Ever since Jackie Chan practically reinvented the kung fu genre with his blockbuster hits for Seasonal, it was no surprise that just about every company in Hong Kong tried to copy it. After 1978, it was rare to find a kung fu flick that wasn’t a comedy. This gave birth to many classics, but we also got quite a few half baked kung fu comedies from many film studios who were desperately trying to find the new Jackie Chan.
Much like the Bruceploitation phenomenon, this gave birth to what I like to call Chan-ploitation. Snake in the Monkey's Shadow, Crystal Fist, and many other films very obviously tried to imitate JC’s style with varying degrees of success. Wong Jing didn’t miss his chance to grab a quick buck and made his own kung fu comedies with Shaw Brothers, including The Fighting Fool.
The Fighting Fool is a decent kung fu comedy starring Meng Yuen Man (Daggers 8, Hell’s Wind Staff). He plays Ah Meng, an obnoxious young fighter, whose master owns the Contractible Stick which is not only a powerful weapon, but it also contains his ancestors’ treasure. His master gets kidnapped by the men from the Eagle Mansion who are in search of the stick and Ah Meng goes out to rescue him. He runs into Zhu Tou Bing (played by Chun Wong) who joins him on his quest. While on their journey, they start out hating each other, but end up continuing to hate each other. Once Ah Meng’s master dies, it’s up to the two to protect the stick from getting into the wrong hands.
This movie is often a considered a hidden Shaw Brothers gem, and though I partially agree, I can’t help but point out the flaws. The humor is quite broad and is sometimes even revolting. There’s the “piss in the pan” scene which...I just don’t want to talk about. There’s even some humor that makes fun of Indians with a character who has a heavy accent and eats curry. Also, the story’s all over the place and some scenes are totally pointless.
Much like the Bruceploitation phenomenon, this gave birth to what I like to call Chan-ploitation. Snake in the Monkey's Shadow, Crystal Fist, and many other films very obviously tried to imitate JC’s style with varying degrees of success. Wong Jing didn’t miss his chance to grab a quick buck and made his own kung fu comedies with Shaw Brothers, including The Fighting Fool.
The Fighting Fool is a decent kung fu comedy starring Meng Yuen Man (Daggers 8, Hell’s Wind Staff). He plays Ah Meng, an obnoxious young fighter, whose master owns the Contractible Stick which is not only a powerful weapon, but it also contains his ancestors’ treasure. His master gets kidnapped by the men from the Eagle Mansion who are in search of the stick and Ah Meng goes out to rescue him. He runs into Zhu Tou Bing (played by Chun Wong) who joins him on his quest. While on their journey, they start out hating each other, but end up continuing to hate each other. Once Ah Meng’s master dies, it’s up to the two to protect the stick from getting into the wrong hands.
This movie is often a considered a hidden Shaw Brothers gem, and though I partially agree, I can’t help but point out the flaws. The humor is quite broad and is sometimes even revolting. There’s the “piss in the pan” scene which...I just don’t want to talk about. There’s even some humor that makes fun of Indians with a character who has a heavy accent and eats curry. Also, the story’s all over the place and some scenes are totally pointless.
I do think that some of the characters are quite likeable. Even though our protagonist is a very obvious ripoff of Jackie Chan, he’s extremely likeable and Meng Yuen Man makes for a great lead. On the other hand, Chun Wong is a terrible lead. At first, I thought he would only be a supporting role who would disappear after a few minutes, but he actually ends up being one of the lead actors. I thought this character was very annoying and he didn’t do much except for messing everything up.
With all flaws aside, this movie is somehow very funny and has some great action scenes. The comedy is mostly funny (and sometimes distasteful) in true Wong Jing fashion. There’s even a great gag making fun of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The terrific action choreographed by Hsu Hsia is very impressive and the opening scene is one of my favorite kung fu movie openings ever. And again, Meng Yuen Man is an extremely likeable lead and watching his enthusiastic performance makes me feels bad that I don’t like this movie as much as I wanted to.
With all flaws aside, this movie is somehow very funny and has some great action scenes. The comedy is mostly funny (and sometimes distasteful) in true Wong Jing fashion. There’s even a great gag making fun of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The terrific action choreographed by Hsu Hsia is very impressive and the opening scene is one of my favorite kung fu movie openings ever. And again, Meng Yuen Man is an extremely likeable lead and watching his enthusiastic performance makes me feels bad that I don’t like this movie as much as I wanted to.
But still, the annoying co-star, direction-less story, and sometimes insulting humor are definitely noticeable flaws, but you should still get what you can out of this movie. As far as hidden SB gems go, I’d much rather recommend either Fast Fingers or The Impostor, but as is, The Fighting Fool is quite entertaining and easily gets a mild recommendation.
Images from HKMDb (Bearserk)
Images from HKMDb (Bearserk)