Taoyuan Nights

I’m a big fan of Stephen Chow (Chow Sing-Chi), and also of the co-actors that always show up in his films (Ng Man-Tat for example). Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling rather deprived recently, because the films that are shown on cable in Taiwan are unpredictable, in the sense that I have no way of telling what will be showing on TV at any given time on any given channel. Worse still, the films are broken up by unbearable Taiwanese adverts, which completely destroys the comedy for me. Worst of all, the Stephen Chow films at the local DVD rental store don’t have English subtitles. So, all I’ve had to keep me going are the two DVDs that I brought over with me 4 months ago, and I’ve been saving those for an empty evening. Here’s the first one: Fist of Fury 1991 (IMDB,YesAsia).

Fist of Fury (Amazon) was originally a Bruce Lee film made in 1972. No doubt many of you will have seen it. I’ve only seen it once – I like Bruce Lee films, but I find almost all of them hard to watch more than once, particularly since this film perpetuates the grossly inaccurate ‘No Dogs or Chinese allowed’ myth (yes, a sign existed but it certainly didn’t say that!).

Fist of Fury 1991 is rather more insane. It pays some homage to the original (mostly a remake of one scene from the 1972), but as you might expect, mainly zooms around according to the whims of Stephen Chow’s imagination. As you may know, Stephen Chow is famous for inventing innovative forms of Kung Fu in his films – the ’sleeping Kung Fu’ of “King of Beggars” being my favourite – and he comes up with yet another new style at the start of this film. However… let’s just say it’s kind of gross and leave it at that. Most of the film is about Chow/Ng’s characters’ attempt to find his friend, get some Kung Fu lessons, and charm the instructor’s daughter at the same time.

Fist of Fury 1991 original cover. The Taiwanese DVD edition cover is more cartoonish.

Overall, I just wasn’t exactly super-impressed with this film. There are a few funny moments – probably enough to keep you watching – but it felt kind of slow. Quite a few scenes miss the mark and come across as stupid, or just boring – I mean, who buys a Stephen Chow film to watch a moral lesson? If you’re a huge Bruce Lee fan, then watch it for the parody in the middle, as well as the general feel of the whole film, but if you’re just looking for a decent HK comedy for the evening, give it a miss and try something like “From Beijing with love” (pure genius) or “Forbidden City Cop” instead (my most favouritest ass-kickingly surreal kungfu comedy film ever).

It seems that the spirit of Bruce Lee, infused throughout this homage, has made it a once-only experience. I’ll probably watch the sequel/second part (Fist of Fury II/1992) but I must admit, I don’t have high hopes…