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山東女子물장수 (1983)
7-Star Grand Mantis


Reviewed by: Gaijin84
Date: 11/05/2008
Summary: I was drunk the whole time!

Another Godfrey Ho product, 7-Star Grand Mantis is a South Korean collaboration once again filmed in the depressingly dreary, winter countryside. Chu Kei (Benny Tsui) is a bumbling idiot, and is taken under the wing by a local old man known as the White Cane Beggar (Eagle Han). They run into trouble with a local gang who have been harassing residents and are run by Chow Chang. Shan and Beggar run across a local girl who also has been having trouble with the gang. They team together to drive the group out, but have to eventually face Chow Chang when he comes to investigate.

Right off the bat, despite the name, there is certainly no Seven Star Mantis style technique utilized in this film. Unfortunately it's a typically annoying martial arts comedy with over the top idiocy and foolishness. There are comedies that are well done in the "old master teaches young upstart" aspect, most notably Drunken Master, but this one is dreadful. Benny Tsui, who is notoriously difficult to find any information about, is annoying to the point of tears, and the old man is not much better. Although they are both competent screen fighters, any skill is completely wasted until the last 10 minutes or so. Benny and the female lead develop a very odd fighting technique which involves ingesting a large amount of water, and then spraying it in opponents faces before knocking them out. By the end they have magically enhanced it to the point where the stream is at fire hose pressure. None of it makes much sense, and as the three walk off screen, Benny says to the master "we owe it all to you!" The master replies "I didn't do anything, I was drunk the whole time!" I wish I had been drunk while watching this, it might have improved my feelings about it.

2/10

Reviewer Score: 2