Rating: **
Alternate Title: Two On The Road
Review Date: 2/2/26
Cast: Leung Ka-Yan, Philip Ko, Wang Lung Wei
"You're terrible!"
"I'm just an extra!"
Wang Lung is the kind and charitable village chief who donates a treasure chest of silver to help suffering refugees. But come on, do you really trust this guy? Predictably, the treasure is ambushed by bandits and turns out to be empty, and a couple of dopey passers-by (Leung Ka-Yan and Philip Ko) are framed for the theft. What follows is nearly an hour of deplorably unfunny humor as Leung Ka-Yan and Philip Ko try to outwit and out-prank each other, while also trying to avoid the law. The last 25 minutes are a non-stop barrage of kung fu against a sharp-toothed giant named "Gold Jaws" (whose brother "Iron Jaws" is working for James Bond), and of course the expected showdown with the villainous Wang Lung.
As you would expect from the genre, the humor is tedious and unfunny, and neither Leung Ka-Yan or Philip Ko are very good as comedians. On the plus side, there's not a hint of egotism between the two of them, and neither seems to be competing for screen dominance. As a period piece, it makes awkward and bizarre references to Superman, Ultraman, James Bond, Roger Moore, and "Midnight Express", and for some reason includes Giorgio Moroder's disco hit "Chase" in the soundtrack. Fortunately, the inanity is broken up by plentiful helpings of kung fu goodness, and seeing Leung Ka-Yan and Philip Ko fighting each other at the top of their game is shear delight. Their climactic battle with Wang Lung is also quite good, although it tends to get a bit gimmicky and becomes so exhausting that it could have easily been trimmed by 5-10 minutes and had just as much, or more impact.
Severin's Blu-ray is excellent, except for the very first fight scene, which suffers from irreversible film damage in the source material. What I really noticed while watching this film was how fluid and precise the camera work was. Even for a low budget action comedy, the fight cinematography is top-notch. Leung Ka-Yan and Philip Ko are superb martial artists and athletes, but without skilled camera work to match their moves, their brilliance would have been lost. This level of high-precision filmmaking simply does not exist anymore, and is sadly a lost art.