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Cast:
Jet
Li
Yuen
Wah
Crystal
Kwok
Jerry
Trimble
Action:
Brandy
Yuen
Yuen
Wah
Producer:
Tsui
Hark
Director:
Tsui
Hark
Score:
 
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THE
MASTER
AKA:
Wong Fei Hung '92
Year:
1988 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
Tak
(Yuen Wah) was once a highly accomplished teacher of the
Martial Arts but now he lives the quiet life as a Chinese
medicinal practitioner, working from his shop in downtown Los
Angeles. When the teacher of the local Karate school
(Trimble) decides to challenge Tak to a fight he is caught off
guard by sheer numbers and badly injured. A young girl
comes to his aid but the language barrier provides unforeseen
complications so while he heals, Tak's shop goes into
disrepute. When Tak's student Jet (Li) arrives in L.A.
to visit his master he is confronted by a deserted shop but no
sign of of Tak. All alone in a big city with no grasp of
English, it's up to Jet to track down his master and take
revenge on the man who ruined his business.
After
achieving notoriety with the 'Shaolin Temple' movies, Tsui
Hark decided the way forward for Jet Li was to launch him in a
modern day actioner marketed towards an international
audience. Sadly though, rather than showcasing his
unique style of Hong Kong filmmaking, Hark gives 'The Master'
a distinctly American approach with the use the over-familiar
"new kid in town" storyline to create an image more
suited to the 'Karate Kid' series. To add insult to
injury, the supporting cast (with the exception of the
underused Yuen Wah) are some of the poorest performers
available and they only succeed in lowering the overall tone
of the film. On the plus side, the film does succeed
with some of it's action set-pieces, particularly the all
action finale which takes place atop a skyscraper and allows
Li to cut lose with flashes of his Wu Shu brilliance.
'The
Master', like many before and after it, attempts to take the
fast track towards international success by copying a
tried and tested formula. However, with a non-existent
script and seriously under-par actors, it was never really
going to amount to anything more than a set of average fight
sequences. Unsurprisingly, upon completion the film was
shelved for two years and then released on the back of the
success of the 'Once Upon a time in
China' series under the
new title of 'Wong Fei Hung '92'.
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