The Victim (1980)

Really Surprised!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Sammo Kam-Bo Hung has crafted a masterpiece of classic martial arts action. Do not miss this.This film contains some of the best martial arts fight scenes ever shot. Long takes, complex action with large numbers of participants, but most importantly, absolutely stunning choreography and plenty of it. Even in intense action sequences Samo can add a moment of humour before the intensity starts again.The plot is decent (for a martial arts movie). The comedy is slapstick orientated and thankfully mostly works.As any fan of Asian action cinema knows, it's the fights that matter and these action sequences deliver in spades. Samo Hung is a legend amongst fight fans, but sadly largely unrecognised outside Hong Kong aficionados for his absolutely massive contribution to action scenes that Hollywood slowly picked up on. Unfortunately, they still don't grasp many of the concepts Samo and his fellows, like Jackie Chan, created in the 80's Golden years of Hong Kong cinema. Fight editing is dire in Hollywood.Sadly, every copy I can find is not of the best quality, even the DVD. I really wish someone would do a restoration job on it.I've watched this more times than I care to think about. Every single time, the action makes my muscles tense and I hit the rewind too often. It really is that good!A solid 10 for martial arts fans. Do not miss this one. 7/10 for others.

It was overall good, the acting was good, the story was good, the characters were interesting and the fight scenes were good. Leung Kar Yan is as usual a pleasure to watch on screen. His acting often remind of that of another great actor and that particular actor I have in mind is Toshiro Mifune. What Leung and Mifune have in common is they are able to act outrageously but still convincingly. Their energy often comes clearly across the screen. Although I gotta admit Mifune is a far better actor. But the most impressive thing about Leung is he does not have any martial arts background, making the fight scenes more impressive. Sammo Hung, what can I say? He is as good as ever. Except I felt his character was a little incoherent. His character was fun but it was a character who seemed to lack direction, like as if the character was thrown in as an afterthought to make the plot more coherent. There was nothing wrong with Hung's acting and he is more than often good at portraying those kind of characters. The character he was portraying just seemed a little unnecessary.The story was good, but what stalled the movie a bit is the incoherent plot. The plotting of 'The Victim' is a little incoherent compared to movies such as 'The Iron Fisted Monk', 'Warriors Two' or 'Knockabout'. What made it kind of incoherent is its general lack of focus. It jumps from one scene to another with no apparent focus except for going to fight scenes and slapstick comedy. I like both, but what set the Hung movies from the other Kung Fu movies are the focused plots in my opinion. Well, it is not for story or plot movies like this are made but I often feel a solid plot with good acting and fight scenes combined with sufficient production value are what make a solid kung fu movie. So since 'The Victim' lacks a more coherent plot it is not completely solid but it is not bad either. Overall I think this movie has re-watch value and should be worthy of being part of a collection. After all it has some pretty good fight scenes, interesting story, good acting and not bad production value. Don't miss it, any kung fu movie with Leung Kar Yan and Sammo Hung are worth watching. 7/10

If you are a Kungfu classic fan, you must get this film. Warning, you must be patient through the first 10 minutes of this movie. If you can survive the first five minutes, you will definitely be rewarded. This movie has absolutely great fight scenes and a cool story. As the movie progresses the fight scenes become more and more vicious. Why this movie is never listed among the great classics like, 5 deadly Venoms, Master Killer, Snakefist and the monkey shadow and so on, is baffling. Though the movie starts pretty silly, things get pretty serious and stay serious for the remainder of the movie. For Icing on the cake, Wilson Tong makes an appearance. I am absolutely positive that it has the best final fight scene in Kungfu cinema History. A Must See!

I just watched this movie yesterday and it just might have been the best kung-fu movie i have ever seen!It was funny and had lots of really great choreography!! Even Jackie and Jet couldn't do any better than this.