Movies: The Lost Kung Fu Secrets

There are no secrets, lost or otherwise, in Lost Kung Fu Secrets, aka, Ban gong Ji. The rather bizarre premise is that a warlord is spreading Christianity through China as a cover for his plot to assassinate the Emperor. This gives the film it's best image, of the warlord sitting before a big white flag with a red cross on it. However, there is no actual mention of Christianity in the movie, except the voice over in the beginning, and none of the villains do anything remotely Christian. You could be forgiven for thinking the writers of the movie, such as they were, knew nothing else about Christianity other than it was a bad Western intrusion. So, I'm sure, it was. But unlike, say, Boxer Rebellion, there are no bad Westerners, or any Westerners, here.

David Chiang, who made great buddy kung fu flicks with Ti Lung for the legendary Chang Cheh throughout the seventies for Shaw Brothers, is the star here. He was always a weird looking short man whose only concession to the art of acting was flashing a goofy smile whenever he was insulted, to show cheerful stoicism, I guess. Here, he looks older and tired. Shaw Brothers was closing, and one imagines his roles were drying up and he knew he was only a few years away from Hong Kong TV obscurity.

The fights are rather clumsy, though there is a strange bout at the end with the warlord's lieutenant who has spiked shoulder pads and a sort of duck-billed helmet he attacks Chiang with. This is not to say the movie is all worthless. Even a lesser, late kung fu flick has unexpected joys, like when Chiang traps a villain in a noose, and says, 'you will die slowly for what you've done.'

The version I watched was the 'Martial Arts Theater' copy, transfered from a shitty old video, I assume. It's gloriously badly dubbed.