Steineded How sad is this?

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

dafrosts Ta Kung (Chi Kuan Chun) is constantly put upon by bullies at the temple. So much so, the Abbot Hu Lin (Kuk Wang) wants him to learn Kung Fu. Kung is adamant in his refusal to learn it. The abuse only intensifies with the arrival of a fake monk (Cliff Ching Ching) who bullies everyone, especially Kung.Hu Lin sends Kung away from the temple for his protection. Hu Lin sends him to an old friend, Shang King (Leung Kar Yun). The Shang King family are all trained in Kung Fu. Ta Kung accepts working for the family, but not Kung Fu instructions. Shang King teaches his student without it appearing he's teaching him. It takes a while for Ta Kung to submit to actually being Shang's student. The training sessions are fun to watch. Especially the scene where Ta Kung is doing push-ups to operate a fan to cool Shang.Ta Kung encounters Meng Fei's character a few times during his stay with the Kings. Meng Fei's character's name is not mentioned (at least I never head him called by name). His master spends most of Fei's training time getting the poor kid drunk to learn Drunken Kung Fu, sometimes to the point Fei passes out.When Shang King and his family are murdered, Ta Kung becomes a student of Fei Meng's Sifu. The two work on techniques to avenge the King family. The finale fight is the bets fight of the movie.I do not understand Fei Meng being in this film. Fei Meng and his Sifu are a subplot for most of the film. They don't become important until nearly the end. It feels as if Chi Kuan Chun and Fei Meng were making movies in the same area and decided to merge them into one. Both are incredibly skilled Wuxia imho. It would have been better had Fei Meng's character not been so underdeveloped.

Leofwine_draca THE WAYS OF KUNG FU is a simple story starring former Shaw Brothers actor Chi Kuan-Chun as a young novice at the Shaolin Temple who gets kicked out when he falls foul of some evil monks. Kuan-Chun then roams the countryside before he falls in with an old master, played by an unrecognisable Beardy. Subsequent scenes involve plenty of training and encounters with the big bad who must be defeated at all costs.This is very much a typical effort with an emphasis on action scenes and routine comedy. It's very much an ordinary film lifted by the presence of the familiar faces in the cast. Kuan-Chun is a very skilled performer although he doesn't get much of a chance to shine here given that he plays a complete novice until near the end. Beardy is also underutilised although fellow kung fu star Meng Fei makes a welcome appearance.The bad guy uses a metal ring to attack his opponents in some fun moments littered with randomness. The comedy is distinctly lowbrow but works quite effectively, especially the set-piece centred around a public loo which takes toilet humour to the next level. This isn't the kind of film which is going to set the world on fire but it does its job adequately enough.

ckormos1 Chi Kuan-Chun is a temple worker who is an easy target to be pushed around. It escalates when Cliff Ching Ching comes to the temple and pushes everyone around. Up until now all monks in these movies were good guys and the only bad monks were traitors. Also good guys would come to the temple to escape wrongful persecution. In this twist our evil monk is a bad guy using the temple as a place to escape lawful persecution. He is done up with face make up that seems to have been too much trouble to fully apply every day. Chi Kuan-Chun is sent away by his temple teacher for his own safety. He ends up with Leung Kar- Yan's kung fu family. At first he has no interest in learning martial arts but then he has an epiphany in the marketplace thanks to Wu Ma and Pang San the noodle maker. The training sequence became a staple of martial arts movies in 1978. I have been watching every martial arts movie ever made in chronological order. The first training sequence was in 1972 with Prodigal Boxer and Mang Fei. It was a poor attempt and is the first by definition only. Oddly enough, Mang Fei again, came back in 1977 with "Secret of the Shaolin Poles" for the second and much better training sequence. I'll get back to you and let you know the best of all training sequences when I complete my mission. So far this is the fourth and best but it won't hold up. Another unique thing about this movie is the sequence with the noodle maker. There is a strong message here promoting exercise, in any form you enjoy doing, to achieve good health and the primary purpose of kung fu is good health, not fighting as it should only be used in self- defense. Those two things plus the overall good fights account for my high ranking of this movie. The fights were not just stand alone good but went the extra step and were choreographed to fit the characters and the motives for fighting. Somebody please explain to me the pay toilet sequence. You pay to buy a plank to squat over a water hole to have a bowel movement? Is this historically accurate? There was also a similar sequence in a Shaw Brothers movie. Personally behind a tree has worked for me outdoors.

Joost Ta Kun, a student of Shaolin, is bullied all the time by his fellow students. Ta Kun is forced to leave the Shaolin Temple once a corrupt monk, Hutak, takes over. An elder monk, Hunang, tells him to go to a Wu-Tang style family under the guide of a guy who looks exactly like, or is Ka-Yan Leung aka Beardy from legend of a fighter and the Victim. Ta Kun doesn't like learning kung fu here, so he's got to work a lot. But while he's working he's learning kung fu. In the end he's got to fight the new leading monk of the Shaolin Temple.This movie is very slow in the beginning and has some typical characters, like the villain monk who's got some big scars at his face. The fighting scenes are not remarkable. 5/10