Joseph Kuo's 7 Grandmasters reviewed; screens tomorrow in NY

Courtesy of Mei An Entertainment Group Ltd.

7 Grandmasters / Jue quan
Directed by Joseph Kuo
Taiwan, 1977, 89 minutes

7 Grandmasters, one of the best kung fu films from Taiwan director Joseph Kuo, will be screened this coming Sunday, December 12th at 1:00 p.m. at New York's Museum of the Moving Image. It is being shown as part of the 9th Old School Kung Fu Fest: Joseph Kuo Edition, which is being presented by the Museum of the Moving Image and Subway Cinema in association with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan). 

In this tale, Shangguang Zheng (also spelled Sang Kuan-chun), grandmaster of the Bai Mei strike technique, puts off his retirement and travels with his daughter and three male disciples to challenge seven other grandmasters to prove his worthiness of receiving an accolade from the imperial court. Along the way they are joined by Sha Shaoyiang, who fervently desires to also become a disciple, despite Zheng's insistence that he is not taking on any new students as he's on the verge of retiring.

As you can imagine, what with seven grandmasters to face, the film is packed with high-octane action sequences that have been choreographed by Corey Yuen and Yuen Cheung-yan. Throw in subplots featuring the traditional themes of "you killed my master" and "you killed my father" as well as a sneak attack of black-cad would be assassins, and even the most demanding of old school kung fu fans will be more than satisfied.

AsianCineFest Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars, very highly rated.

Buy tickets for 7 Grandmasters here.

Learn more about Joseph Kuo at Subway Cinema’s website.