The Kung Fu Scholar
1994
Director: Norman Law
Stars: Aaron Kwok, Dicky Cheung, Vivian Chow, Ng Man-Tat, Kent Cheng, Gordon Liu
To begin with, I must admit I am not a big fan of Aaron Kwok. If there was a contest for worst actor in Hong Kong movies, him and Ekin Cheng would be in a dead heat. Even worse than "A Man Called Hair-o," Kwok always seems to have this smug expression on his face, like he knows he is a bad actor just getting by on his looks, but doesn't care. And so the prospect of watching any movie with this guy in it is not really high on my list of priorites. As you might guess, I really didn't care for The Kung Fu Scholar -- but it's more of a problem with a horrible script and lackluster directing rather than another wooden performance from Aaron Kwok.
The movie revolves around Aaron and Dicky Cheung (who, like Eric Kot and Nick Cheung, try to be Stephen Chow without having half of Chow's charisma or talent) as two honor students under teacher Ng Man-Tat, who are competing for the love of Ng's daughter, played by Vivian Chow. Ng is mysteriously killed, and the two rivals join up to find the killer. The plot isn't great, but it's really no better or worse than your average Jackie Chan or Stephen Chow movie. However, those films have something important -- star power, or at the very least, a smidgen of personality -- that The Kung Fu Scholar simply lacks. Both Kwok and Cheung are poor actors, but given the materials they have to work with, the situation becomes even worse. The jokes are tired and juvenile, and the action (what little there is of it) is heavy on wire use with sloppy martial arts coordination.
I don't really have much to say about this movie -- it rotates between being dull and annoying, and there was very little that I liked or found entertaining about it. Despite my prejudices about Aaron Kwok, I honestly think even his die-hard fans would be put off by tripe like this.
RATING: 3