Knockabout

Knockabout is Yuen Biao's debut as leading man. Directed by his good friend Sammo, who also put together the fights as well. Overall, this was well done. However, the goofy humor wore a little thin on me this time around. Perhaps I am a little burned out by watching 4 of these kung fu /comedies in a row. I won't complain about the fights, they are fast and furious and as good as they can be. For acrobatic kung fu, Yuen Biao's in the A list. Compared to his other two Chinese opera brothers (Jackie and Sammo), Yuen Biao is sometimes overlooked. This has a good cast with Yuen, Sammo, Beardie and other familiar faces from 70's/80's kung fu films. Knockabout does not rank as one of favorites, but it's a good enough watch to recommend to fans of the genre.

First off, Yuen Biao is amazing, and teaming him with Sammo Hung always makes for a good movie. Fans of those two should definitely see this one. The problem here is that this film doesn't get to the good stuff until 2/3 of the way through.

The first third is mainly over-the-top goofy comedy where Yuen Biao and his brother try to work various scams on unsuspecting people. I usually like Sammo's comedies, but this part seemed to fall flat. I think that's because it tried too hard to be goofy and funny, for example the characters are constantly twitching and making silly faces.

The second third is a mix of comedy and kung fu when the brothers undertake some training. This part comes off fairly well and nicely sets up the story for a twist that takes off in the final third.

The final third of the film switches to a typical training-for-revenge story, and this part is downright great. Yuen Biao undergoes some of the best training scenes I can remember and finally gets to let loose and show his stuff. This culminates in a long fight scene with the villain that's both intense and inventive. If the whole movie was like this I'd give it a nine or ten, but it's weighed down by the first parts to end up just above average.

First things first: the fight scenes in "Knockabout" are plentiful and SUPERB. Some of them are staged like elaborate comic dances - Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton would probably be pleased if they could see some of the gags here. In addition to his great fighting, Yuen Biao performs many admirable acrobatic feats (I doubt that Jackie Chan could ever do some of the stuff that Biao does here), and Sammo Hung moves with incredible agility for a man his size! There is also a lot of comedy in this film, which will not be to everyone's taste, as it involves a lot of mugging and twitching (as well as exaggerated sound effects and animal sounds), but there ARE some genuinely funny moments. The only problem with the film is the plodding pacing: there simply isn't enough story to support 100 minutes of running time. (**1/2)

"Knockabout" is a prime example of all the virtues of old school kung fu movies. It has cool characters, comedy, seriousness, a classic type of story, and loads and loads of great fighting and training sequences (especially, of course, towards the end). And it has these elements in such gold standard versions that it comprises a superb representation of the classic Hong Kong martial arts movie genre.

"Knockabout" brings together three of that time's top names in the world of kung fu movie-making, Sammo Hung, Ka-Yan Leung and Yuen Biao. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao went on to do many movies with Jackie Chan, and actually Ka-Yan Leung's comedic role in this movie could well have been played by Jackie Chan. But I guess, at the time (1979), Ka-Yan Leung was a hotter name. This is the first time I've seen Ka-Yan Leung in a comedy role; he's usually very intense and serious, and often even bitter (see "Lightning Kung Fu" and "The Postman Strikes Back"). So this is quite a change. He pulls off the comedy part very well indeed, demonstrating that his acting range isn't limited to one kind of role.

The main reason Ka-Yan Leung's such a hot property, however, is his marvelous kung fu skills. In "Knockabout" he and Yuen Biao are a couple of thieving brothers who're pretty good at kung fu. But when they encounter a guy they can't beat, they beg to become his students. And indeed, he teaches them to become so good that (as he tells them) "ordinary people" are no match for them. So, the happy-go-lucky brothers promptly go out in search of some "ordinary people" to test their new skills against. They find a bunch of extortion racketeers at the local marketplace, who, when asked who they are, claim to be "merely ordinary people" - and then, of course, the fighting breaks out! Very effective comedy.

Sammo Hung plays a beggar/thief who follows the naive brothers, consistently fooling them out of half their loot. When their newfound master turns out to be a bad guy who only trained the brothers in order to fight off his enemies (who were using combinations of styles that no one person could counter, but two could), Sammo's the only one who knows enough kung fu to beat him. And that's leaving out a *lot* of details! This is a very good movie with a good story, but parts of it are not as entertaining as it could be. The seriousness is *too* serious, considering how wacky the movie's comedy dimension is, so it comes off as not being very well balanced.

I rate "Knockabout" an 8 out of 10. It's among the really good ones, although one movie with a similar cast that is even better, is "Prodigal Son" (1982), which I rate a 9. (9 is my top rating for movies without several layers and other exceptional qualities, like aesthetic cinematography, etc. So far, the only kung fu movies I've rated a "10" are "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero".)

About half an hour into Knockabout and I was ready to award it a rating of 6; the martial arts were not particularly impressive and the comedy was routine. Half an hour later and I had changed my mind; the action had improved somewhat and the story was picking up. A 7 now seemed like a reasonable score.

By the end of the film, however, I was utterly flabbergasted: Knockabout had improved beyond belief, delivering one of the most impressive finales in a martial arts movie that I have had the pleasure to witness. I now award the movie an 8 and highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

Yuen Baio and Ka-Yan Leung play brothers Yipao and Taipao, lovable rogues who convince a martial arts expert to take them on as students. When Yipao discovers that their teacher is actually a wanted criminal, Silver Fox (Chia Yung Liu), he is attacked by his master. Taipao jumps in to protect his sibling but is killed; Yipao barely escape with his life. Seeking revenge, Yipao enlists the help of a beggar (Sammo Hung) who is a master of monkey-style kung fu, and together they take on Silver Fox in a breath-taking fight to the death.

On reflection, I now realise that the earlier, less impressive fights were deliberately underwhelming in order to show how much the brothers still had to learn. As they gain more experience, the fights get better and better, until the mind-bogglingly acrobatic ending in which Biao performs feats that need to be seen to be believed.

The training scenes with Sammo's beggar involve some of the greatest acrobatics I have ever witnessed and these alone make the film worth watching. A final battle with Hung and Biao combining their monkey kung fu skills against Chia Yung Liu's snake style rounds off a wonderfully satisfying movie experience.

Knockabout is a real treat for all lovers of old-school martial arts movies and especially fans of Yuen Baio and Sammo Hung.