I'd heard that Sleeping Fist was supposed to be one of the very best Kar Yan Leung movies, so I bought the DVD together with the sequel, Thundering Mantis.
I started watching Sleeping Fist, and about 40 minutes into it I got bored, stopped it, and didn't finish the movie until about a week later. I was happy to find out that the second half is where all the good stuff is (whew!). The Kid and his acrobatics are nice enough, and he also acts fairly well, but overall I'll maintain that the first half of the movie is pretty bad and boring. Fortunately, we get a lot of quality fighting in the second half, where the incredible precision moves of Kar Yan Leung are put on display.
Still, for several reasons (a couple of very annoying urination scenes, for instance), I can't rate the movie higher than a 6 out of 10. Kar Yan Leung is in his prime here, but this does not compare with his better efforts, like Legend of a Fighter or Knockabout.
I do not in this case share Brian Camp's fascination with Simon Yuen in this movie (although I generally tend to agree with Brian's excellent kung fu movie appraisals). I think he is boring and slow, and the scenes with his fighting are terribly and glaringly inter-cut with a wigged stuntman (one of his sons, Brian educates us). I don't think his performance are on level with his earlier efforts.
Eddy Ko is always a pleasure to see. I really like him, and I am puzzled that he almost always plays bad guys, because I think he has a very likable countenance. The man's got smiling eyes! Ah well. At least he got to be a good guy in Lethal Weapon 4.
And so it's on to Thundering Mantis... when I can spare the time.
I started watching Sleeping Fist, and about 40 minutes into it I got bored, stopped it, and didn't finish the movie until about a week later. I was happy to find out that the second half is where all the good stuff is (whew!). The Kid and his acrobatics are nice enough, and he also acts fairly well, but overall I'll maintain that the first half of the movie is pretty bad and boring. Fortunately, we get a lot of quality fighting in the second half, where the incredible precision moves of Kar Yan Leung are put on display.
Still, for several reasons (a couple of very annoying urination scenes, for instance), I can't rate the movie higher than a 6 out of 10. Kar Yan Leung is in his prime here, but this does not compare with his better efforts, like Legend of a Fighter or Knockabout.
I do not in this case share Brian Camp's fascination with Simon Yuen in this movie (although I generally tend to agree with Brian's excellent kung fu movie appraisals). I think he is boring and slow, and the scenes with his fighting are terribly and glaringly inter-cut with a wigged stuntman (one of his sons, Brian educates us). I don't think his performance are on level with his earlier efforts.
Eddy Ko is always a pleasure to see. I really like him, and I am puzzled that he almost always plays bad guys, because I think he has a very likable countenance. The man's got smiling eyes! Ah well. At least he got to be a good guy in Lethal Weapon 4.
And so it's on to Thundering Mantis... when I can spare the time.