Challenge of the Masters (1976)

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

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

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

During the mid 1970s, famed Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh and equally famed Shaw Brothers action choreographer Liu Chia-Liang had an unspecified falling out which meant they would never work together again. The good news for genre fans is that both Cheh and Liu went their own way making rival products during the latter part of that decade which turned out to be among their very best work. While Cheh concentrated on the Venoms and heroic bloodshed cinema, Liu went for more classical martial artists like Gordon Liu and delivered films all about technique.CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS is such a film. While it's not as profound as MARTIAL CLUB, later made by the same team, it's still a solid watch and a must for fans of the star or director. What I enjoyed about this film is the plotting, which is more intricate than expected and gives the major stars different roles to the norm. The most standard of the bunch is Gordon Liu himself, who undergoes the usual gruelling training regime found in most of his films from the era, although the twist is that he's playing Wong Fei-hung himself.Liu Chia-Liang plays in support as a bandit expert, kind of like the role he played in DRUNKEN MASTER II but with a much darker edge. His fight scenes are invariably the highlights of the picture. In a star-studded picture, we also get Wong Yue in support as well as Lily Li and even Chen Kuan Tai, playing something other than the usual stock hero or villain he essayed. Liu Chia-Liang gets to battle his own brother at one point and it's another hit. The episodic nature of the production takes in rival school material, some comedy, some lion dance episodes, and a moralistic ending that I enjoyed. Regular screen thugs Chiang Tao and Fung Hark-On have a good double act. There are even bit parts for the likes of Yuen Biao, Eric Tsang, and Lam Ching-Ying if you can spot them.

I consider Liu Chia Liang (Lau Kar-Leung) the most important person in the history of martial arts movies. I call him the Grandmaster. No man can better tell any story about Wong Fei-Hung. Liu Chia-Liang learned martial arts from his father, a student of Lam Sai-Wing, who was a student of Wong Fei-Hung himself. Liu Chia-Liang honed his skills as stunt man and then action choreographer beginning in 1953 with the Wong Fei-Hung series of movies starring Kwan Tak-Hing. His personal golden age of directing martial arts movies began in 1975 with "The Spiritual Boxer." His other movies "Challenge of the Masters", "Executioners from Shaolin", "Heroes of the East", "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin", "Dirty Ho", "My Young Auntie", and "Legendary Weapons of China" are among the top ten martial arts movies of all time. I am often asked "What was the best martial arts movie ever?" and my subjective answer has been "Legendary Weapons of China". I am also often asked "What was the best fight scene ever?" Like the other question this is really impossible to answer. It is totally subjective and how does one even define the qualities that make the best fight scene ever? Yet, I can tell you this with no doubt, on May 7, 1976 (the release date of "Challenge of the Masters") the best fight scene ever filmed as of that day was the fight scene in that movie with Liu Chia-Liang against his brother Lau Kar-Wing. The runner –up would be his fight against Gordon Liu in the same movie.

Although his father is a master, Wong Fei-Hong does not know any martial arts as he has been forbidden from learning even though he wants to. In his town an opposing school from his father's school is involved in shady activities and will happily cheat to win the annual pao contest. By coincidence one of the other school is a robber (Ho Fu) and is being pursued by Officer Yuan Ching. With the evils of the other school becoming more deadly, Wong Fei-Hung goes away to make the most of the potential seen by Yuan and spend years training under the tutelage of his father's teacher, Master Luk Ah Choy.I delayed watching this film because many comments and details on IMDb suggested it would be slow. The text here says it is slow pace and commenter's talk about how the makers wanted to get away from constant action and make a film more about the spirit of martial arts rather than constant killing. In a way this is correct but this is not to suggest that the film is dull or that it focuses on training more than other films with a similar plot structure. Although the narrative doesn't quite hang together, we do get two schools against each other with lots of characters in support. There is a lot of action in the first half of the film, although mostly it is plot driven or takes place in the chaos of the pao contest. There is a good fight between Ho Fu and Yuan and after this the training begins – which is also engaging. The final fight sequences are good and the ending is a nicely positive one.Gordon Liu leads the cast well; he is a good presence and leading man. He works very well with Chen Kuan-Tai as his teacher. Lau Kar-leung plays the villain well because he doesn't push into cartoony which would be against the grain for the film, but instead is just a criminal. The rest of the cast generally get this as well and this allows the conclusion to work well. Challenges of the Masters is not a brilliant film but it is not slow-moving or dull either, it is just not OTT and flamboyant as some films in the genre can be. The approach to the training is nothing new but it works well and engages thanks in part to the good cast and solid consistent delivery, making for an enjoyable film that pretty much does what you want.

This is the "other" Wong Fei Hung coming-of-age film that 'fu film fans rave about whenever the subject of Jackie Chan's far more famous "Drunken Master" comes up. And there's good reason for the raving. Director Liu set out to make a film about the discipline of kung fu, not a "fight film." There's action aplenty here, don't worry about that; but it is significant that there is only one death in the whole film, and this brought about by a gimmick rather than skill. Liu successfully makes the case that kung fu is a matter of self-discipline, requiring prolonged and constant study, and not a weapon for beating people up (although of course it can do that too).The acting is excellent, the production values high, the script solid. Finally, it must be remarked that this film is considerably more true to the memory of the real Wong Fei Hung than Jackie Chan's. Definitely a classic of its genre.