The 7 Grandmasters (1979)

Too much of everything

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

7 GRANDMASTERS is a Taiwanese cheap shot by prolific director Joseph Kuo. It's one of those films which is basically all fighting as a young and upstanding young bloke is awarded the title of kung fu world champion but remains unsure of his merits, to which end he goes on an odyssey of battling as he fights no less than seven of the world's top kung fu grand masters.There's little more plot to it than that, but this film works because the action is of a good quality. It was choreographed by the great Corey Yuen, who of course would go on to make many classics during the 1980s, and thus the fights have a stylish, hard-hitting feel to them that you don't get elsewhere. Yi-Min Li is an acceptable lead and you get popular actors like Jack Long, Mark Long, and Nancy Yen in support. The usual problems of this genre exist in the film's presentation - poor dubbing, fullscreen picture quality - but 7 GRANDMASTERS works well regardless of these issues.

This really defines a blueprint for this kind of movie: 1) Guy with ridiculous facial hair and/or silly hat wonders through the wilderness,happens upon another guy practicing Kung Fu 2) Brief conversation involving a) a particular technique of one of the silly-haired-guys, b) the number of provinces in which the other silly-haired guy is undefeated 3) Fight, preferably involving some kind of animal-style Kung Fu. 4) Repeat as many times as you can squeeze into a couple of hours.Throw in a grueling training sequence (though this maybe isn't quite grueling enough in this movie), a bit of betrayal (ideally involving someone killing someone else's master), some slapstick comedy, some bad dubbing (this genre is really the only one where dubbing should be allowed) and there you have it - the perfect Kung Fu movie. I defy anyone not to enjoy it.

Joseph Kuo made a great movie here and as previous poster pointed out sans any Chans or Lis it's awesome.The fights are realistic yet the moves are just to kool.The story could use a little polish here and there though.Aside from that it's a winner.So if you like any kind of Kung Fu vid don't miss this one.You won't be disappointed by the stylish fights and solid footwork.And even though the story is a little rough it works well.The acting in this is also excellent.The dubbed version I seen was good no bad Cockney accents or really terrible translations.All in all this movie will leave you satisfied.T

I have become something of an expert on kung fu movies lately, and I'm here to tell you that 7 Grandmasters is utterly shock full of the very highest grade kung fu fighting. The story is simple but adequate, the actors are good and the fight sequences are incredibly beautiful and plentiful. This movie probably ought to be the prime example and standard by which the kung fu content of other martial arts movies should be measured. The techniques used here are totally authentic and completely convincing. Although, there are also a very few gratuitous scenes of supernatural moves, which is a pity, because the movie doesn't need it one bit; it is supremely impressive even without that "edge".Another slight flaw about the story is the incredible speed by which the student becomes a master. It's a few weeks at most! That's very silly, but I guess we can just imagine that it's really a longer time-span. The important thing is that the transition from student to master is reflected enormously well in the student's moves; he convincingly acts like a novice at the beginning, with a fumbling and imprecise technique, and later he becomes beautifully adept and fights with obvious power and precision.Also, the structure of the story is excellent and very rewarding, with the master going through a series of great fights, and the student watching and learning as he goes along, eventually excelling beyond anyone's expectations. The end has two masters pitting their students against each other, which also makes for some very cool scenes and a great climax. If you're looking for kung fu movies with great fighting in them, this is about as good as it gets. And there's not even a Jackie Chan or a Jet Li in sight!9 out of 10.