The Mar's Villa 神腿

Prosperous merchant Ma Tien-Lung (John Liu), defending his home, killed the brutal martial arts master Fang (Phillip Ko). Ma thought he could finally breathe easy, but that was only the beginning of his troubles – Fang's son (Stephen Tung) arrives at his house, wanting not only to wipe Ma off the face of the earth but also to claim his wife (Tong Bo-Wan).

This kung fu actioner can't be counted among John Liu's best films, but it must be admitted that it rises slightly above the average level of its time. True, not thanks to the fights, which carry 90 percent of such films, but thanks to the plot – it offers no surprises, but at least it's fairly coherent, and the film doesn't give the impression that the script was written on someone's knee in the breaks between shooting fight scenes. There are characters, they have their own reasons for acting one way or another, there are certain dramatic conflicts – played out, admittedly, not very convincingly, but there you have it.

From the cast, it's worth singling out Stephen Tung – he would later grow into a vivid character actor and, without exaggeration, a brilliant action choreographer, but in the late 1970s he was only just beginning his path to fame. Here he plays one of the villains and, what must be especially noted, he actually acts, rather than just glaring angrily at the camera the way Philip Ko does, and doesn't spend the whole film with an expression of dreamy pensiveness the way John Liu does. Again, it must be reiterated here that acting "performance" in late-1970s kung fu films has little in common with what is understood by acting in the rest of the world, but Tung easily pulls the attention onto himself, and that means something.

The Mar's Villa, of course, doesn't escape its share of goofs and stupidities, the most obvious of which are the torture scenes of the protagonist, who is put in a cage and tormented… by banging a stick against the bars, which eventually drives him insane (afterwards, admittedly, he returns to clear consciousness again). Not only does it all look rather silly (Liu writhes and screams as if he's being electrocuted, but doesn't try to plug his ears), it's also pointless – wouldn't the racket be just as hard on the ears of the one banging on the bars day and night as on the prisoner? What's more, the tormentor isn't just sitting in the cage, he's tirelessly waving his arms!

There are certain complaints about the fight scenes as well – the staging is a bit rough, without any spectacular moves or acrobatics. Considering that The Mar's Villa came out in the late 1970s, when such things had become obligatory for kung fu films, this is disappointing. True, the simplistic choreography didn't affect the level of the actors' training – John Liu kicks as spectacularly as ever, and Philip Ko is in top form. True, there isn't very much of him here – mainly at the beginning and at the end.