Challenge of the Masters (1976) User Reviews

Correction!

[Matti-Man · 7/10 · 18 November 2004]

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.

The legacy of Grandmaster Liu Chia-Liang starts here

[ckormos1 · 8/10 · 7 November 2015]

I consider Liu Chia Liang (Lau Kar-Leung) the most important person in the history of martial arts movies. I call him the Grandmaster. No man can better tell any story about Wong Fei-Hung. Liu Chia-Liang learned martial arts from his father, a student of Lam Sai-Wing, who was a student of Wong Fei-Hung himself. Liu Chia-Liang honed his skills as stunt man and then action choreographer beginning in 1953 with the Wong Fei-Hung series of movies starring Kwan Tak-Hing.

His personal golden age of directing martial arts movies began in 1975 with "The Spiritual Boxer." His other movies "Challenge of the Masters", "Executioners from Shaolin", "Heroes of the East", "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin", "Dirty Ho", "My Young Auntie", and "Legendary Weapons of China" are among the top ten martial arts movies of all time.

I am often asked "What was the best martial arts movie ever?" and my subjective answer has been "Legendary Weapons of China". I am also often asked "What was the best fight scene ever?" Like the other question this is really impossible to answer. It is totally subjective and how does one even define the qualities that make the best fight scene ever? Yet, I can tell you this with no doubt, on May 7, 1976 (the release date of "Challenge of the Masters") the best fight scene ever filmed as of that day was the fight scene in that movie with Liu Chia-Liang against his brother Lau Kar-Wing. The runner –up would be his fight against Gordon Liu in the same movie.

The Values of Kung Fu

[dafrosts · 8/10 · 21 March 2018]

I enjoy this movie because while the fight scenes are incredible to watch, it also emphasizes the value Kung Fu brings to the individual. Kung Fu is not just a skill used in movies to exact revenge upon those who have done you, your family, community, country, etc wrong. It is an internal skill promoting self awareness, peace and co-existence with the world around you.

Having all 3 Laus in one movie is quite a treat. Leung, Wing and Gordon feed well off each other. The battle between Wing and Leung is the best fight of the whole movie imho. It ends as as expected in these movies - Leung's character getting the upper hand despite the Wing's skillfulness.

Wong Fei Hung (Gordon Liu) wants to learn Kung Fu but is denied by his father, who feels Wong doesn't "have the knack" for it. Officer Yuan Ching (wing) sees the potential in Wong Fei and wants him to pursue Kung Fu studies. Lu Ah Tsai (Chen Kuan Tai) agrees to take Wong Fei on as a student, despite Wong Fei's father's apprehension.

Wong Fei an Lu Ah Tsai are gone for almost the usual 3 years to study Wushu. Wong Fei wants to avenge Officer Ching's death, but stops short of killing Ho Fu (Leung) because Tsai's lessons of true Kung Fu avail in time. Ho Fu is instead taken to the local magistrate to stand trial for his many crimes, including killing Ching.

Wong Fei's return home coincides with the local annual Lion Dance competition/Festival. Something in which his father's school hasn't participated in for years due to a fighting incident with another local school (the evil one, of course).

Master Pang (Shut Chung-Tin) is less than thrilled with Wong fei's return and devises a devious way to ensure Wang Fei and his classmates don't win anything at the festival. The plan seems to be working, until Wang Fei remembers Tsai's teachings and does as his sifu instructed, helps his fellow man by giving one of Pang's students, Yeung Chung (Fung Hak-On), a firecracker so Pang's school also wins the competition. I was waiting for Yeung Chung to continue on the "evil student" line once he received the firecracker. However, his human side appears and he celebrates the gift by demanding his school stop fighting with Wong Fei's school. Both schools celebrate as a whole.

I know revenge is usually the way to go with 98% of Wushu. However, I enjoy a movie that teaches a stronger lesson like this one does. I highly recommend this film not only for the moral, but to see the Laus working together.

Enjoyable film that takes a (small) step away from the constant action and builds well to some good fights

[bob the moo · 2 January 2014]

Although his father is a master, Wong Fei-Hong does not know any martial arts as he has been forbidden from learning even though he wants to. In his town an opposing school from his father's school is involved in shady activities and will happily cheat to win the annual pao contest. By coincidence one of the other school is a robber (Ho Fu) and is being pursued by Officer Yuan Ching. With the evils of the other school becoming more deadly, Wong Fei-Hung goes away to make the most of the potential seen by Yuan and spend years training under the tutelage of his father's teacher, Master Luk Ah Choy.

I delayed watching this film because many comments and details on IMDb suggested it would be slow. The text here says it is slow pace and commenter's talk about how the makers wanted to get away from constant action and make a film more about the spirit of martial arts rather than constant killing. In a way this is correct but this is not to suggest that the film is dull or that it focuses on training more than other films with a similar plot structure. Although the narrative doesn't quite hang together, we do get two schools against each other with lots of characters in support. There is a lot of action in the first half of the film, although mostly it is plot driven or takes place in the chaos of the pao contest. There is a good fight between Ho Fu and Yuan and after this the training begins – which is also engaging. The final fight sequences are good and the ending is a nicely positive one.

