Bullet Points: The Magnificent Ruffians
Old school Kung Fu movie fans know that it is not just September, it is #Shawtember!
And Shawtember is the perfect excuse for another first time watch courtesy of Arrow Video’s Shaw Scope Volume 2, this time out I have selected 1979’s The Magnificent Ruffians…
- The Golden Child: Yuan Ying Fei (Lu Feng, The Five Deadly Venoms) is the son of the famed fighter known as Golden Sword. Yuan Ying Fei studied the martial arts under his father’s learning tree and inherited his father’s sword after he passed. But times have changed, the need for skilled Kung Fu experts has dwindled from his father Golden Sword’s heyday and despite being a successful businessman and basically controlling the entire town he calls home, Yuan Ying Fei is unsatisfied. Yuan Ying Fei is a warrior without a war… so it is not uncommon for him to invite other martial artists to his home so they can discuss their fighting philosophies and get some sparring sessions in. It is also not uncommon for Yuan Ying Fei to not only defeat his sparring partners, but kill them!
- Do Not Pass Go: Guan Yun (Lo Meng, The Kid with the Golden Arm) is in a similar boat as Yuan Ying Fei. Guan inherited his father’s Wu Wei Security Bureau, however the need for martial arts experts as escorts has dried up. However, Guan refuses to sell the business/land to Yuan Ying Fei, which prevents Yuan Ying Fei from having a complete monopoly and that irritates the hell out of Yuan Ying Fei.
- The Ruffians Are Coming, the Ruffians Are Coming: In stark contrast to Yuan Ying Fei, a man who has all the material things one could want, is the trio of Feng (Sun Chien, Chinatown Kid), Zeng and He Fei. The trio have no money and regularly run a scam where all three will eat at a restaurant, two will dine and dash and the third will stay behind to take the beating. This scam does not go unnoticed by another down on his luck fellow by the name of Yang (Phillip Kwok, Shaolin Temple) and it isn’t long before the trio becomes a foursome… a foursome that attracts the attention of Yuan Ying Fei, who hears of their martial arts expertise… not surprisingly Yuan Ying Fei invites the foursome to stay at his home, he feeds them, clothes them and is as gracious a host as possible. And it is all part of Yuan’s master plan… after all he has done for them, Yang, Zeng, Feng and He Fei will be willing to do ANYTHING to repay Yuan’s kindness… including eliminate his Guan problem!
- Master Manipulator: A funny thing happens however… the four Ruffians who go to eliminate Guan, end up befriending Guan and they all have lunch and sparring sessions every day, just as the pompous Yuan planned. Not only is Lu Feng’s Yuan Ying Fei a master manipulator, he is easily one of the most hated characters in my Shaw Brothers viewing experience. I absolutely hated him and he just kept getting worse as he used the classic switcheroo to turn the new group of friends against one another so he could swoop in and get everything he wanted and there were moments I genuinely feared Yuan Ying Fei was going to get everything he wanted.
Calling The Magnificent Ruffians a magnificent movie may be a slight stretch, but make no mistake about it The Magnificent Ruffians had a great cast (can you go wrong with the Venoms?), a strong story that incorporates the fact that time has passed by all the characters and the way things turn out for many of them, maybe it is best that the old ways aren’t the norm anymore.
But it is the old ways that give the movie plenty of high quality fighting action. Each of the characters having distinct fighting styles (and in most cases, weapons) made for some interesting match ups throughout the movie. Now that I think about maybe calling The Magnificent Ruffians magnificent isn’t that much of a stretch at all.
Are these Bonus Bullet Points magnificent? Read and find out…
- Out of Context Quote: “Touch my pole and you die!”
- Bastard Count: I counted one “bastard” the entire movie.
- Directed By: The Magnificent Ruffians was directed by Chang Cheh, who has been the director of just about every Shaw Brothers movie I have covered on the site thus far.
