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Rating: 4 stars

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Seen 1 time

Seen on: 05/06/2010

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979)

Directed by Joseph Kuo

Action

Most recently watched by noahphex

Overview

Lee Yi Min stars as an eager young kung fu student who seeks to improve his fighting skills with an aim to avenge his fathers murder at the hands of the Ghost Face Killer an overwhelming force of destruction and master of the death dealing Five Element Fist. Lee eagerness to study attracts the attention of the master of Chess Boxing Jack Long who is the Ghost Face Killers arch enemy. Together master and student devise a wicked cross fertilization of the Chess Boxing and Five Element Fist styles and set out to put an end to the Ghost Faces deadly reign.

Length 87 minutes

Actors

Yuen Siu-Tin | Jack Lung Sai-Ga | Mark Lung Goon-Mo | Jeanie Chang | Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi | Hsiao Wang | Hsiao Hou Tao | Li Yi-Min | Wong Wing-Sang | Wong Chi-Sang | Mau Ging-Shun | Au Lap-Bo | Wong Suet-Kwan

Viewing Notes

For those Wu Tang fans, you’d instantly recognize this title since they have a song about it, plus one of their members, Ghost Face Killer, took his name from the antagonist of this movie.

It’s apparently very hard to find and there’s only one 35mm print of it out there. This is a shame and that person needs to get it on DVD for more people to see because this is one heck of a fun kung-fu movie. The plot is simple as hell…Ghost Face Killer is going around offing the heads of some clan he had a run in with. Before he goes into battle he throws down a red-faced metal symbol then proceeds to kick their asses.

Because of Ghost Face’s path of destruction he leaves behind a kid of a killed man, who grows up and joins a kung-fu academy to learn to fight. He’s a bumbler and this leads to a lot of amusing kung-fu based comedy scenes, including a great one where the lead is serving rice for his fellow schoolmates. Once at the school he meets a master, who is the chef of the school and he agrees to teach him chess, which turns into a skill that he can use for fighting, hence the name “chess boxing”.

This all leads to the big showdown between Ghost Face, the Chess Boxing master and the kid, with a great choreographed fight and a totally abrupt ending.

All in all it’s actually one of the more fun kung-fu flicks I’ve seen and while I’ve not seen a bunch, it reminds me of similar style to Jackie Chan, who is about the same age as the lead in this film, Yi-Min Li.

If you ever have a chance to check it out I highly recommend it. The subtitles on the version I saw were very hard to read but the movie doesn’t require a lot because it’s so action oriented and the plot is so simple.

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