The Magnificent Butcher
1/15/00
Review
Format: Dubbed Widescreen VHS
Stars: Sammo Hung, Lee Hoi San, Fong Hak On, Kwan Tak Hing, Yuen Biao, Wei Pai, Lam Ching Ying, Fan Siu Ming, Chung Fa

There was a time when almost every movie was about a single student who spent the whole time taking revenge for the death of someone, and he kills someone, and that someone's dad wants to take revenge and there are a ton of fantastic fights all throughout.

That's how this one is. I had rented it some time ago and for some reason I didn't like it, but I tried it again and wow, I'm pleased. I'd put it up there with Knockabout, possibly before it... Sammo at his best, really, doing tons of styles, naming each one, training scenes, almost no weaponwork except some good monkey staffwork, and a BIG finale. And being an early Yuen Wo Ping piece, what less can you expect than spectacular?

Lee Hoi San begins it with his Cosmic Palm training, where he names some planets and does some palm movements. Just a minute long thing, and at the end his hands get red and he can break through concrete easily. You'll see more of this.



After Hoi San's student is beaten up by Sammo, the guy goes crying to Hoi San and lies a bit. Hoi San goes to Wong Fei Hung's (the legendary Kwan Tak Hing) school, where Sammo studies Hung Gar, and before he gets there Kwan Tak Hing is doing 3 finger pushups. This guy must be 80 years old. How can he do that? Hoi San kicks out the legs from the chair where Tak Hing is sitting, the chair falls, and he's still sitting. Good stuff. While Tak Hing is doing calligraphy, Hoi San is trying to interrupt him and mess him up, but you can't really do that with Wong Fei Hung. Instead, Tak Hing uses Hoi San to do his calligraphy, and the two of them do some fighting with brushes and it's quite entertaining. But I couldn't help but think Tak Hing was doubled for a few moments because he had his head turned for a while. No matter, after he successfully completes his writing you can see him clearly when he rolls over a table and does some kicking, and that's definitely Tak Hing. This is a 4 minute long fight and is really cool looking, especially when an 80 year old man is doing the fighting. Plus, these calligraphy fights are always fun.



There's some comedy, obviously. Fan Siu Ming plays a drunken bum who wants some chicken when he gets dropped off in town. So he shakes up some rice in his wine jug and makes a trail, and a chicken eats all of it, gets drunk, and he takes it away. Fan Siu Ming is always smiling in this movie too, and he's charismatic. His double does some training stuff too where he dances on jugs, which is amazing, and you can tell it's a double from the hair-over-the-face ploy. Still it's cool.



Fan Siu Ming wants wine, so he goes to the wine house to get some where he finds Fong Hak On, who stole Sammo's brother's wife (he's a bad guy, what's new?). Fan Siu Ming (and his double) have some fun with Hak On. More awesome choreography and acrobatics on both of their parts (Fan Siu Ming is old and can't do this stuff, hence the double, but it's a pleasure to see him act), and good falls by Hak On like a back fall without hands and big sideways dive rolls off the wine jugs. Siu Ming wants money from Hak On too and there's some choreography there as well. This whole thing lasts about 3 minutes and it's very fun. Reminds me of Sam the Seed in DM1, only better. And let's not forget that every single piece of action is perfectly filmed, you can see everything.



The very next scene has Sammo going against Fan Siu Ming due to a misunderstanding made up by Hak On. This is even MORE impressive than the last scene as Sammo and Siu Ming ('s double) go through Hung Gar and other styles. They start with Tiger, then Crane, and then Snake, and Sammo calls out a cobra or something. Man the whole thing is great. They both move around very fast, not two beat exactly, and stay true to form. It's about as fast as, say, Knockabout or Buddhist Fist's last fight. Very impressive. Also some humor involved like Siu Ming farting in Sammo's face and sitting on a stool on top of Sammo's head, and acrobatics. Sammo is exceptional. I could watch this fight all day.



