No Surrender Cinema: He Has Nothing But Kung Fu
There might be less than a week to go until Christmas, but who needs those Hallmark movies to celebrate the holidays when No Surrender Cinema is here to give you the gift of more classic martial arts movie reviews! 2023 was a year where I spent a lot of time paying tribute to the overlooked and underrated kung fu flicks of the golden era, and we’re going to close out the year with a look back at the legendary Gordon Liu starring as a man who has forgotten everything except how to kick ass! He’s a man with nothing to lose, because He Has Nothing But Kung Fu!
Village idiot Sha Shan (Wong Yue) is a two-bit hustler who spends his days wandering the streets trying to scam the locals out of there money. Usually these cons blow up in Sha Shan’s face, and he winds up getting his ass kicked for it, like the time he tries to cheat a (corrupt) casino out of cash. Shan can’t help but scam everyone he comes in contact with, even if it means putting one of the few people who are nice to him in danger. Such is the case when he hustles one of the local gangsters by claiming that restaurant owner Lady Ho (who is the only person who actually shows kindness to Sha Shan) will sleep with him for a fee. Luckily this does not go as badly as it could have, but it earns Sha Shan the ire of Chou, a corrupt cop who works for Master Wang. It turns out that Master Wang is really the one calling the shots in town, but the corruption is about to come to an end thanks to Sha Shan and a new friend.
The new friend in question is a drifter (Shaw Brothers superstar Gordon Liu, sporting a full head of hair here a year before his star-making performance in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) that has no recollection of who he is or where he’s from; all he knows is kung fu. Seeing the benefit of having this man as an ally, Sha Shan encourages him to tag along with him. The two practice kung fu, with the comedy coming from Sha Shan’s sleight of hand techniques, then head to the casino so that Sha Shan can exploit his new friends abilities in order to get his money back. The embarrassment earns them both the ire of Wang’s gang. Instead of laying low, the duo wind up making more trouble for themselves by saving Lady Ho from a vengeful Chou. The three go into hiding, but the next morning Sha Shan and Ka Yuen (whom we learn is the missing son of The Admiral) decide to become a pair of kung fu Robin Hoods when they mount an attack on Chou and his goons again, this time taking their money and sharing it with the poor townsfolk (much to Sha Shan’s dismay).
Despite his lack of memories, Ka Yuen has a strong sense of nobility, and it’s not long before he’s fed up with stories of Master Wang imposing his will upon the townspeople. Avenging those he has wronged becomes the driving force for the confused kung fu expert, even when his pal Sha Shan tries to sway him (moreso so that Ka Yuen doesn’t keep handing out all of the money they had stolen from Chou). At this point in the film we finally get the flashback that explains what caused the memory loss; Ka Yuen was attacked by a pair of sword-wielding masked men who knocked him off the side of a cliff. Assuming him to be dead, the assassins left him there, only for him to recover physically, even if his memories hadn’t come back.
Ka Yuen’s benevolent nature starts to annoy Sha Shan, who sees his pal as a combination bodyguard/meal ticket. The two reconcile just in time for Ka Yuen’s father, The Admiral, to find them…an event that Sha Shan nearly ruins by assuming The Admiral was a liar who was trying to cash in on the reward for whoever found his son. Sha Shan foolishly encourages Ka Yuen to fight his own family, and the mixup causes The Admiral to claim that Sha Shan has kidnapped his son. This puts Chou and his police henchmen on their trail yet again, culminating in a fight out in the countryside that somehow ends with one of our heroes being carried off by the bad guys, and one villain losing his pants in rather unorthodox fashion! It’s a fun and lengthy fight that serves as the warmup for the final battle, where Ka Yuen’s memory is restored, and the dynamic duo square off against their captors in a kung fu showdown for the ages!
He Has Nothing But Kung Fu certainly leans into the silliness at times, but I had a great time watching this one. It’s chock full of all of your typical kung fu tropes, but the action here is above average and the comedy and chemistry between the two leads makes this one more endearing than the industry standard at the time. Gordon Liu is one of the all time greats, and I enjoyed seeing him balance being the straight man to Wong Yue’s goofy character and play out the amnesia storyline. The comedy also serves to keep the plot moving along without a lull in the story, because if our heroes aren’t caught up in a fight somewhere, they’re caught up in some sort of shenanigans that will lead to their next brawl. With this being a low budget production, most of the fights take place out in the countryside, leaving plenty of space for Liu and co. to put their skills to the test; however it’s the final fight that takes place at an old house that I’d call my favorite in the entire film. It all starts with a captive Ka Yuen’s memory returning, and he takes a group of criminals on with his hands tied behind his back. It’s the best that Liu looks in the movie and it segues into the final showdown on the upper levels of the villain’s lair where the fight choreography continues to be top notch. When you see these actors fighting on a rooftop sliding all over the place, or Sha Shan tangling with one of the henchmen on an unfinished third story floor, just remember that this film came long before the days of “wire fu” and didn’t have a Hollywood stunt budget. There’s a true sense of danger to the final battle that makes it quite memorable.
Unlike my “discovery” earlier this year of Barry Chan, I was already familiar with Gordon Liu before watching this film thanks to my love for the Shaw Brothers films. That said, this is a film that I wish I had seen sooner, because I can already see myself revisiting this one again in the near future. This is an excellent piece of Liu’s early work with a lot of standout moments and humor that provides an added layer of appeal. Memory loss might be a plot point in He Has Nothing But Kung Fu, but I’ll come right out and make the claim that it’s an unforgettable entry from the Golden Age of Kung Fu.
He Has Nothing But Kung Fu is currently available on YouTube, Tubi, and on DVD.
