The King Boxer (2000)

The King Boxer (2000)
Chinese Title: 天下無敵掌門人
Translation: Invincible Head of the World

 

Starring: Chin Ka-Lok, May Kwong Man-Chun, Kiki Sheung Tin-Ngo, Eddy Ko Hung, Billy Chow Bei-Lei, Chun Yu Shan Shan
Director: Benny Ng Shiu-Hung
Action Director: Douglas Kung Cheung-tak

 

In some ways, I feel bad for Chin Ka-Lok. He never quite got his due praise for all of his skills and talents. Starting off his career for Sammo Hung’s Stuntman Association, we see him in supporting roles as early as 1985—he plays one of Jackie Chan’s SWAT buddies in Heart of Dragon. His relationship with Jackie Chan would lead him to be Chan’s occasional kicking double whenever the choreography called for something out of Chan’s skill set. He got his chance to really show his stuff onscreen in Mr. Vampire 4. Sadly, despite numerous attempts to be the Next Jackie Chan (Nite Life Hero; Little Hero on the Run) and the Next Jet Li (Martial Arts Master Wong Fei Hung; The Green Hornet), he failed at all attempts to become bankable lead actor.

Chin seemed to accept his lot in life and by 2002, was focusing his efforts mainly behind the camera (although he gets some good supporting roles here and there). He quickly rose to become one of the most respected action directors in the business and the head of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association. In the past twenty or so years, Chin Ka-Lok has been nominated for Best Action Choreography about 12 times, but has never taken home a single award. Heck, in 2013, he got three of the five nominations and still lost to Jackie Chan. Thankfully, it hasn’t all been for naught: he took home a Taiwanese Golden Horse Award for Best Action Choreography in 2012 for Motorway.

The King Boxer was a co-production of My Way Film Company—a low-budget HK outfit that produced films like Angel on Fire and Love & Sex in Sung Dynasty—and the short-lived Wo Ping Creation Team (see Chinese Heroes). It is, as far as I can tell, the last real attempt for Chin Kar-Lok to make it as a leading martial arts hero. Sadly, the effort was mediocre at best.

Chin Kar-Lok plays the son of the wealthiest man in town, a banker. Dad would like Chin to follow in his footsteps and carry on the family name. Chin, on the other hand, kinda sorta wants to be a martial arts hero, but is actually too lazy to really do anything about it. So, he goes around getting in fights that he either buys his way out of, or wins by sheer luck and coincidence.

Meanwhile, there is a big rivalry between the town’s two major kung fu schools. One of them is led by Eddie Ko Hung (Hitman in the Hand of Buddha) and the other by Billy Chow (Fist of Legend). During a martial arts tournament, Ko Hung is defeated by Chow and kicked into a river, after which he disappears. The terms of the tournament is that the winner would get to take over the land belonging to the other school, so Ko Hung’s wife (TV actress Kiki Sheung) and his three daughters are really in trouble.

Chin Kar-Lok somehow bumbles his way into the Eddie Ko’s family, being named the inheritor of the family school despite not actually knowing martial arts. He actually falls for one of the daughters, Carmen (May Kwong, of Wan Chai Empress and So Close), and is bamboozled, Old Testament-style, into marrying the older daughter thinking it’s her. The older daughter is actually in love with one of Billy Chow’s students. Chow also has a man on the inside in order to sew discord in the family. Chin starts learning kung fu from the matriarch, but is too much of a goof-off to really progress fast enough to face Billy in a few weeks. And then a masked fighter appears to teach Chin some moves.

Despite the title, the film doesn’t have anything to do with the original King Boxer (or the Meng Fei film with the similar title). As you might notice, there are a lot of elements borrowed from The Prodigal Son, as we learn that not only Chin’s character, but his dad, pay for him to win fights. Much of the film is about Chin Ka-Lok goofing around and getting into the trouble, occasionally romancing Carmen when the opportunity presents itself. After a promising first 15 minutes or so, the film doesn’t really pick up the pace until the hour mark when Chin starts training with the masked fighter—really just Eddie Ko in disguise.

Because this is a comedy and Chin Ka-Lok is playing a fellow who never really learned kung fu for anything constant length of time, it generally looks like Chin is fighting below his actual physical abilities, which is unfortunate. He does display some decent comedic timing while staff fighting with a mouse in his clothing, but the rest is just silliness and mugging. There are some nice exchanges of moves here and there, but if you want peak Chin, go see Martial Arts Master Wong Fei Hung and Little Hero on the Run instead. There’s some good choreography from the rest of the cast in the opening kung fu tournament sequence, with Eddie Ko and Billy Chow making the best showing for themselves.

The finale is set in and on top of a multi-level bamboo scaffolding as a bunch of fighters fight for the hand of Carmen in marriage, including Billy Chow. Chin Ka-Lok eventually joins the fray, having taught himself tai chi chuan a few minutes earlier—the idea is that Chin’s character has a natural gift, not unlike Stephen Chow needing his Qi cleared in Kung Fu Hustle. Choreographer Douglas Kung wisely keeps the wire tricks to a minimum in this sequence and the site of Billy Chow fighting inside a bamboo platform will remind some viewers of the finale of Mr. Canton and Lady Rose. And like that film, Billy Chow and his superior kickboxing steal the show from the lead actor. There’s a brief Drunken Master 2/Young Master moment when Ka-Lok becomes invincible after eating wasabi, but it’s really just a pointless gag. And that really describes the film on the whole: some good choreography here and there, but derivative of other, better films and ultimately just unnecessary.