Gordon Liu leads the cast well; he is a good presence and leading man. He works very well with Chen Kuan-Tai as his teacher. Lau Kar-leung plays the villain well because he doesn't push into cartoony which would be against the grain for the film, but instead is just a criminal. The rest of the cast generally get this as well and this allows the conclusion to work well. Challenges of the Masters is not a brilliant film but it is not slow-moving or dull either, it is just not OTT and flamboyant as some films in the genre can be. The approach to the training is nothing new but it works well and engages thanks in part to the good cast and solid consistent delivery, making for an enjoyable film that pretty much does what you want.

Great message

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 6 December 2021]

Director Lau Kar-Leung trained in martial arts under the strict instruction of his father Lau Cham, who studied Hung Gar under Lam Sai-wing, who was a student of Wong Fei-hung, the man that this movie is all about. After working as an extra and choreographer, Lau Kar-Leung became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and worked often with director Chang Cheh.

His best known movies would be 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Return to the 36th Chamber, Aces Go Places 5, Drunken Master 2, Legendary Weapons of China, Tiger on the Beat and Heroes of the East.

Teenager Wong Fei-hung (Gordon Liu) has been sent to train in the art of hung gar kung fu from his father's teacher, Luk Ah-choy, after entering - and losing - in a tournament on his own and causing his father's school to be dishonored.

The true beauty of this film is the knowledge that martial arts bring one a centered feeling and can take a brash and angry young man and create a tempered adult. Luk Ah-choy continues to remind the hero that he must give more forgiveness and less aggression. These may seem alien concepts for those that only see these films as poorly dubbed fights, but to those that love the genre and have taken their own fighting journies, it will ring with absoute sincerity.

Not Liu Chia-liang's best, but still a must-see classic

[pasaribuharisfadli · 7/10 · 7 March 2022]

Challenge of the Masters was Liu Chia-liang only second (or third? It confuses me sometimes) directorial effort and it shows. The "real" fight scene only started to happen in half of the film's run time since Lau was apparently more concerned with the philosophical aspect and moral of the story than its action scenes (which were solid, of course, but alas were few and far between).

Solid Wong Fei Hung story from Liu Chia-Liang

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 19 December 2016]

During the mid 1970s, famed Shaw Brothers director Chang Cheh and equally famed Shaw Brothers action choreographer Liu Chia-Liang had an unspecified falling out which meant they would never work together again. The good news for genre fans is that both Cheh and Liu went their own way making rival products during the latter part of that decade which turned out to be among their very best work. While Cheh concentrated on the Venoms and heroic bloodshed cinema, Liu went for more classical martial artists like Gordon Liu and delivered films all about technique.

CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS is such a film. While it's not as profound as MARTIAL CLUB, later made by the same team, it's still a solid watch and a must for fans of the star or director. What I enjoyed about this film is the plotting, which is more intricate than expected and gives the major stars different roles to the norm. The most standard of the bunch is Gordon Liu himself, who undergoes the usual gruelling training regime found in most of his films from the era, although the twist is that he's playing Wong Fei-hung himself.

Liu Chia-Liang plays in support as a bandit expert, kind of like the role he played in DRUNKEN MASTER II but with a much darker edge. His fight scenes are invariably the highlights of the picture. In a star-studded picture, we also get Wong Yue in support as well as Lily Li and even Chen Kuan Tai, playing something other than the usual stock hero or villain he essayed. Liu Chia-Liang gets to battle his own brother at one point and it's another hit. The episodic nature of the production takes in rival school material, some comedy, some lion dance episodes, and a moralistic ending that I enjoyed. Regular screen thugs Chiang Tao and Fung Hark-On have a good double act. There are even bit parts for the likes of Yuen Biao, Eric Tsang, and Lam Ching-Ying if you can spot them.

kung fu classic

[winner55 · 10/10 · 29 September 2008]

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.

A must a watch kung fu flick

[di kit · 8/10 · 25 December 1998]

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?

Extremely familiar material handled exceptionally well.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 9 February 2010]

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.

Good vs evil (?)

[kosmasp · 9/10 · 28 June 2023]

No pun intended - I really like the shaw brothers and their movies - I watched quite a lot of them when I was younger. I might have seen this one - but being so many decades ago, I don't remember. I do remember the next one I watched - at least some of the scenes, but more on that later.

We have things that have not aged well - I have mentioned this before, but weapons look obviously fake (or rather plastic - because ... well they are, so that's that). Then you also have one of the main characters and his wig (white hair) - you can clearly see where it begins. You see the make up or mask or whatever you want to call it.

If those things sound like nitpicking, feel free to ignore them. And enjoy the mayhem and movie (fights) you get to see. This really is enjoyable, even if it seems that all conflict is being solved by fighting ... right up to the end ... and beyond I suppose. But it's a movie, so it's ok.