The Master (1980)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The DVD for this film is exceptional. Not only is the print absolutely pristine (except for a couple scenes which are a tad blurry), but it fortunately has a choice of either subtitles or a dubbed version. While I feel like a heretic for saying this because it flies in the face of my usual advice, I recommend you try the English dub (oddly, the second option--the first did not work on my machine), as it's simply better. To find out which was superior, I actually watched it with BOTH subtitles and dubbing at the same time--and repeatedly the captions seemed awkward and incorrect (or at least poorly worded).The film starts off rather badly, as like a bad martial arts film, there is a strong emphasis on VERY broad and obnoxious comedy. It is NOT funny and actually pretty stupid. I was very happy wen the film became more serious, as instead of 3rd rate comedy, the film switched to 1st-rate martial arts action. This didn't surprise me very much, as Shaw Brothers films usually have excellent martial arts. While the comedy continued here and there, at least the two complete morons from the first 20 minutes are not in much of the rest of the film...thank goodness! A martial arts master is stabbed and left for dead. While he's amazing at kung fu, he was (naturally) betrayed. He is found by idiot students of a martial arts school that sucks. All the students greatly overrate their own barely adequate skills and their master is second-rate. One of the stupid students is taught by the injured man--who, even injured, can beat this idiot without even breaking a sweat! Oddly, however, aside from just giving the guy a few hints, the jerk goes from barely adequate to a super-human fighting machine--a big plot problem with this film. So, when this injured master is later murdered by three baddies, you know that despite almost no additional training, the student will somehow kill them all to avenge his new master.The story is a bit derivative (with the standard revenge motive) and silly. BUT, fortunately, if you ignore all this, the action is top-notch. The fighting looks real, the actors are very skilled and it is head and shoulders better than the average martial arts film in this department. So, it's a good case of poor story with poor humor being saved by great action. Not among the Shaw Brothers' best, but still quite good.By the way, when the idiot goes off in search of the men responsible for the stabbing, he actually has a reasonably funny scene when he poses as a prostitute in a brothel. Seeing him in makeup trying to act seductive is kind of cute. But, naturally, he mucks things up, as he IS an idiot...a well-meaning one, but still an idiot! So I guess not all the comedy in this film was bad.

THE MASTER (1980) was made at Shaw Bros., but displays a look and feel much closer to the indie kung fu films of 1980 than it does to other Shaw martial arts films of the time such as Chang Cheh's Five Venoms spectacles. It has a few Shaw trademarks, including some large sets and several dependable Shaw character actors, but its story is simpler and less wide-ranging, with an emphasis on training, and the main cast is much smaller, with only five major characters participating in the important fight scenes. It packs a lot of fighting (staged by Hsu Hsia) into a concise structure that serves as a showcase for the considerable talents of young Yuen Tak (billed as Yuan Te), one of Jackie Chan's classmates at the Peking Opera school in Hong Kong that spawned so many kung fu movie greats.Yuen plays Gao Jian, a hapless student being taught at a school run by a vain, not-so-skilled teacher (Lin Ho Nien). One night he encounters a wounded kung fu master, Jin Tianyun (Chen Kuan Tai), a legendary warrior fleeing from a fight in which he was stabbed in a sneak attack and now has to hide from his pursuers, the Three Devils. Gao tends to Master Jin and hides him in his shack and, in return, Master Jin teaches Gao some essential kung fu. After a tragic turn of events, Gao goes off for a year to practice and then comes back to find his teacher's school taken over by the Three Devils, who are seeking to create a haven for other outlaws. This leads to a series of exciting final bouts between Gao and each of the Devils, the leader of whom is played by the great Wang Lung Wei.Yuen Tak was the ever-patient fiancé in the delightful AMBITIOUS KUNG FU GIRL (also reviewed on this site), the first film in which he fully registered with me. I found his performance here quite a revelation. He incorporates a lot of acrobatics into his moves and certainly compares well with all the other young stars playing eager, put-upon kung fu students at the same time in non-Shaw films (e.g. Meng Fei, Lee Yi Min, Meng Yuan Man, Cliff Lok, etc.). Yuen went on to become a prominent fight choreographer in Hong Kong and even in Hollywood, where he worked on "Martial Law" and Jet Li's THE ONE.Kung fu great Chen Kuan Tai (THE BOXER FROM SHANTUNG) has a relatively small part. He's got a great fight scene at the beginning, but its impact is diminished by the decision to keep freezing the frame all through it in order to show the credits. Candy Wen Hsueh-erh, the only female in the film, plays the daughter of Gao's teacher, but she doesn't get much to do.Overall, it was a pleasant surprise to find a Shaw Bros. kung fu film I hadn't seen before that was so direct, straightforward and free of the studio's usual frills.

"The Master" begins like an old Western. A gang (gunslingers) of three known as The 3 Devils enter a tea house (saloon), looking for a man dressed all in white named Jin Tianyun. The film opens with a great fight, where The 3 Devils come at Jin Tianyun with fists & feet, throwing darts, tonfa, and knives.Meanwhile Gao Jian, a kung fu wanna-be, is practicing at a nearby martial arts school. His skills are pitiful and he's always being bullied by classmates. Jin Tianyun shows up injured at Gao Jian's door, and Gao takes him in and helps nurse him to health. Jin Tianyun takes a liking to the hapless Gao Jian and agrees to teach him kung fu behind his master's back.All the while, The 3 Devils continue to hunt for Jin Tianyun. The three finally catch up with "Brother Jin" at the school, and by this time Gao Jian's skills are honed like a razor's edge. He must rise to the challenge to defend his school and avenge his new "Master"."The Master" is well paced, has lots of the cheesy slapstick of this genre & era, and has some great fights, especially the final one where Gao Jian battles the best of The 3 Devils. I very much recommend this movie to fans of the genre.An interesting note: the actor who plays Jin Tianyun was in the recent Donnie Yen film "Dragon Tiger Gate".

The Shaw Bros. have more than proved that they where the king of kung fu film production. In comes 3 Evil Masters, it follows the same storyline as most old school kung fu flicks. Orphan kid taken in and the master treats him like garbage.Chen Kuan Tai steps on the scene injured from a plot to kill him. The kicker is that he is also the same man that broke the cruel masters' ribs and agrees to teach the orphan kid kung fu. Chen Kuan Tai is then hurt again from a fight, he escapes only to run into the Evil 3 that has been trying to kill him.Finally they succeed causing the orphan student to extract revenge to the fullest. An early Shaw Bros. title, and a good one indeed. Check this movie out, you can't go wrong.