The White Crane Hero

Chu (Kwan Tak-hing) is a master of the White Crane Sect, who trained in his youth under the Sing Lung Master in Zhaoqing. Chu's family and friends back in his village are bullied by Lui (Sek Kin), and Chu returns to fight against the bully. The cunning Lui is eventually defeated and the village is restored to order. The Wong Fei-hung film series was popular in 1956, and the crew of the franchise produced this film on another legendary southern master. The story is different from the familiar plots of the Wong Fei-hung series, with more emphasis on the villagers' resistance to the thugs. Unlike Wong who always stays calm and tries to ease tension, Chu outwardly shows his anger and vengefulness. His kung fu actions are quick and fierce, giving the film an intensive visual energy. The film has a sense of local leftist cinema from the 1940s with ideas of class struggle; the kung fu master has become somewhat a leader of the revolution, a bold move to expand the content of southern wuxia genre.

# Post-screening talk with David Chan

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