Cat vs. Rat (1982)

An Exercise In Nonsense

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

CAT VS. RAT is an acceptable if lesser work from director Liu Chia-Liang, best known for his exemplary martial arts technique films made for Shaw Brothers. This isn't one of them; instead, it's an extremely broad period comedy, featuring Alexander Fu Sheng in full-blown 'mugging' comedy mode as he plays the leader of a 'rat clan' at perpetual war with their rival 'cat' enemies. Shades of THE WARRIORS here, perhaps, in the depiction of clan mentality.The opening half of the film is quite tiresome and merely consists of Fu Sheng and his rival Adam Cheng going at it. Liu Chia Yung plays their eccentric old master while Gordon Liu has a small role as an accident-prone emperor. The latter half of the running time involves various characters seeking possession of the emperor's precious jade seal, but it manages to waste the likes of Wang Lung Wei and Kara Hui who only take part in silly, comedic fights. Truth be told, I'm not really a fan of the dumb comedy as found here, so I found this very much an inferior work compared to the true, serious classics like THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN.

A kung-fu comedy featuring Alexander Fu Sheng as an impulse control deficient kung fu master who fights with his training brother, played by Adam Cheng, who lives directly across the street. The two constantly quarrel over who is the better martial artist, goaded on by their families and henchmen. That's the way the film opens and keeps going for a while as the two go to their elderly teacher for a secret technique to defeat the other. Eventually Liu Chia Hui shows up playing the emperor traveling incognito for some reason. This is one of his rare roles not playing a Shaolin monk and he doesn't get to do much kung fu at all. When he does it's played for laughs, so if you are expecting to see his usual spectacular martial arts, forget it.An uneven plot line plus some very broad humor makes this not as enjoyable as some of the other Liu Chia Liang directed films from the Shaw Bros. studios. As usual for his films most of the martial arts are incredible. The actors all do a good job. Alexander Fu Sheng (or his stunt double) does an incredible sword catch / flip to a wide leg split that I had to rewind and see over and over. The final, extended fight with the "Rat Gang" (don't ask) in it's lair didn't work for me but it was watchable.