Yuen Woo-ping directs Sammo Hung, Kwan Tak-hing and Yuen Biao in this Hong Kong Kung Fu farces where a headstrong butcher finds himself in escalating danger from leaping into fights without knowing the causes of them. 

A supremely daft action comedy clearly in the Jackie Chan mould. Sammo never matches the delirious slapstick magic of that star’s output but he is a likeable clown and an amazing exhibition fighter. There’s some nice bits of business; a drunk chicken, an assassin who might be a crazy cat and an elegant calligraphy brush fight. But there’s also a rape and murder sequence that sticks out like barb wire in a playground. Nasty interlude for what is, in the main, highly physical, family fun.

7

My Top 10 Kung Fu Movies

1. Kill Bill (2003/2004)

2. Snake in Eagle’s Shadow (1978)

3. The 36th Chamber of the Shaolin (1978)

4. Enter the Dragon (1973)

5. The Street Fighter (1974)

6. Drunken Master (1978)

7. House of Flying Daggers (2004)

8. Police Story (1985)

9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

10. Ong Bak (2003)