CHAMP OF CHAMPS (THE CRANE FIGHTER) gives us the merciless Ching General Ko harassing and hunting down Shaoliners. Yang Su manages to escape a massacre and, with his beautiful daughter, Ping Er, he settles down and opens a bean-curd business. Though "forbidden" by her father to learn Martial Arts, she begins to spy on practicing monks in a nearby temple, picking up their techniques. She also begins to secretly instruct her clumsy co-worker. Yang eventually learns of her deception, but the damage has already been done and, before long, she's defending the down-trodden. Enter "the young Master Chang," an imbecilic hunchback who "was driven insane by practicing too much Kung Fu..." (Smoking opium, which he also does, isn't mentioned as a possible impediment to his Mental Health...) Young Master Chang meets and wants to marry Ping Er, but she prefers the attentions of a skilled Martial Artist nicknamed "The Busybody." Will young Master Chang overcome his shortcomings and win her hand, or will The Busybody sway her? Check out THE CRANE FIGHTER and see for yourself.

Chia Ling (aka Judy Lee) made over 40 kung fu films from 1972 to 1982, in some of which she starred (QUEEN BOXER, IMPERIAL SWORD, LADY CONSTABLES) and in some of which she contributed extended cameos and fight scenes (EIGHT MASTERS, BLAZING TEMPLE). She's the star of THE CRANE FIGHTER (1979) and has quite a number of exciting action-packed fight scenes where she employs Crane-style kung fu against various interlopers, including men from the occupying Qing army. She plays Ping-Erh, the daughter of a hidden kung fu master (Chuen Yuen), a refugee from the now-banned Shaolin Temple, who has forbidden his daughter to study the art. The two of them run a bean curd shop and are assisted by a goofy servant (Ting Wa Chung), whose comical antics can get really annoying. On her own, however, Ping-Erh has watched Taoist monks secretly practicing and has learned enough kung fu to defend herself. Eventually, the local Qing chief notices her skill and decides to neutralize her by marrying her off to his idiot son. Her father instead stages a contest promising his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who can beat her. Ping-Erh handily beats and maims the idiot son, but soon meets her match in a handsome stranger (Raymond Lui) who had come to her aid earlier in the film. At first, he refuses to marry her, which infuriates her no end, but it's all part of a circuitous courtship. In the meantime, a Qing general (Kam Kong) and enemy of Ping-Erh's father arrives in town, recognizes the father and has him and his brother imprisoned. Ping-Erh and the handsome stranger have to join forces to rescue him and the other prisoners in a grueling nighttime fight scene. They all go into hiding (in rather plain sight, it seems) and, in the course of it, Ping-Erh and the stranger marry. She then refuses to sleep with him until he can muster up the skills to overpower her and force her into the marriage bed. Right at an inopportune time, the Qing forces find them and another battle erupts.Chia Ling is beautiful throughout, particularly in her wedding scene, and is quite a fierce fighter to boot. Her co-star, Raymond Lui, also directed the film and served as fight choreographer. He's quite good and a worthy match for Chia Ling. I'm not familiar with his other credits listed on IMDb, other than his first film, ANGRY RIVER, although I don't remember him in it. CRANE FIGHTER might well be the first starring film of his I've ever seen.The poor-quality gray market DVD I watched for this review offers a pan-and-scan print dubbed in English. I'd love to see a restored, letter-boxed, legit edition in Mandarin with English subtitles.

The Crane Fighter is set just after the majority of the Shaolin monks have been outlawed and killed by the, I think, Ching Dynasty. A few have escaped, and live secretly among the common people. One old guy has a daughter that he has forbidden to learn kung fu, but she does so anyway, by watching some other monks in a nearby temple.A local lord has a hunchbacked son who tried so hard to learn kung fu that he lost his mind, and now the only thing he can really do is fight (and be obnoxious, of course, and bully people). He decides he wants to marry the girl, which of course horrifies her. So she announces that she will hold a kung fu contest, and whoever can beat her, will be allowed to marry her. So the hunchback guy tries, but fails to beat her. However, she is beaten by another local (and fortunately rich and attractive) guy, but he just wanted to have fun, and won't marry her. Eventually, though, he falls for her, and they marry. This is rather late in the movie, so one would think that the marriage was the climax and end of the movie. Not so! After the wedding, all sorts of interesting, fun and unpredictable developments happen. Like their "kung fu wedding night", where she insists that her husband has to force her into bed, which on the first night he isn't able to, so the girl's father has to teach him how to beat her. And when he finally does, the Ching Dynasty bad guys break through and they have to go on the run again.The final fight against the remaining bad guy (they vanquished the others) is pretty cool, and they apparently beat him because he's got sore feet (?!). It's pretty funny, though.Overall, the kung fu definitely isn't bad, the acting isn't bad, and the story isn't bad. Some of the minor characters also have important roles, which is good. But some developments and scenes aren't very clear, and at times in the middle of the movie things get a little boring.So I'll rate this a generous 7 out of 10.

When I started this flick I thought it was going to be a cheap piece of old pony. However give this film about 15 mins and you soon realise that these chaps are seriously good kung fuists. Has all the right ingredients: strange bad guys (hunch back fu!!!!!) Noble guys with a mastery of all the fu. Old guys who show how it really is supposed to be done and of course up tight chicks that fully crane style the bad guys. Also this film is quite innovative and ahead of its time in terms of the camera sweeping through sets and people flying through the air. One thing, I just cannot tune in to the Chinese movie sense of humour. Man falls in a bucket of bean curd oh the hilarity but even though this does not make me laugh I still enjoy it in the context of seventies fu flix