Fo zhang huang ye

BUDDHA ASSASSINATOR is another fun kung fu training film in the same vein as DRUNKEN MASTER and SLEEPING FIST, albeit with a slightly more developed villain. The film sees the young and bumbling Hoi Mang playing a lowly servant who unwittingly saves the life of his master, a powerful lord, from assassins. From that point in he is taken under his master's wing and taught the ways of kung fu, but there is more to the situation than meets the eye.

Although this is obviously a low budget film, it's pretty well paced and has plenty of incident to keep it moving along. There are the usual fight scenes played for laughs, lowbrow humour, and political intrigue thrown into the mix. A drunken beggar type character shows up in support, while the ubiquitous Hwang Jang Lee is typically excellent as the powerful villain of the piece.

The biggest surprise is seeing Hoi Mang in a leading role. Mang is a guy who keeps popping up in many of the Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung movies of the 1980s, usually in small roles, so seeing him as the lead was a real surprise. The second surprise is that he can actually fight! For somebody to hold their own against Hwang Jang is an impressive feat in itself, and the final fight in this film is quite wonderful, as you'd expect: funny, frenetic, and exciting; I was crying tears of laughter at some of the antics during the climax.