The Prodigal Son

Leung Jan is the son of a wealthy family and believes he is the best fighter in the city. He believes it because his father has been paying his opponents to lose for years. When he finds out, he goes looking for a real teacher, and finds Leung Yee-tai: a man who plays female roles in a travelling Peking opera troupe and whom nobody takes for a fighter. Sammo Hung directs and appears as Wong Wah-bo. Yuen Biao plays Leung Jan, Lam Ching-ying plays Leung Yee-tai. It is regularly named among the best films ever made about wing chun, and the reason is technical rather than spectacular: the fights are staged in wide shots, uncut, so that the technique can actually be seen. Lam Ching-ying's stance and hand work set the standard for the wing chun films that came after. The second layer is worth noting too. Leung Yee-tai is an opera performer, and the film keeps his female stage identity and his identity as a fighter side by side, which was an unusual choice for Hong Kong cinema at the time. It won best action choreography at the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards. Who it is for: viewers who want the technical wing of kung fu cinema and early eighties Hong Kong work. Who it is not for: the comedy is far weaker than the fighting, and the first half is slow going now.