The Master Strikes (1980) User Reviews

Two gamblers help a fighter regain his lost money but not his lost marbles

[ckormos1 · 6/10 · 29 November 2016]

Casanova gets big money to deliver a small jade statue. He is awake all night, nervous. On the road he encounters two odd water buckets and I don't get it. He delivers the box unopened with the jade inside but it is now a rock despite never having been out of his hands. He loses his business for losing the jade.

Cut to a casino and two new guys and a girl and something about cheating. Casanova is in the casino, moping. The gambling guy explains how the jade was switched. They make a plan to get even and need new clothes. They go to a jewelry business to do their plan but find people killed and a hostage situation. The others want to take the old guy and make him reveal Liang's whereabouts. Our guys make off with him instead. They try to make a deal with him but a passerby kills him.

They meet Beggar Su and he becomes their master. Casanova has been crazy since his second scene. The two guys take him to a brothel to find Liang but he no longer recognizes his enemy.

Meg Lam Kin-Ming is in this movie. In Sammo Hung's "Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog" she played the unforgettable multi-handed chick. This is a martial arts comedy but two things I did not find funny were Casanova's "insanity" and the segment in the brothel.

Other reviewers have called this Casanova Wong's best but I disagree. The final fight is fabulous but overall I rate the movie just a bit above average for the year and genre.

My copy is a digital file. It is dual English and Chinese hard subtitled and widescreen with excellent resolution so I suspect the original source was a laser disk.

This movie is literally breathtaking!!

[Carolm-1 · 14 April 2001]

This is by far one of the best kung fu movies I have ever seen,and I own alot of them. Eddy Ko and Cassanova Wong star in this film, but Jen Shi Kwan is the main attraction. The fighting is excellent throughout the movie, but the last fight against Jen Shi Kwan is mind blowing! I've seen him in a few other movies like 36 Crazy Fist which was good, but The Master Strikes takes the cake. Feng Ke-An, and Hwang Jang Lee are still my favorite martial artist, but Jen Shi Kwan is right up there with them. If you run across this film buy it!

Dumb Jackie Chan-style imitator

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 31 January 2017]

THE MASTER STRIKES is another cheap knock-off of the type of films that Jackie Chan was making so successfully in the late 1970s. This imitation features a couple of goofy guys who find out that a bodyguard is protecting a priceless treasure from criminal goons. They decide to join up with him and spend the rest of the film beating up bad guys while engaging in the some of the dumbest and lowest forms of comedy imaginable.

The film features the erstwhile Casanova Wong as the hero but, honestly, I've never understood the appeal; he simply doesn't do much for me. I much prefer his namesake Carter. It doesn't help that this film's fight scenes are far below par compared to what you'd expect from the genre, and the production values are low too. Endless stupid jokes and very bad dubbing make this a bad kung fu film overall. The only time I laughed was during the bizarre scene of a guy being spun around on a chair - it's that kind of film.