The Brawl Busters (1978)

 

Director: Kim Jeong-Yong

Screenplay: Richard Hung

Cast: Il-shik Jang, Yong-seok Kang, Yeong-ran Seo, Moo-Wung Choe, Mu-Seong Kwak, Debbie Ling, Chung-Il Nam, In-Ha Yoon

Ephemeral Waves

 

Starring "Black Jack Chan", the more notable detail for myself in the credits is Joseph Lai (and to a lesser extent Tomas Tang), a delightful appearance to witness in the credits alongside the familiar type of English dub voice acting here which I have only found with Godfrey Ho films. It was a pleasing surprise to return to this world of Joseph Lai, even if this is clearly a South Korean martial arts film he has taken and re-appropriated for an English speaking audience, as much an influence on Ho's infamous cut-and-paste ninja films and a sharp reminder that both, before the likes of Ninja Terminator (1985), had their names on a glut of martial arts films, in this particular case a South Korean entry from director Kim Jeong-Yong. Rather than a film about a 'Jack Chan', likely in mind to Jackie Chan's growing success, this is a film from a prolific filmmaker who spent a great deal of time in martial arts cinema as much as producing one-off curiosities like War Of The God Monsters (1985), a Korean kaiju movie that now immediately stands out as an enticing film to witness.

This like many of any country of origin has a very familiar premise - an evil leader, very good at martial arts, had a family slain over a priceless sword their patriarch won but he felt was rightly his, the only survivor a female baby who, rescued by a Buddhist monk, is out for revenge as the head of an all-female assassination group. A mysterious male martial artist, who makes his entrance catching darts in the air holes of his flute, is tagging along behind her as an ally. It is like many of these films, not just other Joseph Lai productions, so this film's level of unpredictability is a habit of martial arts cinema I am glad exists. This, even with the casual swearing per the Lai production formula of their English dubs, has its own energy, which does also help with the few things which do feel less well in terms of telling a simple story. It is a bit convoluted at first, causing confusion unnecessarily when our female lead, is pictured as a villain contrasted by a son willing to avenge a slain father of one of her targets, despite the later having been a baddie and his son a minor henchman in the end. Our lead does as well, sadly, gets maligned in n her own film to the male lead, so it is to Brawl Buster's virtues that it has a frenzied energy to make up for its imperfections. It even pulls off the "it was all a dream" segment for the lead villain, dreaming of killing the female assassin with his bedroom trap mechanisms, including one of a few times a net confounds a person, which is among its gleefully creative moments for what is a story and plot seen many times before. Especially for something not as perfectly explained as it is should be, factoring in that this English dub from the Joseph Lai group probably took liberties with the source material, this is a huge virtue.

You can see this in even the minor henchmen having their idiosyncratic special moves, a trope which has carried through martial arts from Shaw Brothers to a South Korean production like this thankfully. Tornado feet and extending sleeve attacks, razor male ponytail whips, steel claws (which look like oven mitts with foil claws to be honest), and even crushing spike trap set pieces are among the cavalcade of idiosyncratic pieces to this, to the point I see these martial arts films and realise video games were clearly inspired by these types of films. Even beyond the likes of Kung Fu Master (1984) by Irem just being martial arts stories adapted into a new medium, it is with how bosses in arcade games were clearly following the concept of escalation of each villain has their own idiosyncratic abilities. Hell, even the habit found just in Joseph Lai films like this, but other martial arts movies, of two heroes needing to team together to fight one main villain, which could be seen as unfair and is contrasted by Western films having one-on-one brawls, evokes how multiplayer co-operative games, like scrolling beat-em-ups, cane have players teaming together to actually get to the end of the game.

This comparison is apt as, baring the disappointment that our female lead, and her bevy of four female assassin assistants as the leads as promised in the beginning, a lot of the appeal of The Brawl Busters is that same cathartic unpredictability. The martial arts is solid, and our female protagonist still gets to be a strong character in terms of fighting skill, so a film like this is worthwhile if you have a taste for these type of productions. That is important as being able to split these obscurer martial arts films from each other, and able to appreciate them for their quirks, is different from watching some of the most acclaimed of this genre who have their own auras. As someone who went beyond those ninja films to binging multiple films in succession from this earlier Godfrey Ho-Joseph Lai martial arts films, I can attested to both how one should not try to do that, but also that even lower tier cheesy films like this can show their moments and personalities that, even if it is a scene or something silly, make them rewarding. The Brawl Busters you can appreciate for its bugnuts imagination and the level of creativity to any work like this even if not one of the acclaimed ones.