I can already tell that this season is going to see quite a few Taiwanese films popping up, and today shows one of the most well known from that nation’s kung fu output! Today we take a look at The Mystery of Chess Boxing, which should be seen by any fan of the genre. Even if they only watch it because of the excellent title!

The Plot: Ah Po (Li Yi Min) is a young man in search of kung fu instruction. When he finds the school of his dreams, he unfortunately runs into a great deal of trouble. Ah Po, on the day before he reached his school, stirred up some trouble with a local ruffian, and it turns out that this local ruffian was also a very important student within his chosen school! As he begins his rigorous lessons, this same student looks to make Ah Po’s life a living hell. After being ostracized by all of his fellow students, Ah Po finds himself spending a lot of time with the school’s cook (played by Simon Yuen). This cook, however, is also an exceptional martial artist, and he soon begins to teach Ah Po all of his skills under the guise of training him to be a cook. Before long, Ah Po is better than any of his fellow pupils! When he displays his new talents, as well as the crest of the Ghost Face Killer (Mark Long), he is expelled from the school. This crest, which Ah Po has held onto for years, is merely the last thing that his father had passed on to him. With no teacher at his disposal, he follows the advice of his former chef/teacher and searches out a wandering chess-master who is supposed to be even more powerful. After Ah Po begins his training, we discover that the Ghost Face Killer is the man who killed Ah Po’s father, and he is on the prowl! Ah Po, seeing that his new master is the next on Ghost Face’s hit list, refuses to let another person he cares about die at the hands of this sadistic killer. Ah Po intensifies his training, and he is determined to finally put an end to the Ghost Face Killer.