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Behold the power of jump rope!
No, seriously. The movie Knockabout (featuring Yuen Biao in his first starring role, and Sammo Hung in a major supporting role) taught me all about the power of jump rope. It also caused me to realize that every single time someone in a 70s or 80s Hong Kong movie uses monkey style kung fu, they must also make monkey noises. It's never shown, but I'm pretty sure that part of the training for this art includes having a set of monkey vocal cords surgically added to your own vocal cords.
The above paragraph should really let you decide right away whether Knockabout is the movie for you. Allow me to elaborate by mentioning that the subtitles are awful. Not only do they feature bad translation, but there are big chunks of the movie where they're totally out of sync and then other parts where they're not even there.
Knockabout is pretty typical of its era. The martial arts are good but pretty much the same as in almost every other movie from the time. The sadistic training sequences are appropriately wince-inspiring. And of course, part of the final fight takes place in a large field far away from town. Naturally, this final fight is driven by revenge.
I did take some amusement from this movie. Yuen Biao and the character who I think was his brother have some very funny interactions. They reminded me a lot of my next-door neighbors, who have been roommates long enough that they squabble like brothers.
And then there was The Dead and the Deadly. This is another one of those movies with ghosts, Taoist priests, and hijinks related to both. It also has Sammo Hung. Do not sit down expecting it to be as good as Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, because honestly, it sucked. Very little stands out about it in my memory now, a week or two later, except for a shudder-inducing scene involving the removal of gold teeth from a man pretending to be a corpse. Ugh.
It was supposed to be a comedy, but it really wasn't. I'm not sure that I laughed even once. I also didn't find myself caring about any of the characters. The movie really failed to engage me. Don't even get me started on the effects. Guh.
If you're looking for some crazy Taoist priest fun, I highly recommend several far-superior flicks, including the aforementioned Spooky Encounters, and then Mr. Vampire and Magic Cop. Whatever you do, however, do NOT rent Mr. Vampire 2. That road leads only to pain!
There's a couple more 80s martial arts movies coming up in my queue. One of them even has Shaolin in the title. This should make for some great review fodder! Tune in next month for the full report.
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