A while later, Hoi San brings Lam Ching Ying and another student to Tak Hing's school, and Biao and Wei Pai take them both. Lam has a fan (I think it's Lam Ching Ying anyways) and fights against Biao at first, and though the fan makes a HORRIBLY irritating sound, it's amazing what he can do with it. Yuen Biao, of course, is awesome and does lots of kicking and great bodywork. My other complaint about this is that it's filmed in the dark (most of it anyways) and makes for bad captures, but you can actually see it while watching on a TV. They both go inside the school though and it gets lighter. Wei Pai's fight against a Monkey stylist with a pole is in the dark completely though and is even harder to see, but again it's visible on a TV. Wei Pai grabs a sword and a tongfa and fights with those. But Biao and Lam go on inside and there is some awesome choreography much like that in Knockabout when he fought Lau Ka Wing. What you might notice is that whenever Biao isn't using his hands, he's holding them in a horse stance. True to form. Lam Ching Ying's presence is awesome, and later on he has blades that come out of his elbows, which Biao figures out aren't any good for long distance fighting, so he does long distance kicks at him and wins.



Immediately after (this is the same scene too), both Biao and Wei Pai go against Lee Hoi San who uses his cosmic fist again. Some palm work by Hoi San and Sammo comes in and gets hit with the flaming palm, but ends up being ok. This whole ordeal goes on for six minutes, while the piece with Hoi San is about 45 seconds. Awesome. Too bad it wasn't daytime when they filmed it.



Chung Fa goes after Sammo and finds him in a tomb, it seems. He uses a cat style with lots of scratching movements and jumps all over the place. One thing to note here is the terribly annoying cat sounds they used, and that might just be in my dubbed version but man, it's aweful. You'll spend more time getting annoyed than watching the choreography. Chung Fa is springy and acrobatic, and Sammo uses Hung Gar. Another thing is that this is one of Chung Fa's most interesting roles he's ever played. They're both good, same fast choreography with acrobatics and a tad of slomo here and there. 4 minutes long. Man these are long fights.



Sammo goes nuts on Fong Hak On after he killed Sammo's brother, and Hak On just does some falls and breaks through some walls, but does one where he breaks through a wooden door and falls right on his tailbone area onto the middle of the door. Ow. Wonder if he was hurt? Just a minute long scene that shows how tough Sammo can be.



The showdown with Sammo against Lee Hoi San, fueled with revenge from both sides, is awesome. Lee Hoi San does his cosmic fist, with all sorts of variations like Steel Palms, Steel Fingers, Foaming Sea, Tidal Wave, and Flaming Palms. Sammo retaliates with Cobra Strike, Dragon (also in flight, but that fails), Crane in Flight which is faster I guess, and some joint moves at the end. He's so acrobatic in this it's silly. I've hardly ever seen ANYONE do stuff like this, let alone a 200+ pound fat guy. The whole thing is incredible, seems as though it's the fastest and most intricate of all the fights in the movie. And they go all over the place in the marketplace. Through canvases, walls, into little rooms, onto the dirt, onto the alter, it's amazing. Length: 8 minutes. How did they ever do this?



Here's what I think about this movie. First of all, there's more than what I put here. Some training scenes, small, little fights much like those in The Prodigal Son, and various acrobatics thrown throughout. Sammo trains in Hung Gar, pickles his arms thinking he was supposed to in order to learn the iron fist from Fan Siu Ming, Biao and Wei Pai have a small training scene, and other comedic scenes. So far, if I were to pick a movie that showed Sammo's abilities, I'd be stuck between this and Pedicab Driver, but as far as variety, this one wins by a long shot. TONS of action, all GREAT martial arts, everyone plays well. And the finale is extremely long and satisfying. Great for anyone interested in Sammo or HK films in general.

5/5 - It took me a LONG time to do this review, I wouldn't do it to give it a 4/5. This is one of the supreme martial arts movies.

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