The Magnificent Butcher (1979)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Magnificent Butcher (1979) – W-P. Yuen

Old school Kung-Fu directed by Woo-Ping Yuen, who also directed Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) and Drunken Master (1978) which were Jackie Chan’s breakthrough hits.  Here, Sammo Hung takes the “loser” role previously occupied by Jackie, although truth be told, Sammo was in the industry a lot longer and apparently assisted Jackie to get his first parts (earlier they had both been part of the same Peking Opera troupe as children).  Sammo plays “Butcher Wing” who finds himself in a mess of trouble when the evil son of a rival kung fu school kidnaps his long-lost brother’s wife. Fortunately, Sammo has a strong ally – the “Beggar King” (according to imDb) who was supposed to be played by Simon Yuen (the drunken master himself, the old man in both of Jackie’s earlier films, and the father of director Woo-Ping Yuen) but he died of a heart attack during this film.  Fortunately, his replacement, Mei Sheng Fan, is pretty great in the trickster role as well.  The film is filled with fantastic hand-to-hand combat, replete with amazing and strange falls/jumps/punches with animal names/farts in the face etc.  There are some epic battles between the heads of the schools and also their strongest pupils.  Sammo, who was always overweight, holds his own, comically but effectively (later he went on to be an established director and producer in Hong Kong and then a star of his own American action show, Martial Law).  So, the film is great fun and funny too – until it isn’t. There is a problematic scene where the bad guy kills one of the lead female characters in the midst of an attempted rape.  Of course, this establishes him as really bad and perhaps reminds us that all this kung fu fighting (with fake blood and all) is actually pretty violent and bad.  But playing rape and murder for laughs isn’t right and although the scene is just a couple of minutes in an otherwise enjoyable film, it rankles.  It makes you wonder about our culture (not just HK culture) then and now – certainly there were plenty of harsh horror films that contained similar material.  Was it acceptable?  Is it OK to look away and recognise that this is/was just play-acting?  Since the evil act was punished, is it okay to have been included?  These are deeper questions than the Magnificent Butcher is able to answer.  Perhaps it is better simply to watch Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow or Drunken Master instead.