I saw this kung fu movie under the title THUNDERING MANTIS and as other reviewers have mentioned, it has very poor picture quality and some appalling dubbing which doesn't make it a very easy film to sit through. Narrative-wise, it's a simple riff on the plot and ideas of DRUNKEN MASTER, with Beardy giving an energetic performance as a kung fu novice who gets into trouble with some bad guys led by screen veteran Eddy Ko.
Beardy trains his physical strength by lugging giant fish around but is out of his depth in the fights until he befriends a precocious kid and the kid's wise old uncle who just so happens to be adept in the Mantis style. You can guess what happens next, and indeed THUNDERING MANTIS plays out exactly as you'd expect, at least up until the last twenty minutes. Beardy engages in horseplay and knockabout comedy (as in the previous year's KNOCKABOUT) while the Wong Fei Hung theme plays.
The last twenty minutes is something else, however. A tragic chain of plot events sees Beardy's grasp of sanity finally snap and he goes completely berserk in the final fight scene, turning into a spitting, biting maniac with a performance that's completely off the wall. I know Jackie is sometimes pushed over the edge at the end of his movies (memorably in POLICE STORY) but Beardy's transformation here is something else entirely. A shame the rest of the film couldn't match it.
Beardy trains his physical strength by lugging giant fish around but is out of his depth in the fights until he befriends a precocious kid and the kid's wise old uncle who just so happens to be adept in the Mantis style. You can guess what happens next, and indeed THUNDERING MANTIS plays out exactly as you'd expect, at least up until the last twenty minutes. Beardy engages in horseplay and knockabout comedy (as in the previous year's KNOCKABOUT) while the Wong Fei Hung theme plays.
The last twenty minutes is something else, however. A tragic chain of plot events sees Beardy's grasp of sanity finally snap and he goes completely berserk in the final fight scene, turning into a spitting, biting maniac with a performance that's completely off the wall. I know Jackie is sometimes pushed over the edge at the end of his movies (memorably in POLICE STORY) but Beardy's transformation here is something else entirely. A shame the rest of the film couldn't match it.