Oh Merciful Buddha
Yuen Biao stars as Tan Zong, a peaceful Shaolin monk who is considered to be the best kung fu expert in the land. A ruler wants Tan Zong to become his drillmaster and instruct his soldiers so that they can become skilled fighters. Naturally, this isn’t the Buddhist way, and Tan Zong will decline whenever he meets the ruler.
Before Tan Zong can get to the kingdom however to decline, he will face a myriad of different challenges. A variety of characters will attack Tan Zong, from a group of three brothers with sharp metallic hands to another group of martial artists who have umbrellas with sharp blades on their edges, and several more. That was one thing I thought was interesting about this film — the variety of different characters, and challenges, that Tan Zong faces on his journey.
Some of the fight choreography is also interesting, but much of it was a little too fantasy for my taste. Many of the fights and scenes utilize wires too, which to me is best left for the older films in the genre, not something this new. This movie feels like one of those old school kung fu movies, even in terms of production quality, but being newer, it just lacks that ‘charm’ that is often associated with older films. On more than one occasion I just felt like this was a kung fu B-movie, complete with lots of generic themes and elements (even the name) and an overall low to mediocre production value. The disappointing sets, costumes, and camera cuts, for example, give this movie a low budget feel.
Despite these negative aspects though, Kung Fu Master does have a decent story, some good fight scenes (eighty percent or more of the film is fighting) and it doesn’t wear out its welcome. The entire film is about Tan Zong getting from his Shaolin temple to the kingdom, and he fights continually throughout, at one point even picking up a couple of allies. Near the end of the film, after much destruction of Tan Zong’s home, Tan Zong teams up with about a dozen Shaolin students. These students are of different age and size, and together with Tan Zong, they are able to defeat hundreds of soldiers. These latter scenes are some of the very best in the film.
The title of this section, by the way, ‘Oh Merciful Buddha’ is taken from the film — it’s a line that Tan Zong utters about a dozen times.
The DVD
This DVD release is bare bones. Expect a decent presentation quality with both English and Mandarin 5.1 Dolby audio and subtitles for English and Spanish. The video is in 1.78:1 ratio, and looks okay technically, but the art direction and sets aren’t all that impressive.
As for extra features, the trailer for the film is included as are trailers for about a half dozen other Lions Gate action films. It’s a bit surprising that no extra features were included for such a recent film, but that’s the case here.
To the summary…