Formosa Neijia

So we need to talk about something fun, I think.

This is one of my favorite kungfu movies and is definitely worth buying. It has a great plot, explores the Chinese-Japanese rivalry from a humorous point of view, and nobody dies so everyone in the family can enjoy it.

The plot revolves around a Chinese man who's father does lot of business with the Japanese. So the father arranges for the son to marry the daughter of his Japanese business partner. The son is ticked off but when he sees the Japanese girl, he quickly changes his mind. Having lived in Japan for two years, I can really sympathize!

So they get married, but things soon go downhill when the man finds out his wife is a Japanese martial arts expert and she proceeds to destroy his garden with her brick-breaking skills after he makes fun of her skills. I must say, she looks really good when her gi top pops open a few times. Reminds me of when I did randori with this female judo black belt a long time ago…. So anyway, he then informs her that they have a place to train, but his wife is terribly unimpressed with the Chinese school and the weapons there. She picks up a Chinese sword that is flexible and immediately calls it and all the other weapons "junk." The Chinese guy almost loses his mind and they get into a big fight. The cultural dispute between Chinese and Japanese is on full display here.

He insults all Japanese martial arts, and his wife informs her martial clan in Japan. As fast as you can say sushi, the top masters of swordfighting, Okinawan kobudo, judo, spear, nunchaku, and ninjutsu show up at the Chinese man's house. He and the swordmaster fight and he defeats the swordsman. The swordmaster offers his sword to the Chinese guy as a way of making peace, but the Chinese guy is ignorant of Japanese customs and refuses the sword, horribly insulting the Japanese swordmaster. They then demand a series of duels to clear their honor.

What follows is a series of fights between Chinese and Japanese martial arts. All of these are very well done. The nunchaku vs. three section staff is a good fight as is the samurai sword vs. straight sword. The sai vs. butterfly knife fight is really funny because the sai guy looks and fights like a….um…..Frenchman? Anyway, the martial arts aren't exactly at the Jet Lee level, this is old-school stuff. But it's very competently performed and shows some interesting comparisons between the two countries' arts. It's some of the best old-school CMA on film.

The ninjutsu guy is immediately recognizable as the same Japanese guy that fought Jet Lee in "Fist of Legend." In fact, his character is almost the same. According to the disk intro, he choreographed most of the JMA in the movie, and the guy is just incredible. It took a lot of heart for him to work on a move that made the Japanese look anything other than superior back then. This was filmed in the 70's. His ninja sword skills look great. Check out this pic.

This is one of those rare kung-fu movies that has a really good plot as well as good action. So you won't be embarassed to show it to a non-MA person. The cross-cultural element is really well done too. Let's just say that in the end, everyone realizes that they need to understand and respect each other's culture before they force the demands of their own onto other people. As a man in a cross-cultural marriage, I really like the way this aspect was explored.

I give this one five stars. Check it out.