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Cast:
Gordon
Liu Chia Hui
Chen
Kwan Tai
Yung
Wang Yu
Lily
Li
Liu
Chia Liang
Liu
Chia Yung
Ricky
Hui
Fong
Hak On
Cheng
Kai Yeh
Action:
Liu
Chia Liang
Producer:
Run
Run Shaw
Director:
Liu
Chia Liang
Score:
  
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CHALLENGE
OF THE MASTERS
AKA:
N/A
Year:
1976 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
After
a particularly successful debut feature with 'The Spiritual
Boxer', it seemed only natural that Liu Chia Liang would at
some point create his own version of the Wong Fei Hung legend.
Liu, ever the visionary though, decided to concentrate his
attentions on a young, callow Wong Fei Hung, a
near-revolutionary statement at the time.
As
rival schools prepare for their towns prestigous Pao contest,
tensions arise as the righteous school run by Wong Kei Ying is
threatened and mocked by a ruthless rival clan. When the Pao
festival does arrive, the antagonists win due to their obvious
cheating and Wong's school is turned into the pariah of the
martial arts community. However, it becomes apparent that the
victors have been aided by a vicious fugitive named Ho (Liu
Chia Liang) - a man being hunted by close friend of the Wong
school Yu (Liu Chia Yung). Meanwhile Wong's untrained son, Fei
Hung (Liu Chia Hui), desperately asks for kung fu lessons from
his father in an attempt to avenge his school's humiliation at
the Pao competition. While his father refuses, close family
friend Master Lu (Chen Kwan Tai) agrees to take Wong Fei Hung
away for two years and give him the intensive training regime
he craves. As Wong progresses in Lu's isolated home, Yu is
murdered by Ho and the Wong school continues to face
persecution from its rival. Nevertheless, when Wong Fei Hung
returns to his home town, he is now a fully skilled Hung fist
exponent and ready to avenge the recent tragedies.
Despite
the fact that 'Challenge Of The Masters' hasn't aged as well
as some of Liu Chia Liang's other notable works, there's
undoubtedly much on offer for genre fans and the casual
cinema-goer. The fresh-faced cast of some of the Jade Screen's
most popular stars takes this ordinary storyline and injects
enough verve into it to make it live beyond its constraints.
Liu constructs a cast that is full of Shaw Brothers' heroic
youngsters (Liu Chia Hui and Yung Wang Yu), the comparatively
veteran Chen Kwan Tai and a few villainous character actors (Fung
Hak On and Chiang Tao). With such a classic Shaw Brothers'
cast under Liu's direction, it would be impossible for
'Challenge Of The Masters' not to succeed, even though it
falls short of his later masterworks.
While
the simple narrative thrust of 'Challenge Of The Masters' is
enough for most film-makers, a director of Liu Chia Liang's
lustre requires something a bit meatier to get his teeth into.
Therein lies the main problem with Liu's finished work: it
just feel substantial enough to be worthy of his illustrious
canon. Of course it needs to be remembered that this was only
Liu's second film and so it cannot be too surprising to see a
martial arts picture that is somewhat rough around the edges.
However, the storyline is severely undermined by the
uninvolving 'Pao' contest; the time spent fleshing out the
master/student thread is good, but the whole Pao competition
lacks any real excitement. Whereas films like 'Dragon Lord'
have used such contests as a means to an end, 'Challenge Of
The Masters' uses it as the grand climax - a particular flaw
here.
Action-wise,
'Challenge Of The Masters' shows the signs of Liu Chia Liang's
choreographic refinements. While the various fight scenes are
nothing incredible to the spoilt eyes of viewers in 2004, it's
still clearly as good as much of what was released at the
time. This quality, alongside a winning cast, helps to make up
for the obvious short-falls elsewhere. It's undoubtedly a
fascinating piece of history from one of Hong Kong's foremost
screen artists.
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