Being a newbie to the whole martial arts genre, I will say that, if nothing else, The Master Strikes proved to me that it is everything that it is cracked up to be. This movie has it all: the tacky zooms, the exaggerated facial expressions, the red-tinted flashbacks, and so on... It's definitely an acquired taste, and I'm not quite sure that I've completely acquired it. However, in some terribly bizarre way, I found the whole thing strangely interesting.

The Master Strikes begins with a young man named Tseng (Casanova Wong (see above screenshot) being hired to transport a valuable jade statue. His journey is played out over the opening credits, and, within a few filmic minutes, he has arrived at his destination. Once there, however, he and the statue's recipient, Liang, find that the precious artifact is missing from its box. Tseng is so distraught that he faints; when he awakens, he agrees to sell everything he owns in order to pay for the loss of the $200,000 statue.

At a local teahouse, we meet a couple of shysters and con artists, Hsiao Li (Meng Yuen Man) and Ah Liang (Ching Siu Tung). These two have rigged up an elaborate method for cheating at a game of dice, and they are only discovered when the teahouse's owner, Hsiao Li's sister, notices them and demands that they return their winnings to their marks. Narrowly escaping death in a protracted brawl, the two flee to a nearby drinking establishment where they see Tseng. After being told his story by the bartender, Hsiao Li begins to believe that Tseng was the victim of an elaborate con similar to the dice tricks with which he and his partner are so familiar. Broaching the subject, however, breaks Tseng from his reverie and sends him on a rampage, attacking everyone and everything in sight. After a protracted battle that finally leaves Tseng calm again, Hsiao Li, still believing that there is monetary opportunity associated with Tseng, sets off with Ah Liang in tow, naturally, to try to help Tseng locate Liang, the man who tricked him.

This begins a rather protracted journey. The group finds itself scamming lessons out of a hung-fu-savvy bum by stealing his own wine and trading it for them. Having thus gained knowledge of an invincible fighting technique, the two, leading Tseng around with them, set out to track down Liang. Stopping at a local brothel, they find him, though they are unaware of this fact, since Tseng is the only one who knows his face, and Tseng will not speak in his catatonic state. However, Liang is on to the three and so sends a team of assassins to destroy them, leading to a protracted battle at the whorehouse. Since the three have managed to survive, our nefarious villain, deciding to take matters into his own hands, challenges the three to a duel. Any guesses as to what kung fu trick our heroes will use to defeat him?

The Master Strikes contains a good deal of flaws. The narrative itself is rather listless, with a very simple structure that is fleshed out with a fair amount of random fights thrown in seemingly as filler. Master Strikes occupies a universe where everyone is willing to fight at the slightest provocation; even our two heroes will, occasionally, come to blows over the most banal of arguments. However, I suppose the fight scenes, like the sex in a porno movie, are what the audience has come to see, so it's really no surprise that they are so plentiful or so prolonged. However, they could definitely have done without the constant screaming of the various characters. Any time a fight breaks out, everyone bursts into fits of yelling that will last the duration of the altercation and definitely become bothersome very quickly. All this fighting minimizes characterization as well, which proved a problem for me. For much of the movie, I was confused as to the roles of the minor players in the plot, and this proved to be yet another aspect of the film that I found bothersome.

Still, the film does have a few redeeming qualities. The fights, which must be the attraction, do seem good, even if they are filmed a little listlessly. I also found the character of Hsiao Li surprisingly appealing. In the various scenes where he isn't fighting but is watching a fight, he has a habit of unleashing a variety of endearing little facial expressions. Sprinkling these little flashes of personality into the bump-n-grind-equivalent fight scenes added a touch of character to the film which definitely made it more entertaining. While I never felt swept up by the story of Master Strikes, Meng Yuen Man's personable acting did at least lead to a character that I was able to, in some capacity, root for and care about.

While the various merits of the film could be debated ad nauseum, what is quite certain is the quality of Crash Cinema's DVD. Anyone who has read a review of either of the Secret Rivals films will know where I'm going with this. In short, the presentation is quite abominable. The film is letterboxed (a rare plus) at 1.85:1, though it is from a print of extremely negligible quality. The beginning few minutes are marred by soft focus and haze, and, while this clears up after a while, the rest of the film looks like it was processed through a meat grinder. Scratches are the order of the day throughout the film, and, to add to this, certain scenes feature jarring splices between every single shot change. Audio is all right, with the actorsâ playful dialogue and constant mid-battle yelling coming through serviceably. The film's dialogue is in Cantonese, and the disk features unremovable subtitles, which run off the screen only occasionally and are presented in both English and Chinese. The presentation definitely gives the feel of a crappy foreign dup. tape, and it's sad to see anything in such sorry condition.

Extras are similarly lacking, consisting of a trailer for Master Strikes that is, overall, in better condition than the film itself; a trailer for another martial arts film; and a third trailer that skipped and froze on my DVD player, which leaves it a mystery to me.

While The Master Strikes certainly isn't great, it does have a bizarre charm. Despite lacking characterization, drama, and a creativity of plot beyond the level of a third grade school play, it did, mostly because of Meng Yuen Man's clever acting and its wonderfully cheesy style, manage to, in some small capacity at least, worm its way just a little bit into my heart. If nothing else, I know I will remember it, for better or for worse.