Blu-ray Synopsis: Shaw Brothers classic about the Chinese folk hero Huang Fei Hong who swears revenge for his student Mai. Solid fight scenes, rough, hard and aggressively dynamically staged. The famous boxer Huang Fei Hong teaches at the Pao Chi Lin Institute in Canton. There, the English businessman Gordon organizes a martial arts tournament to find a new bodyguard. Huang's student Mai, who enters the tournament against his master's advice, is killed in battle by criminal Li Tien Tao. When Gordon's valuable jade collection is shipped to Hong Kong, Li forces his new master's faithful under his command and seizes the stones. But Huang, who wants to avenge the death of his friend Mai, is already waiting for him on the river bank... (92 Mins)

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Views: A lesser-known tale of Wong Fei Hung's cinematic journey, The Master Of Kung Fu sees the legendary hero played by Shaw Brothers star Ku Feng who started his journey with the studio in 1969. Feng quickly made a name for himself as a very versatile actor, and had already starred in a healthy 80+ productions by the time he played this role and would go on to star in over 380 films during the course of his career – starring alongside every major name in the industry at one point or another into his 80s, with a role in the little known Mad Monk Ji Gong (2016) being his last to date. I have to say that I did enjoy him as Wong Fei Hung in The Master Of Kung Fu, which gave him the chance to deliver a more mature and realistic version of the hero. While Master Wong teaches his martial arts and medicine at the Po Chi Lam school, an arrogant European businessman called Gordon organises a martial arts tournament in the town in search of a new bodyguard. Excited about the prospects of winning the new job, Wong's old friend Mai Ken puts himself forward to fight – ignoring the advice and warnings of the master. But Mai soon finds himself up against Lin Tien Tao, a renowned thug in town who injures the fighter to keep in line with a plan he has to rob Gordon of his valuable jade collection. After chasing Lin off, Wong offers to treat Mai Ken but is soon framed for murder when the injured fighter is found poisoned to death. Determined to clear his name, Wong Fei Hung must evade capture and bring Lin Tien Tao to justice – no matter what it takes!

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Penned by prolific writer, Ni Kuang – who practically wrote every major action film for the studio since his debut with The One-Armed Swordsman in 1969 – The Master Of Kung Fu was just one of his 27 screenplays made that year, and was brought to life by the well-versed studio director, Ho Meng Hua. This director had started his career in the film industry in the early 1950s as a writer and assistant director with titles such as The Valiant Dog and Orchid Of The Valley. After assisting on 5 films, Ho got the chance to make his directorial debut in '58 with An Appointment After Dark for the Shaw Brothers studio. This would secure his spot there as an in-house director, with Ho going on to helm almost 60 titles over the course of his career. Many of these would go on to become some of the Shaw Brothers most memorable titles including The Monkey Goes West and Princess Iron Fan, The Human Goddess, The Flying Guillotine, Black Magic 1 & 2, Dragon Missile, Oily Maniac, Vengeful Beauty, The Mighty Peking Man, and Shaolin Hand Lock (many of which were early Shaw Brothers Blu-ray releases from 88 Films). While we all may have heard a similar story before, Ho manages to keep his audience interested with his great cast, highly detailed set-pieces, strong story-telling, and some fantastic action. I was surprised that Lau Kar Leung wasn't hired to handle the films fight choreography, given his connection with the real Wong Fei Hung, but The Master Of Kung Fu hugely benefits from having the talents of the young Yuen Woo Ping and Yuen Cheung Yan on-board. Although the brothers had been acting for a good decade before this, the pair had already been working as action-choreographers on a number of productions for some time already - honing their skills on titles such as Have Sword Will Travel, King Eagle, The Killer, The Bloody Fists, Awaken Punch, and others. Between the two of them, they manage to bring a wide range of fun, fast, and furious kung-fu fights to the table shifting from tournaments to street fights, weapons work to group battles, and the climatic showdown. Unlike a lot of the Shaw studio's martial arts flicks of this period, the Yuen brothers keep the fluid and fast with Ku Feng, Wang Hsieh, and others looking their best in action. Of course, the pair would revisit the character of Wong Fei Hung many times over the years with the likes of Drunken Master, Tsui Hark's Once Upon A Time In China series, Iron Monkey, and Last Hero In China, to name but a few.

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Taiwanese-born actor Wang Hsieh stars as the wicked Lin Tien Tao, who gets to trade moves with a number of characters throughout the story – as well as having a few fights with Wong through to their exciting finale, which I'm sure must have been exhausting to shoot! Having made his debut in the late 1950s with Twin Woman and The Ghost Lake, Wang went onto star in almost 190 features including modern hits like The Prodigal Son, A Better Tomorrow, Iron Angels, The Killers Blues, Bloody Brotherhood, and Legend Of The Drunken Tiger. And equally prolific actor Chan Shen, more often than not cast as the bad guy also, stars as Mai Ken – Wong's old friend and master of an opposing school. Starting his acting career in the late 60s, Chan soon joined the Shaw studio and went onto star in over 170 films, vanishing from the film world in the mid-80s after ending his contract with Taylor Wong's Pursuit Of A Killer alongside Lo Meng, Sun Chien, and Jason Pai Piao. The handsome Lin Wei Tu plays one of Wong's students, and although he had only started in the business just a year before, had already appeared in 8 titles for the studio. The always fun Hui Siu Hung joins Lin as another student who, more-often-than-not, finds himself in many awkward situations. It seems to be a thing with Hui and his roles and, although it was only his 4th film, has went on to star in almost 170 films to date with many memorable roles over the years and is still going strong today. Taiwanese actress Chen Ping stars as the main female star of the film, and future stars such as Yuen Biao, Fung Hak On, Tino Wong, Danny Chow, Yuen Shun Yi, Brandy Yuen, Corey Yuen Kwai, Yuen Yat Chor, Yen Shi Kwan, and Chin Yuet Sang, can also be spotted popping up throughout...

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As one of the most (if not 'the most') celebrated real-life characters ever portrayed on film and television, it's going to be hard to deliver a fresh story on Wong Fei Hung for any writer or director, respectively. But apart from Kwan Tak Hing's infamous role as the folk hero in over 70 films, The Master Of Kung Fu still came out well before he was re-invented by stars such as Gordon Liu and Lau Kar Leung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo Ping, Jet Li and Tsui Hark, as well as Vincent Zhao Wen Zhao, Chin Kar Lok, Sammo Hung, Eddie Peng, Ashton Chen, Bosco Wong, and many others. Of course, fight choreographer Yuen Woo Ping would revisit Wong a good 5 years later with Drunken Master to offer a completely different take to his work here – but that's not to say that The Master Of Kung Fu doesn't have its own entertainment value!

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Overall: Entertaining, well made, and full of great fights, The Master Of Kung Fu is well worth the watch!

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Blu-ray Extras: Trailers, Picture Gallery​