Review of Knockabout

Knockabout (1979)
9/10
Monkey business
27 September 2022
No pun intended - and one of the movies I might not have seen when I was little. I know for sure I don't remember this one at all. Maybe I was watching more Shaw Brothers stuff and not so much Golden Harvest. Anyway, this has Yuen Biao in it - in the leading role. And he has quite the funny sidekick/friend to him. Morally speaking those two have some issues. But as the story progresses we see more and more that they have more empathy and good morals too - more than others for sure.

Apart from those two, we also have someone who becomes their master (Shi Fu) and also Sammo Hung. And a lot of slapstick comedy - which I am certain had its origin in US movies (Buster Keaton and others) - but of course mixed with martial arts it becomes a completely new thing, that is equally as awesome.

But the movie does not only walk a thin line when it comes to the comedy versus the fighting (or "and" instead of versus - no pun intended), but also the change in tone midway through the movie. Great fights to say the least, while the movie may have some ... pacing issues. Still I prefer the original version instead of the shorter international version. You get a feel (and comedy) from those minutes cut mostly from the beginning. They may have also cut some references to chinese tv shows (even weather station/show apparently) that western audiences may not get ... but again, there is more fun in the longer version ... even if you may not get every joke.
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