and back to the source I go...
The Victim (1980) I am not a Jackie Chan fan and can only tolerate Sammo Hung when his humor works (see
The Prodigal Son). I respect SH as actor and choreographer more than a comedian though and, with that in mind, he created some of the most respectful kung fu movies made during the late 70s / early 80s.
This movie was one of those films that respected the choreographers whose made up styles and "shapes" that featured heavily especially in independent kung fu movies at the time.
So here, Sammo thankfully plays second fiddle to Leung Kar Yan (Beardy)'s put upon Chun Yao. Chun Yao was a street urchin who was adopted by a kung fu master who already had a bully of a son in two. Well, the surrogate dad takes a liking to the younger boy which pisses off the older brother. Can you say sibling rivalry? Naturally, the older brother delights in beating and bulling Chun Yao at every opportunity, despite CY learning the family's lethal Iron Cross style kung fu. Things come to a head at Chun Yao's wedding when Big Brother helps himself to the bride, and Chun Yao is too scared to do anything about it.
Cut to the current day when Sammo's street waif desperately wants Chun Yao as his kung fu Sifu and is constantly declined, until the script dictates otherwise. Big bad brother pops up again and when Chun Yao thinks Sammo died by the evil sibling's hand, he finally gives into his vengeful rage and kicks big brother's butt, head and everything else in. I was in a terrible job with an abusive boss, so a part of me still relates to Chun Yao and his plight. I wish I'd seen this while still working at that job.
Watching LKY go all kinds of shapes ballistic on a nasty brute of a bully never stops being cathartic, but it's also one of the best end fights I've seen in any martial arts movie. Partially because you want Chun Yao to take revenge and partially because Leung Kar Yan did not know a lick of kung fu (while working at Shaw's and in these early movies with Sammo Hung); what he had was an astonishing ability to mimic to the choreography almost perfectly and natural agility/stamina. Leung Kar Yan is just such a blast to watch, you forget he did not have at least a decade of training under his sash. I somehow stumbled onto this end fight in late April 2015 on youtube, and because of that and LKY, got back into old school Kung Fu something fierce.