Yoga and the Kung Fu Girl
Director: Sun Yang
Year:
1979
Rating:
3.0
Dubbed
This was a real Taiwanese stinker. At one
point a fighter shows up sitting in a lawn chair wearing a T-shirt and jeans.
It is a period film. Then a lookalike Jackie Chan imitates his snake form
and gets the crap beat out of him. For no reason a Simon Yuen looking beggar
character doing drunken kung-fu makes an appearance and gets thrown in the
water. Really dreadful in every way which is a shame because it has two first-rate
martial arts actors - Pai Ying who worked at times with King Hu and Chi Kuan-chun
who was in a bunch of Chang Cheh films at Shaw Brothers. But they were not
the reason I stuck with this because I was sorely tempted to turn it off.
The reason was Phoenix Chen. If you haven't seen this film, then you haven't
seen her because this was the only film she was in. I can't find anything
about her before or after this film but clearly she had come Chinese Opera
training. She is a mute in the film and that may have helped her performance.
Her gymnastics and ability to contort herself
into any position known to man makes her quite watchable. And she is kind
of cute too. Madame Kao (Chiang Ching-hsia) comes across Phoenix as
a young girl mourning her mother's death. She takes her on and trains her
with her other children at kung fu and acrobatics. The old fashioned way.
Torture. Some ten years pass and the troupe makes money doing street shows.
The children are all grown-up with one of them now Chi Kuan-chun and another
is Wang Ruo-ping. Chi has a gambling problem and keeps losing but Madame
keeps forgiving him. There are a number of fracases but nothing to get excited
about. The choreography is fast but is all over the place. A few men try
to hit on Phoenix and I expect her ability to twist herself into any position
had something to do with that. The town is run by Ma (Lu Ti) and his son
wants to marry Phoenix. So Chi kills him and then they all kill Ma and the
doctor Pai Ying in his bow tie decides to take over the town. All filmed
with few sets and just a look so cheap you expect it to all fall down. Directed
by Sun Yang. I have to stop watching kung films based on their title.
