Reviewed by:
pollypolly Jimmy Liu is Ah Sam, a bum and a con man who goes around hustling people out of their cash. After taking a bet too far, he is beaten up by a young lady who is a Kung Fu expert (
Yuen Qiu) and subsequently takes another beating on his way home from an irate sign post maker!. Down on his luck, Ah Sam is taken in by a chain smoking old Kung Fu master (
Pai Sha Li) who teaches him a few moves in return for Ah Sam helping him with his daily chores.
It turns out that Lung Ching, the young girl from the opening scene and her sister Lung Yang (
Phoenix Chen –
Dreadnaught) are plotting revenge on a man known as ‘Ghost Legs’ (
Hwang Jang Lee) who murdered their family some years ago. ‘Ghost Legs’ is also hunting for the sisters after being crippled by Lung Ching in a past fight. Another chance meeting between Ah Sam and Lung Ching leads her to the old master who turns out to be the sisters’ lost uncle. Although initially reluctant, the ladies join forces with Ah Sam and prepare for a showdown with ‘Ghost Legs’. However, ‘Ghost Legs’ uses the old master’s weakness for tobacco to unwittingly get him hooked on opium. With the old man out of action it’s left to the less experienced youngsters to try and put an end to the Hwangster!.
The plot is very simple in ‘Fearless Duo’ – Idiot gets beaten up by a girl after being too cocky, idiot finds a master to learn kung fu from so he can go back and fight her, idiot ends up having to fight Hwang Jang Lee instead!. Nothing too taxing there and to be honest, in this instance, the formula works pretty well. I’m not a very big fan of Jimmy Liu and his aggravating character in ‘Fearless Duo’ doesn’t help in changing my opinion much, though to be fair to him, he did put on a very nice display in the final fight. It is the ladies however, who own the majority of this film. Phoenix Chen gets to show off some remarkable pole work in a number of well choreographed fights scenes, though it is Yuen Qiu who is ultimately given the centre stage. Qiu raises a brow on more than one occasion, whether it is demonstrating her soft, fairy fist technique in the opening scenes or whupping the hell out of Ah Sam in the old masters’ back yard in a great fight utilising a washboard and wooden tub.
It’s Hwang Jang Lee that I’m sure most people want to hear about though and after what I thought was initially going to be quite a muted performance from him, he soon heats things up with some devastating flashy kicks. He spends most of the film on crutches and barking orders from behind a table which reminded me a little of Wang Lung Wei in
‘2 On The Road / Fearless Dragons’ and just like in that film, it’s when he loses his crutches that we really start to see some moves!. Hwang steals the show, no doubt, but the final three versus three fight is a real winner with everyone getting an opportunity to shine.
There was one un-necessary dream sequence where Ah Sam gets raped by a homosexual spirit for breaking a sacred urn but otherwise apart from a bit of blatant sexism and the expected unfunny slapstick, the film chugs along at quite a good pace. If you enjoy seeing fierce yet graceful ladies in action then I’d recommend ‘Fearless Duo’. It also goes without saying that this is essential for fans of Hwang Jang Lee ( and let’s face it – who isn’t?) - it’s a long wait but when he does finally come on screen he lights it up as always.
