Two Wonderous Tigers
Reviewed by Yves Gendron
Old school k-f comedy from the seventies cannot
be exactly described as fighting woman friendly, or even friendly towards
the whole gender for that matter. If you would put together the length
of all the female fight scenes found in the kung-fu comedies of Sammo Hung,
Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo-ping (the major contributors of this sub-genre)
the total amount of time would be less than fifteen minutes. There are
thankfully a couple of exceptions here and there; martial comedies that
do indeed feature woman fighters in a major way. One of them would be LEG-FIGHTERS
(80) starring the impish, leggy Hsia Kwan-li paired with boot-master Tang
Tao Liang. Another would be this following film TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS (1979)
whose two lead stars are male: John Chang and Phillip Ko-fei but which
showcase two fighting women in a major way and one in peculiar: Sharon
Yeung Pan Pan nicknamed the female Jackie Chan for her handful of contributions
into this sub-genre.
Dapper-suited American Chinese Robert Ko (Phillip
Ko Fei) pays a visit to his native land. While on the road he crosses the
path of a mischievous hobo nicknamed “Tiger” (John Chang) who’s hot-temper
quickly leads the both of them into a friendly rivalry where each tries
to best the other with his k-f skills. They come to a truce however when
they see the two cute feisty fighting Yeung sisters (Kitty Meng, Sharon
Yeung) being harassed by the lecherous spoiled son of a powerful boss (Gam
Saan). Not having learned his lesson, the spoiled son tries his luck again
a couple of days later coming to the Yeung household with a cartload of
gifts and an irrefutable proposal of marriage (or so he thinks) for the
youngest of the girls, Ah Mei (Sharon). The Yeung brother (Charlie Chan)
replies however that he will consent to any marriage only if one is successful
in beating all three of the Yeung siblings in a fight. The spoiled son
can’t manage it of course, so he sets an award to whoever will accomplish
the deed instead. Soon enough a score of candidates show up in front of
the Yeung’s door and joining the fray are none other than Robert Ko and
Tiger themselves who have taken a liking to Ah Mei too. What both they
and the Yeung’s don’t know however is that the spoiled son’s father (Tiger
Yeung) is waiting in the wings to claim Ah Mei as his own and he has more
than the fighting skills necessary to rise-up to any challenge.
A k-f movie can’t get any spottier than this,
as instead of a firm plot TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS narrative rests on a couple
of gimmicks which are played out mostly as burlesque-oriented jousts. It’s
as if two ten minute sketches had been patched together and stretched out
to make a 90-minute film. Somehow despite it’s sketchy nature the film
does manage to sustain itself pretty well thanks to the genial performers
and some colourful choreography. Chang and Ko have great chemistry together
and the verbal banter as well as their acrobatic k-f jousts over a bun
or pieces of silver money are quite amusing. The fighting girls Sharon
and Kitty are as cute as buttons and in their own fights confront quite
a quirky bunch (including Sammo Hung’s porky regular player Lung Chan as
the blindman). Especially note-worthy in the film are the extended and
imaginative use of props in the choreography: besides the already mentioned
use of a bun and money there is also use made of a drum, cane, spear, a
carrying chair and even the ever favourite bench.
Other aspects of the film also help make it feel
especially fresh when compared to other k-f comedies. There is of course
the aforementioned showcase of a couple of women fighters, usually a rarity
in k-f comedies. Also there is no revenge oriented plot twist rearing its
ugly head at the end, and although the film does indeed feature a naughty
kid there is no loony sifu and so for once a k-f comedy doesn’t turn to
one of it’s more prevalent, familiar and redundant formulas
TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS original Chinese title
is THE TIGER THAT GETS OUT FROM THE LOCKED GATE a likely reference to the
predatory like lead villain. The English title feels more satisfactory
although it’s still a bit inaccurate and should have had added something
like “and the Pretty/fierce Feisty Tigress.
By the time, Sharon Yeung started her movie career
in the late seventies the era for the cinematic woman warrior had been
long gone, (well in H-K made martial art cinema anyway) so she never became
as famous as the likes of Cheng Pei Pei or Angela Mao although the continual
development in fight choreography did mean that she often performed moves
more outlandish than her predecessors. In time, she established herself
as one of the rare certified H-K stunt- women and acquired some level of
fame for her regular appearance at an annual telethon TV special performing
daring acrobatic stunts.
