| Old Dirty Kung Fu (1979) |
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| Director: | Chien Yuet San |
| Starring: | Cliff Lok, Simon Yuen, Chan Lung, and Lee Hoi San |
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The Plot: Lin is about to kill himself because his daughter is being forced to marry a rich aristocrat – and if he says no this proposed marriage, his whole family will be massacred. When Bamboo Stick (Simon Yuen) wanders upon him, he takes pity on the man and offers to help him get rid of the would-be suitor. So, Bamboo Stick’s awesome plan is to dress up like the girl, cover his face with a veil, and then marry the suitor in place of the girl. Yeah, this is literally his plan, and it almost works. When Bamboo Stick goes through with the wedding vows, the young husband freaks out to find that his young wife is truly a sixty year old bum. A fight ensues and the young man is accidentally killed. This sends the young man’s father (Lee Hoi San) into full blitzkrieg mode. Skip forward a bit and we find another young man (Chan Lung) who happens to be on the run from the law. This young man also happens to be the last student of Bamboo Stick, and he quickly teams up with a wandering martial artist (Cliff Lok) who claims that he is trying to create his own style of kung fu. Unfortunately, this young martial artist is hardly a kung fu practitioner, and it will be up to Bamboo Stick’s final student to try and make him into a solid fighter so that they may eventually take out the aristocratic lunatic who searches for Bamboo Stick. |
| The Review |
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Kung fu and comedy are often fiercely tied together in the realm of martial arts cinema, yet the mix of kung fu and comedy in these older films are less than subtle. Old Dirty Kung Fu is certainly a guilty party when it comes to mixing this broad form of humor. Indeed, everything that audiences might expect from a seventies martial arts comedy makes an appearance during this film. You can expect vulgar jokes made on occasion, men being dressed in drag, plenty of characters who sport hairy moles on their face, and even the requisite crossing of the eyes in moments of true “hilarity.” Not nearly as entertaining as the filmmakers had hoped their movie might be, the broad comedy is exceedingly loud and obnoxious. There comes a point in the film where the audience no longer even expects any sort of natural interaction between the characters onscreen. Indeed, every small movement within the film is played in the most broadly and extroverted way possible. This is the Peking Opera style, but without any sort of formal adaptation for the screen.
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| The Conclusion |
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