Crash Cinema continues their fine line of P5 titles with the 1980's kung fu flick, Ways of Kung Fu. A young student is exiled from his Temple after being repeatedly teased and tortured by his fellow classmates and teachers alike. Well, the evil teacher anyway. He's sent to live with a family, close friends of one of his masters who actually does have good intentions. He plans on sending him out, just until things blow over. He's told that despite the fact that the family practices kung fu, day and night, he's not expected to learn kung fu himself (yeah right!). During his travels our young hero encounters more than his fair share of bullies and bandits.

Once he arrives he learns that indeed, everything with this family is kung fu. Dinner dishes fly to the table with ease and buckets filled with water gracefully fly through the air. As to be expected, it's not long before he himself learns the ways of kung fu (get it?). After spending 2 years with this family (boy how time flies) he's needed back at the temple as his master (the good one) has taken ill. Conveniently enough on the way back he's able to prove himself as no longer being a pushover. Once back at the Temple it's evident that there may be a lot more convincing needed to be done and as long as he uses his new powers of kung fu to only fight back he should indeed earn the respect that he ultimately deserves.

Ways of Kung Fu is not an example of wall-to-wall non-stop kung fu action from start to finish. Quite the contrary actually, despite its obvious predictability it turns out to be a well-written story with all of the elements of some of the best root for the underdog type films. Playing off almost as a kung fu version of Rocky, we cheer for the fallen hero and boo the bad guys, in other words… it works. Ways of Kung Fu pulls together a successful mix of impressive action and slapstick comedy (including one odd bit that implies oral sex between two men) that works quite well in the long run.

It may not exhibit non-stop action, but the fight scenes that are present are extremely well choreographed with fluid movements that are extremely impressive. Even the scenes of flying dishes and buckets or our kung fu master in training are handled quite well with creative edits and near unbelievable outcomes. One scene in particular in which he fights his teacher in the rain while holding an umbrella is most impressive (even if the scene is a bit too dark for comfort). When the action hits (mostly during the second half) it hits quite hard, including a few bits of impressive drunken kung fu training and fighting.

As far as the quality of the film itself, well it certainly ain't gonna be winning any THX awards anytime soon. I know that many of these films lack suitable masters for complete restorations and Crash Cinema does do an incredible job of releasing forgotten gems on DVD that may not have seen the light of day again otherwise. Bearing all this in mind we have a semi wide screen transfer that never really seems all that accurate. During fight scenes the framing looks OK, but during slow down scenes (when we get a chance to really notice it) it looks less credible. Tops of heads are constantly chopped off the frame, during some scenes it just doesn't look very comfortable. Picture quality is a mixed bag as well. The film never looks stunning, there's plenty of print damage (specs, scratches, dirt) and colors are quite often drab and muted (very, very faded). Some night scenes are extremely dark and murky, but still viewable. Despite the obvious limitations of the transfer, I can honestly still recommend a purchase of Ways of Kung Fu based on it's obvious high level of enjoyment and the present lack of an alternative edition or chances of a better edition in the future. Besides, 10 bucks is 10 bucks, and good kung fu is good kung fu, you do the math.

Audio is presented in a dubbed English track presented in mono and it gets the job done. Very little in the way of distortion or background noise, so amen for that.

Extras = nil, 'nuff said?

Bottom line here is that if you can get past the obvious limitations of the transfer and enjoy the disc on it's own merits (great and fun flick, low low price tag) then I say go for it. Crash Cinema regulars are likely to not be disappointed as well. I really enjoyed this one and I thank Crash Cinema for thinking of the fans in their choices of such hard to find kung fu titles.

Ways of Kung Fu is part of Crash Cinema's P5 collection. It's available as an individual title or as part of a 5-disc DVD box set. This DVD is labeled as 4 of 5. If you purchase all 5 titles, you are eligible to earn a discount on a new gaming accessory that allows you to control your gaming experience with an interactive glove. For more info feel free to check out Crash Cinema online by clicking here!