Martial Club (1981) January 1, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Kung Fu, 1980s films , trackbackDirector: Lau Kar-Leung Cast: Lau Ka-Fai; Mak Tak-Law; Hui Ying-Hung; Johnny Wang Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
Martial Club opens with a piece to camera by Lau Kar-Leung explaining the etiquette and traditions of the Lion Dance, and then launches into a sequence similar in theme to the previous year’s Jackie Chan feature Young Master. The Lion Dance shown here differs drastically in execution and both scenes really display the differences between Golden Harvest’s and Shaw Brothers’ house styles, with the latter being very labour-intensive and studio-bound but more intricate and showy. Another similarity to Young Master comes when another Lion Dance team from a rival school turns up on the scene and shows disrespect. The school, and its Master, Luk, start to harass Wong Kei-Ying’s school.
Lau Kar-Fai stars as Wong Fei-Hung and portrays him in a similar style to that shown in Yuen Woo-Ping’s Drunken Master. He is friends with Wang Yinlin (Mak Tak-Law) and together they get into various scrapes trying to outdo each other in martial arts displays – often resorting to bribing opponents to lose to show their superiority. But when a northerner by the name of Shan Xiong (Johnny Wang) shows up into town and is given money by Yinlin’s sister (Hui Ying-Hung) to throw a fight, he misinterprets the situation and beats Yinlin badly, leading to more misunderstandings and friction with the Luk school.
This is another Lau-Kar-Leung film about martial arts, tradition and politeness. In a stroke of genius, Johnny Wang, who might as well have the words “bad guy” stencilled across his forehead, is cast as a Master who is on the side of fairness and chivalry, much to the chagrin of Master Luk, who was banking on him to beat Wong’s school so he can claim untimate superiority. Wang strolls into town from the north speaking no Cantonese and trying to communicate in Mandarin (so bear in mind that the Mandarin audio track on the IVL DVD makes all this very confusing), leading to many mix-ups.
Martial Club, like virtually every other martial arts movie made at this time, has many comic moments, and while the comedy isn’t too bad, it isn’t too great either. There are a few smiles to be had at the scene where a fight breaks out at a theatre and the Opera stars remain in character while it’s going on. Hui Ying-Hung is more in the background than other Lau Kar-Leung films of the period, but she moves better in this than in her starring features and is on top form. In fact, the action sequences can’t be faulted at all, and most of the last hour is a fight-fest leading to the inevitable showdown.
As is the case with so many Shaw Brothers films, the ending is a travesty and this ending seems more premature than normal. But Martial Club holds its own with Lau Kar-Leung’s other great works from the period such as Heroes of the East, Dirty Ho, My Young Auntie, et al.
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