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Starring
:
Li
Yi Min
Jack
Long
Mark
Long
Nancy
Yen
Alan
Hsu
Yuen
Kwai (cameo)
Chien
Yuet San (cameo)
Lung
Fei (cameo)
Action
:
Yuen
Kwai
Yuen
Cheung Yan
Producer
:
Susanna
Kuo
Joseph
Kuo
Director
:
Joseph
Kuo
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THE
SEVEN GRANDMASTERS (1978)
A.K.A.
- The 7 Grand Masters
Reviewed
by Andrew Saroch
On
the day of his retirement from the martial world, kung fu
master Sang (Jack Long) is surrounded by well-wishers and
adoring members of the local community who are in no doubt
about his mastery. The moment is interrupted by a note that
claims that he cannot be the true grandmaster of China until
he has defeated every possible opponent of every conceivable
style. It is this statement that inspires Sang to take up this
challenge and, with his closest students and daughter in tow,
he travels across China defeating all the kung fu masters he
faces. During this epic task, Sang is followed by Liu Ying (Li
Yi Min), a young man hoping to be accepted as a student by the
legendary master. Liu's best efforts are ignored and he finds
himself an object of ridicule to the other pupils of Sang,
though the desperate youngster continues to endure all of this
in the hope of receiving a favourable decision. Eventually
master Sang changes his mind, accepts Liu as his new student
and is quickly impressed at how quickly the newcomer learns
kung fu. As time passes, Liu becomes the most proficient of
all of Sang's students and the master himself succeeds in
beating every other top fighter in China. The quest to finally
name himself grandmaster of China is complete and the band
travel home after years away. However, master Sang is shocked
to find that one surprise challenger is still left and their
reason for the fight goes far beyond gaining a mere title.
'The
Seven Grandmasters' is widely considered to be Joseph Kuo's
greatest achievement, an independent kung fu film that has
garnered praise for it's out-and-out action and overall
energy. Kuo has made some of the most significant films of the
independent field and so this acclaim is worth taking notice
of. For the most part, 'The Seven Grandmasters' delivers the
thrills and spills expected of a better Kuo production while
also offering a few qualities that earn it its extra praise.
Joseph Kuo is a master of working on a tight budget and with
this film he shows how it can be done without being too
obvious; he uses modest sets and, to the credit of the
production's overall look, ample use of outdoor locations. Kuo
also makes better use of the usual assortment of characters -
even the predictable master, bullying older student and naive
newcomer are allowed a few moments of interplay to fleshing
out their personalities. Although the film offers nothing
revolutionary in this department, it's fair to say that the
attempts to have scenes of repose are to the overall credit of
'The Seven Grandmasters'.
The
main question that most fans of the independent field will ask
is undoubtedly regarding the action. Thankfully, with Yuen
Kwai and Yuen Cheung Yan as choreographers, this is where the
film excels. The choreography mixes together some solid
hand-to-hand combat with some acrobatics and a few fine
moments of weapon work; altogether, the quality is of a high
enough standard to make it stand out from the hundreds of
other independents of the time. Although the film has its
moments of character development, it is almost non-stop action
otherwise and so will certainly please even the more
experienced viewer.
It's
a pity that 'The Seven Grandmasters' is nearly a classic, but
not quite. The reason it falls short and the reason why many
of Kuo's features stumble in the same way is the ending. After
hitting the viewer with an interesting twist - something that
is a breath of fresh air considering the conventions of the
genre - Kuo destroys all of its emotion and power by turning
back from it moments later. The sudden revelations and
concluding twists ground the film in the kind of turgid
generics that it had attempted to move away from. While a
Joseph Kuo film is never going to offer the direction or drama
of Liu Chia Liang or Chang Cheh's work, it is nonetheless a
big disappointment. 'The Seven Grandmasters' is only just
worthy of its four stars due to Kuo's ruination of his own
good work.
Rating:
 
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