Prior to Lau Kar Leung earning a name as one of Shaw Brother’s biggest fight choreographers, he worked as an extra in Wong Fei Hung’s series in the black and white era and did choreographing too. Working on Chang Che spanned over years alongside Tang Chia till they had a fight while working on ‘Marco Polo’. Thus, the never-ending spiral in evolution started wherein Lau transitioned into directing in the 1970s during the martial arts era. Even after the Shaw brother’s studio ceased to make any films, Lau Kar Leung still worked on several like “Drunken Master II”, and “Seven Swords” with Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark.
Lau directed ‘The Spiritual Boxer’, a Kung-Fu comedy starring Wong Yu, when Chang Cheh was working in Taiwan. Viewing Wong Yu as a comedic actor wasn’t highly regarded, however, Lau believed the show could perform well commercially. In a nutshell, the story follows two con men, Master Chi Chiang (Chiang Yang), an expert in artificial skills, and Siu Chien, a Kung Fu trainer, who pretend to be supernatural Japanese master and a boxing tutor respectively, and make money by deceiving the superstitious villagers.
One day, Chien had to perform a scheduled ritual by himself because his master got too drunk, and it was Chien’s moment to shine. Luckily as this happened, it also unveiled the funniest moments of the film. While the ceremony may have turned out to be a triumph for the smug hustler, he was speedily ratted out by some of the villagers and kicked out of the area as their master was imprisoned. He, however, kept on with his trade in another smaller village and became quite popular earning decent enough income. During that time, however, he also meets a young village girl Jin Lian (Lin Chen Chi) and the two fall for each other, and eventually he marries her.
As the residents start to believe that Chien possesses occult abilities, they begin to trust him, which in turn bodes well for his business. Chien on the other hand, in consideration of his changing fortunes, begins to show kindness and trust to the locals. After all, how would anyone like to sit back and watch the loan shark Liu (Chung Tien Shih) bullies people alongside his thugs? This moved him and so, in such cases, Chien would fight back and help those in need. At first, Liu is impressed by what he had witnessed and lets things be, but that was until his two bandit pals showed up and revealed the tricks that Chien had played. Liu then decided to join those bandits chasing after Chien.
Nostalgically, this reconstruction begins during the late Qing period with a depiction of two practitioners, well performed by Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai, as they demonstrate spiritual boxing skills, which the aim of this movie seeks to unearth. That most of the significant gains were during the Boxer Rebellion of the late 19th century, when fighters believed that religious/superstitious belief plus magic and Kung Fu discipline would render them impervious to weapons and warfare. In addition, they could call gods or spirits to occupy their bodies and thus gain possession. This is merely a preview of what those boxers came to realize but do not see both Ti Lung and Chan again since the protagonist Siu Chien, a Kung Fu con artist set many years after, is a leap from the other. Anyhow, the style of diverse animal types kung fu which the possessed boxer in the film episode would practice would serve as the main creative source of the plot.
Young actor Wong Yu leaps into the limelight as a trickster in the iconic kung fu film, and he depicts the character of a conman beautifully, unlike any other Shaw Brother’s kung fu star. Wong Yu strikes a good balance between humor and martial arts, despite lacking in physicality. He portrays the bogus artist as a charming scoundrel, and with Lin Chen’s character, they have amazing onscreen chemistry, portraying Goo Chi, a masculine character with a unique hairstyle, together in the movie. This duo brings out the best of both romance and comedy in the flick.
Moreover, Wong Yu is not the only talented throw in the movie, apart from the customer serving movie wizards, Fung Hak On shines as one of the waiting ‘loan sharks’ along with Ti Lung and Chen Kuan Tai. Wu Hang Sheng and Lee Hoi Sang’s last scenes are sure to show Chien some Wo Choi. And the cherry on top is the amusing short clip displaying master Lau himself.
Lau’s first directing attempt is quite a unique blend of comedy and absurdly funny Kung Fu action with Lau himself in the lead, never really seen in kung fu films. The directors’ cunning use of spiritual and ghost aspects into the picture would later on inspire many other films. Disappointingly though, since this film did not follow expected formulas such as elaborate climax and training sequences, this film seemed to be lacking. Yes, the comedy was also very well scripted and hence made the film worth watching. Lau, however, seems to favor engaging storytelling with good characters over forcible mindless fights purposely made to excite audiences.
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