"Martial Club" A Shaw Brothers classic about the tradition of Martial Arts.

Before watching Martial Club, I had no clue what the rules of a lion dance was all about. All I knew was that it involved two Kung Fu schools.

I thought the lion dance was more about challenging than it was about establishing friendship between the two schools.

What I love most about Lau Kar Leung films is that he always try to incorporate something in his movies that is informative and, you can learn something about the culture and the Martial Art.

Which is why he is one of my favorite director/choreographers /masters of Martial Arts and their movies.

Ok back to “Martial Club”. Gordon Liu plays Wong Fei Hung in this film , he and a friend from a neighboring school are constantly challenging one another to see which one displays the best Kung Fu skills.

A Kung Fu master played by Johnny Wang injures Wong Fei Hung’s friend. Wang plays the master who is new to the town and looking to connect with a rival school who is creating problems with the other schools.

The sister played by Kara Hui Ying-hung accuses Fei Hung for injuring her brother. The brother, who shows off his Kung Fu in order to impress the ladies at the brothel, is set up by one of the rival students. He then gets beat up and is punished by being placed in a cell by his teacher.

Several fights between martial clubs (schools) break out because of the injured brother leading into the final fight scene. Gordon Liu and Johnny Wang square off with one of the coolest fight sequences in Shaw Brothers cinema.

Gordon and Johnny Wang both fight in a narrow alleyway, where they demonstrate some fierce combat to where you would have to be a yogi to do some of the poses done in this sequence. This energy filled scene is what makes the movie, and at the end a lesson learned for Johnny Wang.

I have no problem with any of the ways most movies end but its kind of refreshing when a Kung Fu movie can end with both parties going away with lessons learned. This is what you get when you see " Martial Club".

“Heroes of the East” is another one of Lau Kar Leung’s classics that ends with a similar out come setting him apart from other Shaw Brother directors.


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