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Absolutely Fantastic

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I found METHOD MAN (aka THE FEARLESS YOUNG BOXER, aka AVENGING BOXER) to be a rather humdrum period fu film enlivened by a great, above average climax. This production was shot in Taiwan like a number of the cheaper Hong Kong kung fu movies and features a few familiar faces in an otherwise dullish cast.The film opens with the erstwhile Casanova Wong essaying the role of an unbeatable villain who murders an opponent. His victim's son, played by Peter Chang, swears vengeance and joins up with an acrobat group in order to train in the martial arts. What follows is an hour of comedy and training, slightly below-par stuff if I'm honest, and overly familiar by genre standards. A couple of fights are included to remind you how tough and bad Wong is.Things pick up for a lengthy and compelling fight scene set in a barn. Chang teams up with a female fighter to bring Wong down once and for all, but it's not going to be easy. This extended fight is the only part of the film to get excited about and it doesn't disappoint; Wong is virtually indestructible and Chang has to employ his acrobatic tricks in order to stand a chance. It's much like the two-on-one barn fight at the end of Jackie's DRAGON LORD and although not as good as the fight in that film, it's still the best thing about METHOD MAN.

A young man (played by Peter Chang) watches his father die and grows up wanting to revenge. The story is pretty basic here. Its a bad movie for the most part, but luckily there are some incredible fight scenes.Lung Fei makes a cameo at the start and takes on Cassanova Wong. Some nice kicking by Cassanova, and Lung Fei is defeated easily. Only a warmup of what's to come.After like an hour of no good action, Cassanova gets to fight again. He fights Chan Wai Lau who has a good role as one of Peter Chang's 2 teachers. Chan Wai Lau is a great comedic actor with decent fighting skills, and he performs about as well as he can against Cassanova. He makes good use of a pipe as a weapon, but Cassanova is too much for him.Next up is what I figured would be the highlight of the movie, Wong Wing Sang vs Chia Kai. I am a big fan of both actors, so I was expecting greatness, and that's exactly what I got. Chia Kai does an AMAZING stunt at the beginning where he jumps off of a wall and lands on a table. Awesome fight with good acrobatics and good fist work. Also look for the part where Chia Kai dodges a knife that Wong throws at him. For real.Next Chia Kai takes on Cassanova. Its possibly even better than the Chia Kai Wong Wing Sang fight.Just when I thought the action couldn't possibly get any better, they somehow turn the choreography up a few notches in the final fight. I have only seen Peter Chang in a few movies and this is the only one I have seen where he has a leading role. You may recognize him as the guy with the gun who fights with Wang Chung in Shanghai 13. His acrobatic skills are up there with just about anybody. Its a shame he was only in a handful of movies because he could have been a big star. Major talent completely wasted. Anyways, the final fight is 12 minutes long and one of the best fights I have seen in awhile. I have watched this movie every night for a week and I just can't get over how good the choreography is. Not only will Cassanova Wong fans love this movie, but any kung fu fan will be blown away by the final 30 minutes.I have the Phoenix DVD and the picture quality is a bit above average and its partly widescreen. Sound is decent. English and Japanese tracks, no original language option. For some reason Chan Wai Man is on the cover of the DVD, but he isn't in the movie.

Recently re-released in the UK under the US title, "Method Man", FEARLESS YOUNG BOXER is a prime example of old school kung fu that I saw years ago on VHS video. It has the standard plot of a wandering assassin Wa Pa Fong (Ca Sa Fa) who's searching for the surviving members of a rival kung fu school. The father of hero Shao Lung (Peter Chen) is killed in the opening sequence of the movie, but manages to pass on the gold emblem of the school to his son. Much confusion then arises when pickpocket "Stumpy" swipes the emblem and is seen by Wa Pa Fong.The middle section of the film gets bogged down is some pretty broad 'comedy" routines that include a chubby guy disco dancing, but it's back to solid action in the final duel between Ca Sa Fa and Peter Chen. Ca Sa Fa in particular is a superb martial artist and offered a pretty good turn in the earlier Sammo Hung movie WARRIORS TWO.Worth a look for the skills of Ca Sa Fa, but if possible avoid the terrible UK DVD which is the dubbed version.

There is not much of an story. Only the usealy kung fu revenge plot, and, also quite common for these kind of movies very thin, characters. But what's even worse, there is a lot of very dumb and simple "humour" in the first hour of the film. After the first hour however the movie gets beter quikly! The last 30 minutes are just great fightscenes which make up for the disapointing first hour. And an absolute highpoint is ofcourse the last ficht in which Shao Long and Shao Ling team up to fight the contractkiller who killed Shao Long's father, this fight is staged in an old barn and reminded me a bit to the last fight in Once upon a time in China ! Only for kung fu fanatics I think.