Ma hei siu chi

Despite the fact that Circus Kid is probably the weakest film in Yuen Biao's absolutely brilliant filmography, this means that due to Yuen Biao's ridiculously brilliant high standards, this is still head and shoulders head of other martial arts films.

Directed by Wu Ma, who one year earlier directed Yuen Biao in the all-tome classic Kickboxer, makes the best of a relatively poor script written by `gweilo in exile' Bey Logan. This film also stars Donnie Yen, who thankfully has few scenes in this film as his acting is stilted to say the least, although he stars in some fantastic fight scenes.

The film focuses on a circus troupe who are bombed out by the Japanese (this film is set in the second world war). The troupe is headed by Wu Ma (who also directs), and features Yuen Biao as his apprentice. The troupe travel to Beijing and one of them gets a job in a factory, unknown to them, which sell opium. Donnie Yen plays a policeman.

This film has a pretty poor script, thanks to Bey Logan, who also fights Donnie Yen. Bey Logan is terrible and very slow against the very fast Donnie Yen. Some of the twists the plot takes are illogical and takes Yuen Biao, and all his might to redeem this feature in some pretty spectacular fight scenes.

Circus Kid also stars Lili Li, who makes a welcome comeback after Sang Kun's daughter in Young Master who fights Jackie Chan. (A piece of interesting trivia is that Yuen Biao played her brother in Young Master).

Despite being probably the weakest film on Yuen Biao's incredible filmography, it has some fantastic fight scenes, a fantastic performance by Yuen Biao (do you expect anything else?), competent enough direction by Wu Ma, and is head and shoulders better than other martial arts movies. So if you get the chance, don't miss it.