Sunday, February 12, 2012

Five Superfighters (1979)

I'm going with the 1979 date, though three places I've looked all have different release years for this movie- 1978, 1979 and 1983.  the month and day is the same.
this jerk goes around from town to town "teaching" kung fu practitioners how to "improve" their techniques.  he's really good, but that's his only reason.
after our heroes and their teacher gets beaten, the three students set out to find better teachers so they can get revenge.  this involves a lot of training sequences, which are sometimes fun, but you just don't really care about any of them.  mostly we are just waiting to see the villain get his comeuppance.
of course their teachers all help, and even their original teacher improves.  still, I'm not sure what the lesson is here. 
mostly it's an excuse to combine drunken style and monkey style in one movie, which makes me think it's the Shaw response to "Drunken Master", as it's also somewhat comedic.  Mar Lo directed the movie, so it's not as bloody as some Shaws, nor as well choreographed as some others.  it's interesting in that regard, as it doesn't look like a Chang Cheh or Lau Ka-Leung movie.  the main fault is the story, in that it's not well fleshed out. 

of course, I don't care for monkey style kung fu at all, so that doesn't help on a personal level.  but it's a good way to spend 94 minutes or so.

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