Knockabout (1979) Lame Comedy pathing the way to Action Greatness (Review)

The first time I tried to watch Sammo Hung’s 1979 film, Knockabout, it was through a ratty, almost unwatchable print I loaned from Lovefilm. Remember them? I bring that up as it’s an almost poetic change of fate for martial arts cinema fans, post-Hong Kong Legends. To think that after years of next to nothing, we’d get a previously marginal release born anew through Blu-ray. Times have changed for the better, I know I am crossing my streams here, but this is why I believe there will always be a place for home video, blu-ray and whatever comes next. But I digress. What about part 2 of Eureka’s latest martial arts cinema slate – joining Dreadnaught – Knockabout?

Knockabout is a story of two sides, conveniently broken up by a change of cast midway through. In the first half, Yuen Biao is Little Bo (according to the subtitles), and Bryan Leung is Big Bo, brothers who spend their time conning the locals from one scam to the next, trying to make ends meet. The comedy in this half is about as broad as it gets for Hong Kong cinema, represented by the avatar of broad, annoying Chinese comedy – Karl Maka (as Captain Baldy). Annoying unless you’ve had your senses numbed by the style of comedy, anyway. The brothers follow a master, Old Fox (Bruce Lau Kar-Wing), who they badger into becoming their Sifu. Then halfway in, two masters turn up (genre stalwarts Wang Kuang-Yu & Lee Hoi-Sang), and the story takes a turn for the darker, where Yuen Biao barely makes it out alive. He happens upon Sammo (the subtitles refer to as Fat Beggar), who becomes Biao’s second master until he finally bumps into Old Fox, where Biao gets his revenge and Sammo gets involved in a classic 2 on 1 fight. I tried to avoid spoilers, but it is obvious what I am talking around.

To return to the divisive matter of comedy in Knockabout. Karl Maka also worked with Sammo in Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon (here). Even if Knockabout is a historical film and Skinny Tiger was set in the then-contemporary 1980s, the tone is nominally the same. Even if he only features in two scenes, he sets the tone by over-acting like the best of them, slapping his bald head at every opportunity. It carries throughout, Yuen Biao (in one of his earliest leading roles, accompanied by “introducing” credit) overacts and gurns in a comparable register for most of the first hour, as does the usually solemn Bryan Leung. For sure, comedy is in the eye of the beholder, and as I said previously, I find it somewhere between annoying and incredibly dated. Later, when Sammo becomes a central figure, he honours his time-worn tradition of mashing his deceptive athleticism with his unconventional body shape (for Chinese pop culture). Thankfully, Sammo’s ability as a performer is enough to conjure more than a few smiles. 

Action and choreography are where Knockabout earns its pips. Initially, fights are intentionally muted by design as Old Fox, Leung and Biao’s master, isn’t revealing his entire deck. He’s hiding facts and history, meaning the kung fu he teaches his two students are also muted – bad guys don’t reveal all their tricks, after all. An inspired bit of choreographic decision making from Sammo and his team, all told. When Yuen and Leung have a face-off with Sammo’s vagabond, this crystallises with neither able to land a blow. Same for the first real fight with Old Fox, he uses different stances and weapons that he never revealed to his so-called students. It is there that we become privy to his nefarious true self. Passed that junction, we get some fantastic sequences, including one training piece involving a skipping rope used to enhance stamina. During this, Knockabout and its director show just how prodigiously talented, acrobatic, and athletic Yuen Biao was. And, not to be outdone, the final fight is a 2V1 for the ages. As they say in wrestling, “it’s all about how you leave them,” and Knockabout leaves you like a bonafide action classic. It’s a shame then the route to get there was riddled with unfortunate, lame comedy.

Extras are slim as they have been throughout Eureka Classic’s entire run of martial arts releases, but that’s fine – the movies are the main draw. Interviews are limited to a selection of archival picks, including one with Grandmaster Chan Sau Chang (aka The Monkey King), a master of Monkey Style kung fu. There are also two commentaries, one with Frank Djeng (of the NY Asian Film Festival) and the other with Mike Leeder & Arne Venema. Besides the Grandmaster interview, highlights come in the shape of the latest addition to Darren Wheeling’s series of striking box art and two edits, the one that I watched in the Original HK Theatrical cut and a shorter Export Cut.

Rob’s Archive – Knockabout (1979)