The Guy with Secret Kung Fu (1981)

Toadily ridiculous!

The Guy with Secret Kung Fu looked like a lot of other cheap Taiwanese kung fu movies from this timeframe. Where this film won me over were the sound effects which truly had me laughing in many scenes whether that was the director's intention or not. They must have gotten a deal at Discount Sound Effects R Us and decided to use as many as possible.

Once again, the plucky Ming rebels are fighting the Qings. This time not only must they deal with the hated dynasty but also Sally Chen's fearsome Dragon Gang! Brothers/blood brothers Hung Wei Ting (Mang Fei) and Hu Ah Piao (Li Chung Chien) take down a bunch of Chin Wan Che's brown shirts when the Dragon Gang attacks Elsa Yang and her father on a boat. The Dragon Queen is not happy when her men are beaten nor are the Qing officials. Wei Ting is captured in town and his brother has to break him out. When they slow down to help another escaped prisoner the boys are captured once again. Wang Hsieh as a Qing official lets them loose hoping they will take down the Dragon Gang. It makes less sense as it goes along, but it gives the boys plenty of opportunities to fight and take their shirts off and the girls to be attacked or kidnapped and need rescuing.

The story becomes more interesting when a sorcerer played by Shih Chung Tien brings to life a half-human/half-vampire demon with super strength played by perennial giant Cheng Fu Hung. None of the brothers' kung fu abilities have any effect on him. Fortunately, he tosses them through the wall of the coffin maker's shop thinking them dead and the daughter played by Nancy Yen takes a fancy to them. She just happens to have a secret kung fu book! Of course, she does! It details The Dragon Fist technique and also has a recipe for defeating the demon! Holy Deux ex machina Batman!

The final fights are loads of fun. Sally Chen and her tricked out poison dart thrower, the Sorcerer, and Wang Hsieh with his Toad style against the boys and their newly acquired Dragon Fist moves accompanied by some of the most ridiculous sound effects ever were exciting.

Despite the movie being a Hong Kong production, I knew immediately it was shot in Taiwan. Per usual, the film relied on outdoor scenery, especially the woods and a field of tall grass. The movie was also badly faded as many of them have not been restored. Taiwanese actors and actresses populated the movie-Mang Fei, Nancy Yen, Sally Chen, Wang Hsieh, Shih Chung Tien, and Elsa Yang.

The fights, especially, the first one on two boats and the last ones in the woods and tall grass were quite entertaining. Other fights varied but were a step above kung fu posing. Li Chung Chien appeared in less than 10 films but made a good partner for Mang Fei. Sally Chen was the most charismatic villain with her poison dart gun and glorious dresses. Elsa Yang starred in a number of ninja movies and would have made a good foil for her but aside from Sally, the rest of the female cast were relegated to screaming, "Help me! Help me!" Wang Hsieh's Toad style was hilarious as he blew out his belly and hopped about all while toad sound effects ribbeted in the background. The good guys did some super leaping themselves, mostly filmed in reverse.

Truly, the sound effects were the star of this film, many anachronistically so. Plane sounds when the boys jumped and were thrown about, gunshots for darts, fireworks swirling, frogs croaking, pew! pew! laser noises, and also the standard swish and clash kung fu sound effects. The "demon" sounded like the Tin Man needing more than a few drops of oil from his oil can. The movie itself was badly edited making it quite confusing as it jumped in time and from scene to scene leaving important bits out. The print I watched had been chopped to fit a screen somewhere in its past making me grateful it was dubbed. Otherwise, it might have fallen victim to the subtitles running off the screen or being illegible with the light background.

The Guy with Secret Kung Fu-actually it was Two Guys with Secret Kung Fu-was not a great kung fu flick nor did it have great kung fu, but it was toadily ridiculous and entertaining in its own comic way. Only for the most hard core of old kung fu film fans. As always, these pre-1990 cheap niche movies I grade on a curve.

7/6/23

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