Reviews & Ratings for
Challenge of the Masters More at IMDbPro »Liu A-Cai yu Huang Fei-Hong (original title)

13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Correction!, 18 November 2004

Author: Matti-Man from London, England

Just need to point out that one of the other reviewers here has made a mistake. He's clearly thinking of "Challenge of the Ninja" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080172/ ) not "Challenge of the Masters".

"Ninja" is the one with Gordon Liu (Liu Chia- Hui) marrying the Japanese girl and having to fight her relatives to prove whether Chinese or Japanese Martial Arts are best. It's especially memorable for the superb Chinese Sword vs Katana battle, still one of the great duels of Hong Kong movies, 25 years on.

Not as polished as later films by Chia-Liang Liu, "Challenge of the Masters" is still a pretty slick accomplishment when gauged against other contemporary Hong Kong films. Though shot in 1976, the movie looks as though it were made 5-10 years later. There's no doubt that the young Chia Hui Liu (Gordon Liu) is a star in the making. As always, his physical presence is arresting, his technical skills second-to-none and, heck, he's just plain likable.

His mentor Chia-Liang Liu does a reasonable job with the direction, but it's the fight choreography that shines here. His one-on-one fight with his protégé Chia Hui Liu in the bamboo forest at the three-quarter point is just excellent, and the interesting theme of martial arts binding its exponents together in brotherhood, is a refreshing change from all the revenge dramas that were coming out of Hong Kong (mostly from Chang Cheh, it would seem) at the time.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
kung fu classic, 29 September 2008

Author: (winner55) from United States

This is the "other" Wong Fei Hung coming-of-age film that 'fu film fans rave about whenever the subject of Jackie Chan's far more famous "Drunken Master" comes up. And there's good reason for the raving. Director Liu set out to make a film about the discipline of kung fu, not a "fight film." There's action aplenty here, don't worry about that; but it is significant that there is only one death in the whole film, and this brought about by a gimmick rather than skill. Liu successfully makes the case that kung fu is a matter of self-discipline, requiring prolonged and constant study, and not a weapon for beating people up (although of course it can do that too).

The acting is excellent, the production values high, the script solid. Finally, it must be remarked that this film is considerably more true to the memory of the real Wong Fei Hung than Jackie Chan's. Definitely a classic of its genre.

Extremely familiar material handled exceptionally well., 9 February 2010

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I have seen an awful lot of martial arts films over the years and the plot for this film is roughly the same as at least half of them. THE most common plot in all of martial arts-dom is the battle between the good martial arts school and the evil one. In some cases, the evil ones wipe out all but one of the good guys--only to eventually be destroyed by the lone survivor at the end. In others, the evil guys are more surly and less deadly--like this film. They beat up the good guys, break the rules and act nasty...but never get around to killing people. Ultimately, the one guy who goes off into hiding and non-stop training returns to vindicate his people--not kill off the baddies. This is what most would think of as the "Cobra Kai" scenario--and that is what happens in CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS (or "Lui A-Cai yu Huang Fei-Hong").

The film begins in a town where there are several competing martial arts schools, though the problems only occur between two of them--the guys in gray and the guys in black (which, naturally, is the evil one as black is ALWAYS the evil color). The baddies cheat and break every rule to win in the big contest and the bad guys are punished for following the rules! Gee...it sounds like WWE wrestling, actually! However, this is the not the worst of it. A wanted criminal is hiding among the baddies and he's a killer and thief (gosh) and eventually one of the goodies is murdered by him.

So, it's up to the seemingly inept son of one of the goodies' leaders to leave for two years to train rigorously with the Master. And, much of the film shows him working out, getting his butt kicked and busting his butt to be good enough to capture the murderer and win the next contest his school participated in--which was coming in two years.

Ultimately, he does have a lovely little showdown with the murderer. Interestingly, though, when the baddies found out this guy was a wanted killer, they said they were glad he was caught and praised his capture! Seriously. These guys are bad, but only to a point! And in the final contest, an unexpected result comes about and EVERYONE becomes good pals! Now from my description, it sounds like I was making fun of the film. However, I didn't mind the familiar plot because the martial arts in this Shaw Brothers film were top-notch. Not only that, but unlike most films in the genre, they used many types of combat and weapons--and did great with each. Wonderful sword, pole, spear and hand to hand fighting filled the movie from start to finish and you had to admire them. In the DVD extras, one of the stars talked about how they used real weapons and practiced the scenes again and again--and it showed. The bottom line is that there are a lot of ultra-crappy martial arts films out there and this is NOT one of them.

Additionally, I loved that the DVD had both the dubbed version (yuck) and the original Chinese version with subtitles (yeah!). To make this even better, the print was pristine and made viewing the film a delight--something that cannot be said of most martial arts films. Too often, they are poorly dubbed, nonsensical and laughably bad--technically this one is among the best.

0 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A must a watch kung fu flick, 25 December 1998

Author: di kit from Calgary, AB

This movie was pretty darn good. One reason was that it showed lots of different techniques of kung fu. This chinese guy marries a japanese girl. They have an argument and through a misunderstanding these japanese fighters come to challenge him and he has to fight them all. It has sword, staff, hand-to-hand, and more types of fighting. Plus Lau Kar Fai actually has all his hair. So watch it okay?

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