The Kung Fu Master

STARRING: Yuen Wah, Yuen Keng Tan, Jade Leung Jing, Kwok Jing Hung, Marco Ngai Chun Kit, Michael Tong Man Long

THE PLOT: "The Kung Fu Master" is set during the Ching Dynasty. There was the constant rivalry between Han and Manchu people. To solve this problem, the King decided to have a fair battle between the best Manchu and Han fighters. He wanted the people to see that he treated everyone equally. The whole series revolved around the selection of fighters and the battles between the two best fighters.

THE CHARACTERS:
Yeun Wah's character: his father was an excellent fighter who was known for his powerful kicks. Although Yuen is in his 40s, he had low self-esteem as his father thought very low of him. It was not until one day that he was able to learn the last step of the family's kung fu that his father let him represent the Han people to fight. But he was drugged by his uncle and lost the fight. During this time, he accidentally ruined Yeun Keng Tan's chance to get married. So he felt responsible for her and agreed to marry her. On the night of their wedding, his martial uncle, who owed debts due to gambling, robbed his father and then killed him. Therefore, Yeun Wah and Yeun Keng Tan could not get married. His life was completely ruined, his father died, Yeun Keng Tan did not want to marry him anymore since he lost the battle, and his leg was broken in the fight so it was like he lost his kung fu. What happened after that was ridiculous. To me, the character of Yeun Wah is totally a loser. The man has no self-esteem and is happy to be bossed around by a woman who would not want to marry him. He even lets her turn his family house into a factory?! Though the scriptwriter and the actor's acting wanted the audience to see Yeun Wah's kindness, the devotion to his woman, and his patience to wait for a day when he will defeat the Manchu fighter, all I saw in the series was a weak and silly man who has no will of his own. For sure, the title "The Kung Fu Master" cannot be used to describe his character. This is a typical role for Yeun Wah, it reminds me of his character in "Plain Love II" which was very annoying.

Yeun Keng Tan's character: she played the role of a very mean, calculating, and extremely unreasonable woman. She could not get married due to her personality. Seeing Yeun Wah's potential of becoming a famous man if he could win the fight, she tricked him into agreeing to marry her. However, after he lost the fight, she did not want to marry him anymore. I just don't understand how anyone could stand her. She treated the people who worked for her like slaves, always deducted their salary yet they still liked her and wanted to work for her without salary when she decided to sell the factory?! She treated Yeun Wah's character, her potential husband, like a puppet. She took over his house, made him work for her for very little salary. I know that Yuen Keng Tan's character is supposed to be a funny figure in the series, and she played her role to perfection. Most of the entertaining moments in the series were due to her lines.

The best Manchu fighter, Fei, is played by Kwok Jing Hung: This is a very young man but with great martial skills. He was determined to become the top and would do anything to achieve his goal. This is a very contradictory character. What I do not understand about his character was that he was always in love with Han girls? Well, if he loved Han women, then he should promote harmony between Han and Manchu, but no, he only wanted the woman and nothing else to do with her people. He loved Jade Leung's character but he treated her father like an enemy. If he hated Han people that much, how could he love a Han girl? Anyway, he showed his intense feelings towards Jade Leung but his actions sometimes contradicted his love for her. He would let her sacrifice for him, killing her own people for him, and worse of all, did not have faith in her. The actor's acting was over the top. He was like some Taiwanese actors. He was too fierce in his acting. Towards the end of the series, I felt that he was treating his father like his own son when he kept screaming at his father.

Jade Leung's character: she was a daughter of a Han kung fu master. Her family kung fu was known for its powerful fists. Her father was not a very good fighter but he always wanted to represent the Han people. I kept expecting her father to turn evil, but to my disappointment, he did not. Jade fell in love with Fei, the best Manchu fighter, after witnessing him begging a blind old Han man. She found out that he was in love with a Han girl, the daughter of the blind man, but the girl died and he was devastated. He asked Jade to take care of the man because the man would not let him do it. Eventually, she fell in love with Fei despite her father's objection. Her character was a very brave woman as she left her family to live with Fei. They were star-crossed lovers. She would do anything to protect him and their relationship. Their love story was touching, however, there was no reason to explain how the two of them could love each other. Jade Leung and the actor playing Fei had no chemistry together. She was very stiff in her acting, and almost did not have any facial expression. I guess that it was partly due the acting ability of the actor playing Fei.

Marco Ngai's character: Marco failed this role miserably. He was not funny at all, most of his lines were lame jokes and his facial expressions were silly. In the beginning of the series, he was the man who knew only money and women. Fei used him to get information from Yeun Wah's family. He flirted with Yeun Wah's sister and eventually fell in love with her. He did some terrible things to Yeun Wah's family but he turned good at the end. I just did not like how they let him defeat Fei without knowing any kung fu. It was such a disastrous ending.

Yeun Wah's martial student, Hei, played by Michael Tong Man Long ("Armed Reaction II"): for the first half of the series, Hei was Yeun Wah's martial student. He had very powerful kicks. He fell in love with Yeun Wah's sister but she did not love him. Then he discovered that he was actually a Manchu, not a Han, so he could not represent the Han people in the fight. He was framed by Fei and all the Hans turned their backs on him. I like this actor, he has potential to play more important roles with his acting and appearance. However, the development of his character was really disappointing. After he was framed by Fei, he broke his knees, so it was like he returned the kung fu to his master, then he worked for Fei, and at the end, he saved Yeun Wah's and all the other Han people even though they treated him terribly. The development of the characters just did not make any sense to me.

Yeun Wah's sister (I don't know this actress' name, this is the first time I watch her in a seriers): this character was very annoying in the series. She loved Marco's character but ran to Hei for comfort when Marco betrayed her trust. She had never once thought about how Hei might be feeling. The actress could not portray the playful side of her character. Her facial expressions were very annoying. In addition, her face looked unnatural to me, probably due to cosmetic surgery.

The King (don't know this actor, he also played king in "Game of Deceit". At some angle, he really looks like Steven Ma Chun Wai) He seemed to be the only sane and reasonable character in this series. I like how they showed him playing chess in most of the scenes. It was like how he used all the others in a scheme to achieve his goal: to calm down the Han and delude them with the idea that he could treat them equally. All the fighters were just a part of his games. He had never wanted the Manchu fighter to lose.

THE FIGHTING SCENES: one bonus point for this series was that it did not use too much special effects like recent TVB's kung fu series. The fighting scenes were enjoyable.

THE MUSIC: The opening of the theme song reminds me of the "Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain" theme song but the song was OK. The music throughout the series was inappropriate and sometimes too loud. I felt like I was listening to an orchestra at some moments in the series.

OVERALL: The plot and the development of the main characters were ridiculous. I only enjoyed the first few episodes of the series, everything that happened after Yeun Wah lost the fight was unreasonable. The fighting scenes were great which could partly compensate for the plot. It is an OK series to watch if you don't have high expectations for it.