Cantonen Iron Kung Fu (1979, HK)

Starring: Leung Kar Yan (Liang Chia Ren), Kuo Ching Ching, Han Chang Hu, Kao Fei (Phillip Ko). Directed by: Lee Chiu

This movie is interesting in that one the one hand, it's a good old-fashioned hokey kung fu movie. On the other hand, it is featured in a pristine 35mm print and in widescreen. This is very unusual for most kung-fu movies that weren't made by the big production companies. It also stars the "bearded kung fu master" Leung Kar Yan (also known as Liang Chia Ren), who was a very impressive kung fu star of the '70s-early '80s.

"Cantonen Iron Kung Fu" is the story of a group of warehouse workers living in a village in Guangdong (Kwantung) province. They know a fair amount of kung fu, which was taught to them by the local kung fu master Lin (Kao), but they mostly use it in contests against each other.

One day some merchants from out of town decide to take over the local business due to it's strategic importance on the north-south trading routes. They hire a group of kung fu masters to hold a match or two in town and kill off the local fighters.

They manage to kill one of the warehouse workers who challenges the fighters, and start tracking the others down one by one. In particular they start looking for Liang Kun (Leung), who has seemingly disappeared but is in fact receiving further training from Master Lin.

Can Liang put his newly acquired skills to use against the fighters? Also, can the surviving warehouse workers unite and defeat the rival company?

This movie features some excellent training and fight scenes, some of which were shot using some very unsual camera angles for the time. The training scenes involve balancing from skinny little bamboo limbs, carrying sets of brass rings on the arms, breaking out of ropes tightly ties around the body, and of course, the obligatory fancy kick and punch moves.

At the beginning of this movie, the story is told of the Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, who were a band of famous kung fu fighters in Guangdong Province in the 19th century and who later became the subject of a famous '70s Shaw Bros. movie. However, they are not mentioned in the movie at all.

While some of the acting in this movie can be a bit below par (and downright annoying at times) and the storyline a little confusing, it more than makes up for it in the fight and training scenes. Leung Kar Yan and Phillip Ko in particular pull off some very good fight scenes and play their parts well. This is a film you might want to check out if you're in the mood for a good old hokey kung fu movie!

Also known as: Gong dung tit kiu saam (original Cantonese title-HK), Guang Dong tie qiao san (original Mandarin title-HK), Canton Iron Kung Fu/Iron Fist of Kwangtung/Cantonese Iron Kung Fu (unknown English titles), Iron Kung Fu (Canadian DVD title), Die blutigen Krallen des Leoparden (West Germany)