Of the two titular players Philip Ko-Fei, is the
best known. In the nineties he became especially notorious as hack producer/
director for a string of cheap, cheesy actioners many of them starring
fierce fighting female favourite Yukari Oshima (they were married briefly).
Back in the old-school days, however he was one of the best screen fighting
heavies around making usually a brief but thundering showcase. In time,
though he did find more substantial roles such as Wong Fei Hung’s evil
kung-fu rival in Yuen Woo-ping’s DREADNOUGHT (1981), the stern k-f patriarch
in LEGEND OF A FIGHTER (1983) still by Yuen and the pole fighting abbot
in grand-master martial filmmaker Lau Kar Leung’s EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER
(1984).
In sharp contrast to Ko-fei, the other tiger John
Chang (or Cheung in Cantonese) is little known. Like Ko-fei he has come
from an opera trainee turned stuntman background, part of Lau Kar-leung’s
fighting stunt men stable. He along with fellow Lau crew’s stunt-mate Wilson
Tong joined for a time in the late seventies a small film company named
Goldlit. In the handful of movies they made there Chang played the lead
while Tong acted as the villain and handled the fight choreography.
TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS was their third Goldlit film. Shortly afterward Chang
would leave while Tong stayed on, graduated to fully fledged director;
making a handful of uneven, but quirky k-f movies.
In TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS Tong played only a
henchman leaving the lead villainy to a fellow named Tiger Yeung. A towering
figure with great kicking abilities Tiger Yeung looked formidable indeed
so it’s quite surprising to learn that he made only a handful of k-f movies.
Playing the second Yeung sister is Kitty Meng, who was taught at the same
H-K Peking Opera academy as Sharon Yeung, along with her own brother the
elfin Sammo Hung regular player Meng Hoi. A minor k-f starlet she played
in less than ten movies and TIGERS was her next to last film.
Except for Tiger Yeung, all of the WONDEROUS TIGERS
action players; Chang, Ko-Fei, Tong, Sharon Yeung, and Charlie Chin (who
played the Yeung brother) had an evident Peking Opera background.
Peking Opera male performer-turned-stuntman have always played an essential
role in martial art cinema - stunt man, stunt-double, fight choreographer
and screen-fighting heavy. Yet in the first dozen years or so of the genre’s
classic modern era (from the mid-sixties to mid seventies), they were never
given any starring role. These went to more screen savvy trained actors
(like Ti Lung and Fu Sheng) or genuine martial artists (like Bruce Lee
or Chen Kwan Tai). All the sweat, blood and guts, none of the glory.
Things were different with female Peking Opera performers but that’s another
story.
Things changed rapidly however in the second
half of the seventies and the door opened for them not only for stardom
but for fully fledged filmmaking as well. Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo Ping and
Jackie Chan became the leading figures of this new generation, while martial
art cinema master filmmaker Chang Cheh began making films showcasing a
new team of acrobatic fighters extraordinaire: the Venoms, three of which
had opera backgrounds. Even Lau Kar Leung (who was the first k-f choreographer
to rise to directing), promoted an acrobatic stuntman named Hsiao Hou both
in front and behind the camera (as fight choreographer) giving to his films
an acrobatic dimension they had never seen before. In the wake of these
major figures, many other minor players found their way to shine. John
Chang, Ko Fei, and Wilson Tong, were among them. They never became big
stars but still found occasional leading parts in minor k-f films entries,
like TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS.
This new generation pushed physical virtuosity
and fight choreography to a new exiting level. Acrobatic outlandishness
isn’t the only thing these newcomers took from Peking Opera, they also
drew upon it’s burlesque theatre tradition which gave k-f comedy it’s fanciful
slapstick routines, archetypical comic characters and farcical irreverent
spirit all of whom are wonderfully represented in WONDEROUS TIGERS.
TWO WONDEROUS TIGERS is not quite up there
with the major k-f comedy fare from Sammo or Yuen Woo Ping, and remains
a fairly lightweight piece of work. Also perhaps it does disappoint a bit
when one of the tigers is actually dropped from the film’s last act (to
say who would not be very sporting). Still WONDEROUS TIGERS feels
wonderfully fresh, sparkly and inviting, good enough for any who have a
taste for K-F comedy and female fighters.
My rating for this film: 7.0