Kung Fu Cult Master, 1993.
Directed by Jing Wong & Sammo Kam-Bo Hung.
Starring Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Sharla Cheung, Richard Ng, and Francis Ng.
SYNOPSIS:
The power to control everything lies within the blades of two magical swords, and only one person can wield such power. Maybe.
Originally released in 1993 and based on The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber by Louis Cha (a.k.a. Jin Yong), the third part of what was known as The Condor Trilogy, Kung Fu Cult Master is quite possibly one of the weirdest and most bizarre movies to come under the umbrella of wuxia, and that really is saying something.
A plot breakdown is nearly impossible because this is a movie that has so much going on, and yet is really quite simple once you get to the heart of it, as it is basically a ‘one must rise above all others/ hero stepping up to the impossible challenge’ story, à la Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. The movie opens with a voiceover that, if anything, gives you too much information, as we are given the backstory of two swords that will give whoever wields them control over all martial arts, and naturally there are various splinter groups of every type of martial art going who want these swords. Some of the cults are good and some are bad, and we are given a list of who is who, and by the time the story begins properly it is a bit of an information overload and very confusing as to who is who.
Anyway, the story proper picks up with Chang Mo Kei (Jet Li), a young man who saw his parents die in front of him when he was a child. They were the only people who knew the whereabouts of one of the swords, and because he was injured as a child he hasn’t been able to learn martial arts, so he just hangs around a martial arts school run by his master Chang San Fung (Sammo Hung) and is picked on by the other students. However, Mo Keio steps up after he is attacked and left for dead, reluctantly learning martial arts from a powerful monk trapped in a boulder (you have to see it – you really do) and going on a quest to fulfil his destiny before the bad cults get their hands on the swords.
There is a lot more to it, but you get the picture. Mixing martial arts, fantasy and magic with a bit of grindhouse-style editing, Kung Fu Cult Master makes no sense whatsoever, races along at a breakneck pace with crazy camera work and some of the strangest visuals seen outside of a Frank Henenlotter movie, and yet it all seems to work as actors on wires fly about the place, geysers of blood spray across the screen and very obviously young men wear grey wigs and fake beards whilst pretending to be ancient wizards. And there’s a powerful monk who is trapped in a boulder (it is fantastic).
A flop on its original release, mostly due to the fact it bears little resemblance to its source material, the movie has gained a cult following over the past three decades, inspiring two latter-day sequels – there were sequels planned at the time, but the poor box office returns put paid to that – and showcasing what could be done on camera with regards to stunts and dangling people from wires before flinging them around like kites. Yes, it is all rather silly, but silly doesn’t have to be a bad thing, especially when it is this entertaining.
Released on Blu-ray under the Eureka Classics range, Kung Fu Cult Master isn’t the brightest or most colourful movie to have come from the early ‘90s – a period when a lot of movies looked flat and bereft of glamour – but the image is clean enough and has moments that pop out more than others, especially in the exterior shots. The Cantonese audio is crisp and clear, but the English dub is a bit muddy and comes with an audible hiss, which means you have to turn it right up to hear it properly, but as movies are always best viewed in their own language that option is best avoided. Also included is a 2004 interview with legendary martial arts actor and fight choreographer Sammo Hung, and an audio commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng, so you get a bit of history about the movie but not a lot else.
Overall, Kung Fu Cult Master is a fantastical fever dream of the most severe kind, but the frenetic energy and high-octane action easily outweigh the head-scratching moments. It is bloated with plot details that don’t warrant too much thinking about, but if you go into it just knowing that Jet Li must get a magic sword before anyone else then you can just enjoy the insane spectacle of it all.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
