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18 Fatal Strikes
While his name does not have the same cache as some of his contemporaries like Yuen Woo-Ping and Corey Yuen, Stephen Tung has been one of the most prolific and dependable action directors working in Hong Kong cinema over the past thirty-five years, with credits that include Hero, Reign of Assassins, and what many people consider to be one of the best "gun fu" movies ever, Pom Pom and Hot Hot. One of Tung's first efforts as an action director, the 1979 kung fu picture 18 Fatal Strikes, can't by any means be considered a classic, but one can definitely see the seeds planted here to what has grown into a very fruitful career.
Tung also stars in the movie as one half of a pair of brothers (the other being the perpetually wimpy and weaselly Dean Shek) who rescue a Shaolin abbot (Man Kong-Lung) who is on the run from an evil group of Ching oppressors led by Sze-Ma Lung. In a plot move that will shock no one, the brothers begin to learn the devastating Shaolin Fist kung fu style, which they employ to stave off the efforts of the Ching and impress a pretty rebel (Shum Hoi Yung) in the process. So this story isn't exactly War and Peace, and director Yeung Jing-Chan doesn't help matters any by going with the flow of the time and placing a decided emphasis on dopey comedy for the first two acts of the film.
However, things do kick into high gear during the finale, where the comedy is dropped in favor of fisticuffs. The fight scenes aren't the greatest to be ever put to celluloid, but they do display more style and panache than many kung fu films of the time. There is some trickery going on, such as undercranking and obvious stunt doubles (especially for Dean Shek), but the inventive cinematography, unusual soundtrack, and off-the-wall fighting styles (such as Sze-Ma Lung's "shaking eagle") that make this entry a step -- at least a small baby one -- above your usual chop socky release.
At the beginning of the DVD put out by low-budget label Ground Zero, RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan tells viewers to "get out ya trees and 40's". While some ingestion of your inebriate of choice will undoubtedly raise your level of enjoyment from watching 18 Fatal Strikes, the act of getting loaded in and of itself isn't wholly necessary to actually getting at least a modicum of happiness from jamming the DVD into your well-worn player -- though it will definitely help getting through Dean Shek incessantly mugging for the camera and the awful presentation Ground Zero has given this movie, which is so bad that the picture totally drops out in parts. RATING: 5.5 |
