Review of Legend of a Fighter

Introduction

I first came across Leung Kar Yan in Sammo Hung`s, The Victim, which I think is a superb film. From then, "Beardy" (as he`s affectionately known), has starred in no less than about 30 films of which this is one of the best. Partner with world-renowned action director Yuen Woo Ping and you know we`re talking about top of the range martial arts actions scenes.

Leung Kar Yan plays one of China`s most formidable fighters, Fok Yun Gap, aka Huo Yuan Chia. His father won`t teach him what is reckoned to be one of the foremost styles of kung fu, the family style "Huo style". He wants to protect his son, as he believes he doesn`t have what it takes to learn the style and is weak. Determined to prove his father wrong, he starts to learn kung fu from a mysterious Japanese teacher and learns the secret family style in secret for 12-years until the time comes when he proves himself by protecting the family. His reputation precedes him and he is challenged left and right until the final test to the death by his old Japanese teacher.

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 widescreen enhanced video transfer Legend of a Fighter looks okay for something just over 20-years old. There is some dirt but it`s nothing that gets in the way to spoil your enjoyment. It`s a good quality HKL transfer. The colours and detail are okay, nothing outstanding, but it serves the film as well as it can. The only issue I have is that of the aspect ratio. I get the impression that the correct ratio is 2.35:1 or thereabouts simply because of the framing of the characters here. I know that more footwork and people at the edge of the frame are cropped and this is a bit of a let down. I`d love to see a wider frame on another DVD somewhere. Despite this cropped ratio, Legend of a Fighter is still a good film to watch as there`s plenty of well-framed action that you can see.

Audio

There`s a choice of English or Chinese (Mandarin) Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks. The film was made in 1981 so it`s highly unlikely that it was made to push the sound barriers. As it stands all of the sound comes from the front with dialogue remaining clear at all times. All the typical kung fu sounds are here and add to the impact. The soundtrack here is all right.

Features

Easy to navigate menus with a few interesting extras:

• Photo Gallery - 17 colour stills taken from the film itself. There`s nothing interesting here that you won`t have seen already by watching the film, so I wonder what the point of this is. Especially since there`s a large border around each picture. Some cast/crew pictures would have been better, preferably stuff that`s not in the actual film.

• Biography Showcase (22:00) - This covers director Yuen Woo Ping (9:45) and lead actor Leung Kar Yan (11:46). This is scrolling text with is read out with a voiceover. It`s interesting to read/listen to and there are quite a few films mentioned in the text that make it worth pursuing.

• Trailers (widescreen enhanced) - There are two here, the UK Promotional Trailer (1:29) and the Original Theatrical Trailer (4:40). The UK trailer is just the standard trailer. The latter trailer however is an eye opener as it contains deleted footage not previously available anywhere else. The deleted footage is a fight between Huo Yuan Chia and someone who uses a foil. This occurs around the same time of the boxing match and was simply removed but with only about 20 seconds of footage here it`s not enough. Had the original negative survived it would have been great to have it in the film itself. It makes one wonder about how much deleted footage is simply lost.

• Interview Gallery (32:00) - This covers director Yuen Woo Ping (23:18) and lead actor Leung Kar Yan (9:33). Both interviews are interesting to watch at least once and cover a fair bit of ground on how they started in the business and specific films.

• More Attractions - A whole selection of other Hong Kong Legend titles here and some of them have trailers too.

A slightly better than average range of extras though there`s no audio commentary. Seeing as this was from 1981, it`s hard to imagine that extra materials were kept or put aside. There are English subtitles and these work well enough. Legend of a Fighter is packaged in a DVD keep case.

Conclusion

Let`s face it, with a film like this you`re only interested in one thing. The storyline is only of mild importance, but the fighting is the thing that attracts us in the first place. On this action front I`m very pleased to say that Legend of a Fighter does not disappoint. The martial arts here are nothing if not superb and completely mesmerising. The sound too is spot on and is sure to please hardcore kung fu fans! Even more amazing when you consider that lead actor Leung Kar Yan isn`t actually trained in any martial arts and learnt on the set while making the film. Astounding! His fluid movement and flawless execution of technique is re-watchable.

The simple themes of courage and morality are common enough in a lot of Chinese kung fu films and serves as a backdrop for fantastic action. Running at around 90-minutes, there are never any dull story moments and it all hangs together really well. There`s no love interest, just kung fu; there are no guns, just kung fu. Get the picture?

All in all this is a very good DVD with a lot of replay value. If you have a longing to see a good quality martial arts film, then this has to be on your list of films to rent or buy, it`s as simple as that really. Recommended to martial arts fans and anyone else this review appeals to.