It’s been my observation over the years that the Kung-Fu genre of movies has at least three sub-genres. First, there are the old faux-historical stories, dating anywhere from some unstated ancient time to the end of the last Chinese emperor’s reign, or perhaps a few years into the warlords’ era. Second, there are those movies that are “contemporary,” by which I mean they are set in the same period as they were made, and treat the issues of the day in Taiwan or perhaps Hong Kong (this is before Hong Kong was absorbed by China at the end of the British treaty). And, finally, there is the modern era of movies, which take advantage of modern cinema technology to introduce new generations to the stories, and have taken advantage of this opportunity to, mostly, rework the stories into something more appealing than those stories populating the first two genres. While all genres can have a certain sense of magical realism, it’s stronger in this third sub-genre, as evidenced by, say, Kung Fu Hustle (2004).
The Young Tiger (1973) falls firmly into the second category. Set in 1970s Taipei, I think, Chien Chien, a promising kung-fu student, accepts a challenge from a stranger on the behalf of his teacher, and bests the young man. The next time he sees the challenger, he is being beaten up by a gang, and before Chien can save him, the stranger dies. Chien is knocked unconscious, and the gang frames him for the murder.
The balance of the movie involves his avoidance of the police while weathering the disapproval of his mother, with some romancing of the girlfriend. In his spare moments, he works on tracking down the gang, and each time the gang assaults him, he picks off a few more. The scene in which the gang, in two cars, tries to run him down as he wheels along in his scooter/ice cream cart is particularly memorable, both for its odd tableau and for how painfully long they stretched it out.
Eventually, the big boss (we know he’s the boss because he keeps shouting at his diminishing minion force You fools!) decides to direct the assault himself, but Chien, who appears to be a close relation to the Energizer Bunny, proves to be too much for the mob boss, and boots him into the pool of shame just as the police show up.
It suffers from many of the shortcomings typical of movies of the second category: awful dialogue, dubious stories, bad cinematography. I’m less certain if the mannerisms of these movies – the short-tempers, forced laughs, and a few others – are part of Chinese stagecraft, a product of Chinese culture, or just bad bad acting.
In any case, I found it difficult to keep my attention on this one. Don’t waste your time on it.
