The Fearless Young Boxer (1979)

Powerful

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Father and son (Peter Chang Chi-Long) are walking and father spots his enemy, Casanova Wong. CW wants a gold plate and information. They fight and dad is killed. The son has no kung fu. Soon after the kid is learning kung fu along with a girl. While street performing the kid spots CW. His teacher warns him it is too soon for revenge and to keep training. Later Lee Kwan does a disco dance to win the affection of the girl but she is not interested. Going for wine our guy meets Stumpy who picks his pocket for the gold plate. CW suspects our guy but needs to provoke him to fight as if that would establish his identity. After being kicked out of the troupe he hooks up with the fortune teller to continue to learn martial arts. There is inconsistency regarding how Casanova Wong could possibly know Peter Chang and vice versa. Since this is dubbed in English that might be the problem instead. Regardless the viewer easily can see it will all come down to a final fight between the two and the incidences in the middle seem to only delay the confrontation not build any suspense or other plot structure. Despite that it never gets so far as to drag as many small fights keep the action going.Chan Wai-Lau gets killed off by Casanova Wong before the final fight but he is an actor worthy of mention. He played in over 100 movies mostly as a fighting stunt man (including a good Simon Yuen knock off) despite his small size. In fact, because of his small size he even played an old lady. The fights in this movie were all good. In addition to the good choreography and execution each fight had moves emphasizing the personality of the fighters and the story situation. That extra bit makes the difference between just another fight scene and something memorable. This movie goes even further with the use of the set in the final fight. Typically the final fight in a martial arts movie would be on top a dusty hill or some other featureless landscape. In years to come Jackie Chan would use set pieces for his final fights. I now wonder if this movie was the first use ever. Here the barn is used as part of the fight, the bags of grain, the ropes, the poles, the rafters, and such are all part of the fight choreography.I rate this above average and recommend it for all fans of the genre.

I found METHOD MAN (aka THE FEARLESS YOUNG BOXER, aka AVENGING BOXER) to be a rather humdrum period fu film enlivened by a great, above average climax. This production was shot in Taiwan like a number of the cheaper Hong Kong kung fu movies and features a few familiar faces in an otherwise dullish cast.The film opens with the erstwhile Casanova Wong essaying the role of an unbeatable villain who murders an opponent. His victim's son, played by Peter Chang, swears vengeance and joins up with an acrobat group in order to train in the martial arts. What follows is an hour of comedy and training, slightly below-par stuff if I'm honest, and overly familiar by genre standards. A couple of fights are included to remind you how tough and bad Wong is.Things pick up for a lengthy and compelling fight scene set in a barn. Chang teams up with a female fighter to bring Wong down once and for all, but it's not going to be easy. This extended fight is the only part of the film to get excited about and it doesn't disappoint; Wong is virtually indestructible and Chang has to employ his acrobatic tricks in order to stand a chance. It's much like the two-on-one barn fight at the end of Jackie's DRAGON LORD and although not as good as the fight in that film, it's still the best thing about METHOD MAN.

A young man (played by Peter Chang) watches his father die and grows up wanting to revenge. The story is pretty basic here. Its a bad movie for the most part, but luckily there are some incredible fight scenes.Lung Fei makes a cameo at the start and takes on Cassanova Wong. Some nice kicking by Cassanova, and Lung Fei is defeated easily. Only a warmup of what's to come.After like an hour of no good action, Cassanova gets to fight again. He fights Chan Wai Lau who has a good role as one of Peter Chang's 2 teachers. Chan Wai Lau is a great comedic actor with decent fighting skills, and he performs about as well as he can against Cassanova. He makes good use of a pipe as a weapon, but Cassanova is too much for him.Next up is what I figured would be the highlight of the movie, Wong Wing Sang vs Chia Kai. I am a big fan of both actors, so I was expecting greatness, and that's exactly what I got. Chia Kai does an AMAZING stunt at the beginning where he jumps off of a wall and lands on a table. Awesome fight with good acrobatics and good fist work. Also look for the part where Chia Kai dodges a knife that Wong throws at him. For real.Next Chia Kai takes on Cassanova. Its possibly even better than the Chia Kai Wong Wing Sang fight.Just when I thought the action couldn't possibly get any better, they somehow turn the choreography up a few notches in the final fight. I have only seen Peter Chang in a few movies and this is the only one I have seen where he has a leading role. You may recognize him as the guy with the gun who fights with Wang Chung in Shanghai 13. His acrobatic skills are up there with just about anybody. Its a shame he was only in a handful of movies because he could have been a big star. Major talent completely wasted. Anyways, the final fight is 12 minutes long and one of the best fights I have seen in awhile. I have watched this movie every night for a week and I just can't get over how good the choreography is. Not only will Cassanova Wong fans love this movie, but any kung fu fan will be blown away by the final 30 minutes.I have the Phoenix DVD and the picture quality is a bit above average and its partly widescreen. Sound is decent. English and Japanese tracks, no original language option. For some reason Chan Wai Man is on the cover of the DVD, but he isn't in the movie.

Fearless Young Boxer, aka Method Man, aka The Avenging Boxer I enjoyed this film more than the other reviewers. Peter Chang (Chen) is an underrated actor whose acrobatic ability matches Yuen Biao in many ways. The fight scenes are well done, showing off Casanova's amazing kicks and the final fight scene in the warehouse is surely one of the best ever filmed (a worthy rival to OUATC I). The plot is simplistic : Shao Lung (Peter Chen) joins an acrobat troupe to improve his kung fu skills in order to take on the merciless killer, Wu Pa Feng (Casanova), who took his father's life in a duel over a badge bestowing leadership on a criminal group, and I agree the humour is crudely done but just watch these guys in action.