as Kung Pow: Enter the Fist in 2001.

Many years ago, the tiger-crane style was the best in the land. However, in one generation, two students learned the tiger and crane styles separately, intent on combining their strengths after each student had mastered the technique. Unfortunately, the crane master decided to challenge the tiger master to a duel and lost. After that, the two masters broke up, never combining each other's technique like they had planned to.

At the beginning of the film, the Tiger Master is attacked and killed by Lu Tin-Chu (Lung Fei, who fought against Wang Yu in over 25 films during the 1970s). His student, Sing Chan (Jimmy Wang Yu, One-Armed Boxer) takes refuge at the crane school. The crane master orders his senior student, Lu Kang (Lau Kar-Wing, The Odd Couple) to learn the tiger style and teach the crane style to Sing Chan. He's a bit reluctant at first, but eventually gives in.

Meanwhile, Lu Tin-Chu is out making deals with the Japanese and trying to suppress the local kung fu masters. This brings him into conflict with the old crane master. Lu fights him twice and kills him with his trusty claws-on-a-chain weapon. Lu Kang seeks revenge and is killed for his troubles, too. Sing Chan is left alone (well, he does have Lu Kang's ex-girlfriend to take care of him and give him support) and must master the crane technique and find away to get to Lu Tin-Chu's weak points.

Strangely enough, the inclusion of a sub-plot involving the Japanese seems to be included only because it's not a Jimmy Wang Yu film if the Japanese aren't badmouthed in some way. I say that because no actual Japanese character appears in the film, and it has very little bearing on the rest of the events of the film. Beyond that, the film does very little to get out of the whole you-killed-my-master/colleague plot.

The action scenes are orchestrated by Lau Kar-Wing, a hung gar master, and they're not bad. Most of the fights are pretty short until the end. Jimmy Wang Yu doesn't look bad performing the tiger and crane styles (he is a bit hunchy when he does it, kind of giving away that he's not an actual martial artist) and has a rather ingenious way of getting past Lung Fei's claw weapon at the climax--he uses a string of firecrackers to wrap around the chain and then blow it to pieces. Most of the flailing in the film comes from a quartet of flunkies that follow Lung Fei around and beat people with the sticks they carry.

One of the more interesting bits of the film is that Lung Fei's weak points are a pair of metal spikes embeddened in his skin, which the characters desperately try to rip out. I was wondering what the point of that was, considering that it's a harder and more suspenseful fight when you don't know where the weak point is. But then, I guess even that cliché needed a bit of dressing up by that point.

To be perfectly honest, I've never seen Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, although I plan to in the near future. There's not a whole lot to recommend this film for, though fans of Jimmy Wang Yu or the Lau Clan may dig it. Other than that, the only real reason to see it is if you've seen the film it would become and want to compare the two.