Story: Fok Yun Gap is the youngest son of Grandmaster Fok, one of the best kung fu masters of China. But his over-protective father doesn't want that Yun Gap learn the powerful Kung Fu style of the family. His father thinks that he is too weak to become a good fighter and would prefer that his son become an intellectual instead. Yun Gap, always bullied by his older brothers and people from other clan, would do anything to learn kung fu. One day, his father hires a new personal scholar teacher, called Shiang Ho-Chang, but this teacher his hiding a big secret. This mysterious teacher is in fact a powerful Japanese fighter who would like to learn and steal the secret kung fu style of the Fok family.

During the time Yun Gap and Shiang will become good friends and seeing how madly Yun Gap wants to learn martial arts, Shiang will teach him the basic forms and stands that the kid needs to become a great fighter. But one day, Shiang Ho-Chang has to leave China to get back to Japan. Before leaving he gives a book to Yun Gap to help him learn martial arts. During the following years Yun Gap will secretly train and learn martial art on his own, spying on his father and brothers kung fu practice. Yun Gap wants to become the best kung fu fighter of the family and maybe even the whole China.

Review: This movie is based on the story of the same Chinese hero that inspired other classic kung fu movies such as Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" and Jet Li`s "Fist of Legend". All these three movies have a lot of similarity but each one has brought enough innovation on screen that they are still very distinct from each other. They all advertise the same strong message of patriotism, all have these great memorable characters and also all include spectacular traditional kung fu fight sequences.

Even if the story doesn't have a very innovative premise with a lot of clichés, the whole concept is very interesting to follow and leaves a great feeling of satisfaction at the end of the viewing. The story, which is told in a very serious way, deals a lot about courage and perseverance but it also has a big sense of patriotism for the Chinese people because the story deals a lot with other nations, especially the concept of the Japanese versus the Chinese.

We can say that this movie is separated in two parts. In the first one, we witness the development of a young unsure Fok Yun who wants to learn martial arts and also develop a friendship with his new mentor. The second part is more about a growing Fok Yun who can now kick ass and wants to spread and teach martial arts to every other of his Chinese country folk. But other foreign people don't agree that kung fu is the best martial art out there and all want to show that their style is better. As you can see the story puts the Chinese in a lot of situations that they have to show what they can really do if they have to and since it's their movie they win but they win with class and style!

Fok Yun Gap is played by two people, Yat Chor Yuen plays the young version of the main character of Fok Yun and Leung Ka Yan plays the mature version. Both actors played their roles very well, especially Leung Ka Yan when he played the older version of the character. His acrobatic and fighting skill were excellent, even if he doesn't know real kung fu, all of his fight scenes were perfectly well coordinated. He also had that Bruce Lee look alike attitude that really suited him well, probably the best actor to mimic Bruce Lee that I saw so far. Kurata Yusuaki played the Japanese mentor of Fok Yun; he will also play a similar role a few years after in the classic Jet Li movie "Fist Of Legend". His character was very attaching and diffused very well his emotions on screen. Maybe most of the characters in the movie were stereotyped, but I like these kinds of characters very much. From the evil father to the bad Russian boxer, some of them were laughable while other were also memorable. But even if these characters were very stereotyped, they had that special charismatic value that usually these kinds of characters lack.

Yuen Woo Ping and his brothers are behind this great production and it really showed on screen. The fight sequences are very long, you no longer see fights like this today, and they also look and feel very real. They opted for a more realistic style with almost no wire or fantasy move, which gives the movie a believable look. You will also see traditional kung fu using different animal styles. There's also a couple of fight sequence putting traditional kung fu against American and European boxing or Japanese Karate which was very interesting to watch. We have to wait a little while before seeing real fight sequence since the beginning is mostly about training but in all if you are expecting a kung fu movie with a lot of fighting, then you won't be disappointed. The final fight is also of course one of the best fight of the whole movie.

Surprisingly this kung fu movie has a lot more to offer than just kung fu fight sequences that are beautifully choreographed, there is also an excellent storyline playing with the emotions of these memorable characters. The movie has a great production value, using the best talents available of the time. In my own opinion, the movie may not be as good as his predecessor "Fist of Legend" but it can be put easily on the same level as Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury" or even higher. If you like your kung fu movies with a lot of great emotions and excellent fight sequences, I really think you should not miss this great kung fu classic, one of the best kung fu movies of the 80`s.