Bullet Points: Five Superfighters
My latest trip into the vast Shaw Brothers library comes courtesy Arrow Video’s amazing Shaw Scope Volume Two, one of the wisest physical media investments I have ever made.
This time around, I selected a movie from Disc 3 of the collection, 1978’s Five Superfighters…
- New Boy in the Neighborhood: The movie begins with a man in a black cape (Kwan Fung, Five Element Ninjas) strolling into town and popping into the Gallant Martial Arts Academy. Once inside the man with the black cape proceeds to tell all the students there that their Kung Fu is lousy, the students take offense and start stepping up only to get knocked down. This process continues until the master comes out to the courtyard and gets in the face of the Black Caped Villain (which is how HKMDB bills Kwan Fung’s character). Black Caped Villain tells the master that he comes from hell and is there to correct his lousy instruction… he then kicks the master’s ass. All of this happens during Five Superfighters‘ opening credits.
- Taking It To the Streets: With his work at the Gallant Martial Arts Academy, Black Caped Villain leaves the school and starts strolling down the street and that’s when he notices another teacher, Master Wan and his three students… Ah Fu, Ah Chi and Ah Tian. Black Caped Villain once again starts trouble, feigning that Master Wan and his students are in his way, when clearly they were not… this leads to each of the students doing their best to stand up to the Black Caped Villain. But their best wasn’t good enough, which forces Master Wan to handle some business… he fairs slightly better than his students at first, but Black Caped Villain gets the better of Master Wan sending him through a merchant’s stand and leaving him in a heap. Ah Fu, Ah Chi and Ah Tian take their battered and bruised teacher back home… and it is there they all agree, they can’t let the Black Caped Villain get away with this, but they aren’t ready for a rematch just yet.
- They Went That-A-Way and That-A-Way: The three students sneak out while Master Wan is asleep and decide they will each go out and find a new master to level up their Kung Fu games. They agree to meet back up in six months for Master Wan’s birthday…. The movie then becomes three different but similar stories… Ah Tian’s story is first, he happens upon a young widow named Madam Fang. Fang is being harassed by a man looking to make her his wife and his two cronies. Ah Tian interjects, but he really didn’t have to as he witnesses Madam Fang isn’t just a widowed bean curd saleswoman, she’s an ass kicker. Ah Tian ends up following her home and begs her for some food and then a job. Little does Ah Tian know the work she has him doing is really preparing him to learn her style of martial arts (I have a feeling Mr. Miyagi was inspired by the Five Superfighters).
- If I Only Had a Brain: We then pick up Ah Chi’s story… he stops to take a piss break on his journey and pisses on what he believes is a scarecrow, but it is actually a notorious local gambler who was hiding from his shrew of a wife. The Gambler is not pleased that he has been pissed on, but when he finds out Ah Chi has some money, he takes him into town to do some gambling… classic The Gambler behavior. It’s is there that Ah Chi gets into it with the crooked trio running the games after he attempts to outsmart them, that’s about the time the unassuming Han He gets involved. At first Ah Chi doesn’t appreciate Han He… until he realizes he is Master Han He and after some persistence on Ah Chi’s part, his training begins!
- Go Fish: Last but not least is a hungry Ah Fu, who gets caught stealing some fish from an old fisherman. The Fisherman catches Ah Fu, but when he realizes he is hungry, he doesn’t press the issue and allows Ah Fu to be on his way… But Ah Fu decides to press his luck and goes back to steal some more fish. Once again Ah Fu is caught. Ah Fu is ready to fight the Fisherman, or so he thinks. Ah Fu quickly realizes that he is dealing with a skilled pole fighter and changes his tune quickly. The Fisherman agrees to teach Ah Fu to be a pole fighter, IF Ah Fu agrees to be his assistant for the next two years. Ah Fu takes a moment to think about it and even though he knows full well he is going to meet up with his brothers in six months, he agrees to the Fisherman’s terms… classic Ah Fu behavior.
- Reunited: While his students were away, life wasn’t easy for Master Wan… First of all, he thought the three students that he raised himself (they were orphans) abandoned him when he needed them most. Second, he gets another visit from the Black Caped Villain and it ends in negative fashion for Wan once again. Third, Master Wan took out his problems on his poor neighbor who only wanted to help Master Wan in his time of need… Fortunately for Master Wan, Ah Fu, Ah Chi and Ah Tian return on Master Wan’s birthday, but that’s not the only surprise… they take out Master Wan for a nice dinner and that’s when Master Wan finds out that they sent a challenge to the Black Caped Villain for a rematch and we have our final fight… or should I say final fights!
Five Superfighters took a tried and true martial arts formula and multiplied it with great success. Unlike a lot of my Shaw Brothers first time watches, I had not heard a ton of hype about Five Superfighters, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to be getting into. Fortunately I got myself into an entertaining Kung Fu classic that is either underrated or a victim of Shaw Brothers having so many quality movies that it doesn’t get talked about enough.
If you haven’t had enough, here are some Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Five Superfighters is also known as The Super Fighters.
- Bastard Count: I counted at least four “bastards” in Five Superfighters… I hope upon a rewatch I discover Five Superfighters had exactly five bastards.
- Directed By: Five Superfighters was directed by Lo Mar (aka John Law Ma), who also directed the Shaw Brothers’ contribution to the Bruceploitation genre, Bruce Lee and I.
