This movie was so obscure I had to write the Wikipedia entry myself. It is a movie released in 1973 that Yuen Wo Ping directed the fight choreography for. Yuen Wo Ping also did the fight choreography for more recognizable films such as… “The Matrix”, “Kill Bill” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. Don’t think to compare anything, the world of kung fu movies was just coming into its own in the 70s. Which is to say, by today’s standards most people would be hard pressed to finish the movie.
Jackie Chan also apparently appeared in “The Awaken Punch” as an extra, though I was unable to identify which extra he was.
From the article:
Chan Sing plays a young man, Cheung Da Gong, who travels from place to place earning a living as a fighter. He fights at times on a stage before spectators, as a hired body guard and altruistically to protect shopkeepers from thugs looking to collect protection money.
One day Cheung receives a letter which prompts him to return home where his elderly father is sick and dying. At his father’s death bed Cheung vows at his father’s behest to stay and work his family’s farm and to give up fighting.
Local gangsters try to buy Cheung’s land and when Cheung refuses attempt to intimidate him first through threats and then by burning down his house, killing Cheung’s sister and mother in the process.
Cheung, motivated by revenge hunts down the gangsters eventually tracking down their leader and killing him. The movie ends with Cheung submitting to the local authorities when he is arrested on charges of murder with the local deputy admonishing him, “You should have left retribution to the law.”
“Epic” and “grand” are not how I would describe this movie. Though this is by far much better than some other bad kung fu movies I will be sharing in the future.
Haha, that ending sounds amazing.