The Furious Buddha's Palm

The Furious Buddha's Palm

Dir: Ling Wan Scr: Szeto On
Orig Story: Liu Canyang
Cast: Tso Tat-wah, Yu So-chow, Connie Chan Po-chu, Josephine Siao Fong-fong
1965 / B&W (Partially tinted) / D Beta / Cantonese / (Revised duration)110min

From its third instalment, the plot of The Furious Buddha's Palm deviated from the original novel Heavenly Buddha's Palm by Liu Canyang. This series was successful because the scripts of the third and fourth instalments are even superior to those of the first two instalments. For instance, the ninth move of the Buddha's Palm was invented by the film. In the fifth instalment, Szeto On added a few outstanding characters, including the super villain Iron-faced Asura whose secret weapon is the Heavenly Crippled-leg move, the Dragon Lady under his control and Yuen Tung, a cross between man and gorilla. Szeto On's imagination was as lively as that of contemporary wuxia novelists. When Asura goes on a killing spree with the Heavenly Crippled-leg move, he skilfully keeps Lung Kim-fei from intervening by having him make a promise not to kill again. After Luk Yu dies in combat, Lung's friends come forward to fight one by one, thus continuously shaking Lung's resolve and creating powerful dramatic conflicts. Szeto On is an unconscious genius, who manages to turn Lung Kim-fei's conflict into something akin to Achilles' inner struggle in the Iliad.


Date Time Venue
22/5/2015 (Fri) 7:30pm Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

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