The Buddhist Fist

I don't think I have seen a better Choreographed Kung Fu movie. It is also probably the most action packed Kung fu film i have seen in recent years. This is definitely a lost gem and hopefully will get its rightful place in Hong Kong moviedom as a classic. I dont how this film has been overlooked for some many years.

I dont know where to begin about this movie. It just attests to the genius of Director Yuen Ping and is more amazing to look at than the high tech, big budget razzle because there are no CGI enhanced fight scenes here..it's the real thing. Not only are they creative choreographed as only Yuen Ping can do, but they some of the most physically intense and acrobatic fight scenes I have ever seen on celluloid and trust me I have seen hundreds of fight scenes. Once the film builds momemntum it doesn't slow down. It has a threadbare plot,but it does have one and even a bit of a mystery thrown in.

This is to Kung Fu movies what Hardboiled is to action movies, it is action packed and the fight scenes are numerous and consistetnly inventive. I was just amazed at the number of fight scenes and how the next one outdid the last,continuing its feverish pitch to a breathlessly paced helter skelter, knock down drag out, down and dirty festival of fisticuffs with the two leads strutting their stuff combining the excellent choreography of the director and the physical dexterity and pugilistic skills of the two leads. You will be exhausted after the movie is over.

If you though Jackie Chan movies were good wait until you seen this one.

Simply said the BEST KUNG FU MOVIE BAR NONE

Interestingly enough it has been released by 2 companies at the same time the Xenon group for $9.99 and Tai Seng (priced for rental as of April 2000. The Tai Seng print will be twice the price, but of much better quality I am sure.

Whatever version you buy or rent just make sure you see it. This is must see viewing for martial arts movie fans.

It is a truly a lost classic.

You can tell this is one of Woo-Pings earlier works because there is very little wire work done. The fights are all of course expertly choreographed though. The movie itself has an interesting storyline, or at least as interesting as a kung fu movie from 1980 gets. Some of the fighting shows good demonstrations of fist versus palm styles. The DVD version of the movie looks good for the most part, with only a few grains and does have a line going down the left side of the screen for the first 15 minutes of the movie. Its not enough to distract you though and the only other really bad part is a thirty second scene in the dark where there is a lot of grain on the film.

This is the best kung fu film ever, no doubt. Absurdly complex fight sequences, kung fu monks, stunning fisting scenes. Don't ask me what the plot was, I just know this film has to be seen to be believed. The guy who did the fight scenes also engineered the fight sequences in The Matrix, but this film is light years beyond Keanu Reeves. It HAS to be seen.

If you're into the type of kung fu movies with an emphasis on humor, pick up "The Buddhist Fist". This one was a bit TOO funny, and was almost a distraction. The fighting is great, but at times looked too choreographed. Jackin Chan has done it much better, so look there. Good for a one time rental. If you need something, pick up one of his other movies, like the flawless "Iron Monkey".

Many Westerners feel that Buddhism ought to be a "perfect" religion - everyone adhering to it ought to be some sort of saint or savant. Having been a Buddhist for 15 years, and having spent considerable amount of time with Buddhists of many different sects, I am sorry to report that we are pretty much like all other Earthlings, and our religion is a faith in the possibility of improvement, not the achievement of perfection.

Yuen Woo-Ping's "Buddhist Fist is probably his masterwork of the "old School" Hong Kong action film era, but it may also be his finest dramatic achievement in any era. Without spoiling the film, I warn the reader that the film hinges on a cultural anomaly; it is possible in the East to be committed to a Buddhist monastery as a child without having spiritually converted to it. This means pretty much in the East what it once did in the West, when Roman monasticism was at its height: repression, rage, hypocrisy. These are clearly not vices Westerners like to associate with Buddhism, and they aren't particularly admitted in the East, either. Consequently, for Yuen Woo Ping to make this the core issue of this drama took considerable courage on his part, and it shows forth in the dedicated acting of its leading performers.

There are weak points to the film, to be sure: Yuen's father, Simon Yuen, of "Drunken Master" fame, died during the making of the film (as apparently he did during the making of at least a half-dozen others!), and a beefy part for him had to be trimmed and rewritten for completion by someone else; this also weakens some of the oddball humor that some viewers find annoying about the film, but which, taken on its own terms, is quite enjoyable. (I suppose one really has to have a grasp on Cantonese theatrical traditions to appreciate this.) But the core drama of the film, despite all the stereotypes en-framing it, remains strong after more than twenty years, because of the myriad conflicting human emotions it evokes.

Oh, and of course, the martial arts happen to be absolutely exquisite in choreography and performance.

But it is the drama that finally preserves this film - and I expect it will do so for another generation or two.