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Chow
Sing Chi plays a rich playboy in love with a female revolutionary
who, to get rid of him, persuades him to go for the title of Martial
Arts Scholar in Peking. Chow surprisingly wins the physical competition,
but cheats on the written exam (he's illiterate), as a punishment
the Emperor strips him and his father of their wealth. Chow soon
finds himself the King of Beggars, and, through the use of some
new martial arts techniques, returns to win back his title and the
woman he loves.
From the outset it is clear that this is an extremely big production.
It is definitely Chow Sing Chi's most expensive film and every penny
is up there on the screen. The scale is huge and director Gordon
Chan has managed to stop Chow Sing Chi from going off on his usual
comic asides. In fact, it would be hard to classify this film as
a comedy at all. There are no more jokes than in the usual Jackie
Chan film. Here, Chow plays his usual part of the spoilt brat who
is brought down to earth and then becomes a hero again. Instead
of playing it for laughs he plays it mainly straight. He is good
at finding sympathy with the audience and you end up feeling quite
sorry for him. Technically, this is Chow's best film but don't be
prepared for a laugh a minute. There are a number of extended kung
fu sequences and Chow comes out looking like quite a proficient
martial artist. There are the usual plot twists of a Chow Sing Chi
film but everything seems to run at a much slower pace than usual.
This is no bad thing as more time is given to character development
but it does mean that some parts (especially the middle section)
are quite slow moving.
Quite different to Chow's usual work as more time is given to action.
The end fight goes on a bit too long but this is to be expected.
A well structured and extremely impressive film with some good looking
sets. Gordon Chan shows that he is indeed a quality director and
the production design here (particularly of the exteriors) is similar
to his 'Fist of Legend'.
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