Magnificent Butcher (1979)
"Lin Shi Rong" (original title)

A plump butcher student of Wong Fei Hung, Lam Sai-Wing (Sammo) gets into trouble with a rival kung-fu school known as Five Dragons and is accused of raping the head of that school's ... See full summary »

Directors:

Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Woo-ping Yuen

Writers:

Dang Geng-san, Jing Wong

Stars:

Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Hoi Sang Lee, Pai Wei

Cast

Credited cast:
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo	...	Lam Sai-wing / 'Butcher Wing'
Hoi Sang Lee	...	Master Ko
Pai Wei	...	Chik
Yuen Biao	...	Foon
Tak-Hing Kwan	...	Wong Fei-Hong
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Billy Chan	...	Tai Hoi's man
Qiqi Chen	...	Lan Hsing
Kam Chiang	...	Lam Sai-kwong
Fat Chung	...	Wildcat
Mei Sheng Fan	...	Beggar
Ging Man Fung	...	Chess player
Hark-On Fung	...	Ko Tai-Hoi
Pak-Kwong Ho	...	Blind man
Ching-Ying Lam	...	Killer with Fan
Fung Lee	...	Restaurant worker

Storyline

A plump butcher student of Wong Fei Hung, Lam Sai-Wing (Sammo) gets into trouble with a rival kung-fu school known as Five Dragons and is accused of raping the head of that school's goddaughter and killing his son. Now Ko, the head of five dragons, wants revenge.

---

Plot Keywords:

kung fu | revenge | attempted rape | comic hero | martial arts training | 

---

Genres:

Action | Comedy

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violent content

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

19 December 1979 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Magnificent Butcher

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Siu-Tien Yuen's death, the script was rewritten. Lee Hoi -San originally played a comic relief character and a different actor played Sammo Hung's brother before the rewrite.

---

Connections

Featured in The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1992)

User Reviews

what more could a Kung Fu fan ask for

The best place to start signing the praises of this truly "magnificent" film is to look at the names of all those involved with the movie. A venerable who's who of Kun Fu movies past and present rounds out this film.

The film is directed by Yuen Woo Ping, who would later become the master of fight scenes in such movies as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Once Upon a Time in China series, Kung Fu Hustle, oh and he also directed some great films such as this film and The Buddhist Fist.

The film's screenplay is by Wong Jing, who's notorious for his hit or miss HK films. The Legend of Fong Sai-Yuk and Meltdown stand out in my mind as his best films, and from the humor shown throughout this movie it's obvious that Wong Jing had a hand in it, he is definitely "on" in this movie.

The Magnificent Butcher stars Sammo Hung, who unless you were living under a rock in the 1970s and 1980s you should know as one of the more competent kung fu movie stars of his era. Sammo plays the title character "Butcher Wing" (Lam Sai-Wing) one of the more notable of the real life disciples of Kung Fu hero, patriot, and Chinese healer Wong Fe-Hung. Butcher Wing getting his niickname as he was a butcher by trade in his day job, which often leads to many funny butcher jargon jokes during kung fu scenes in movies in which Buther Wing is a character. While not as funny as some of the double entendre fight dialouge in Once Upon a Time in China 5, there is a humorous scene in Magnificent Butcher where Sammo gets a lesson in cooking, mistakenly thinking he's getting a kung fu lesson. Sammo holds his own as Butcher Wing he has the build and demeanor for the part, and quite honestly as this is the only movie I know of featuring Butcher Wing as the main character, Sammo Hung as a big name actor was a good choice for the Role.

Tak-Hing Kwan makes a brief but memorable appearance in his typical role at the time of Master Wong Fei-Hung. This was THE guy, this is who Chinese movie-goers associated as Wong Fei-Hung before Jet Li revived the role in the Once Upon a Time in China series. Tak-Hing Kwan plays and older, queue-less Wong Fei-Hung, but a Wong Fei-Hung who is still a master physician and martial artist nonetheless. Yes this is the movie with the famous scene of Wong Fei-Hung demonstrating calligraphy as a self defense technique. The movie is worth seeing for this scene alone, even if you're not a fan of Sammo Hung you will get a kick out of Tak-Hing Kwan's defensive calligraphy style.

Yuen Biao is also in this gem of a film, one I highly recommend seeing if only to see what Wong Fei-Hung films were like prior to Jet Li. The 1970s and 80s were filled with low budget pure crap films, and rest assured this film is not one of them. This is a rare gem from that era, one that any kung fu fanatic must see.