Review of My Kung Fu 12 Kicks

Introduction

Directed by Lu Po Tu, "My Kung Fu 12 Kicks" stars Bruce Leung, one of the Bruce Lee-inspired film martial artists of the 1970s and 80s. Leung is considered a similar type of actor to Jackie Chan, someone who has great athletics and some martial arts skills, but in much more of a comic vein than "The Dragon".

Leung plays a pick-pocketer who gets caught out when he attempts to steal from a man who has powerful connections to the local mobsters. Kicked out of the town, he is befriended by a kung-fu master who teaches him the martial arts, so that he can gain vengeance on the mobsters, who by this stage have also captured his girlfriend.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL. It is not pretty. Made in 1979, and clearly on a budget, I can understand that the film would be somewhat soft in image, but what are inexcusable are the horrendous film artefacts, which are constant throughout the film. I don`t know what source material this was taken from, but it looks like they`ve been using it as a frisbee for the last 27 years. Easily the worst image I`ve ever seen on DVD.

Audio

Audio is presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0. There is no original Cantonese soundtrack, and no English subtitles. Audio is far from great, which is not surprising considering the source material, but it is the English dub that sets this DVD back. I suppose that you could say, what with this being a comedy, that the voice acting isn`t that bad, but it is quite "silly" humour which someone won`t appreciate. Furthermore, the English dub is way off the original Cantonese, and so there are a lot of English words, yet no moving lips.

Features

Extras on this disc amount only to weblinks, an overview of forthcoming releases, and a "UK Promotional" trailer for "My Kung Fu 12 Kicks". If this is the UK promotional trailer, expect this disc to sell only one copy, to someone who bought it thinking it was something else.

Conclusion

If you want me to judge on just the film itself - keeping in mind that I am no aficionado of Hong Kong martial arts films - then you may be surprised to learn that I quite enjoyed "My Kung Fu 12 Kicks". Despite its age, the film has some genuinely hilarious moments, and a great comedic performance for Leung. However, the laughs are all "silly humour", so if you aren`t interested in ridiculous (dubbed) dialogue and inane facial expressions, you might want to give this a miss.

It would be wrong of me not to mention the martial arts in the film, which are athletic and dextrous, if not exactly spectacular. Don`t expect the stunts and the smooth action of Jackie Chan`s "Rush Hour", for example.

Where this film is really let down is in its presentation. Whilst Region 1 receives a 16:9 transfer of this film, we`ve got a grotesque 4:3 image, which is so riddled with blemishes that I can easily say that it is the worst DVD image that I have ever seen. I would also have liked the choice of the original Cantonese dialogue, with subtitles. The extras, furthermore, are extras in name only.

"My Kung Fu 12 Kicks" is a good, fun film which had this reviewer laughing out on several occasions. The film`s presentation most certainly did not.