KING OF BEGGARS
January 16th, 2010 by Planet Chocko
Stephen Chow on display with Sleeping Kung Fu
Stephen Chow in ‘King of Beggars’ earns a 5 out of 10 “steamed roast pork buns” in this 1992 film directed by Gordon Chan. Chow displays his signature slapstick, comedic, kung fu play in this period piece movie. Chow plays a legendary character in China called “Beggar So”. Beggar So in the movie doesn’t start off with much Beggar qualities, more like a rich & spoiled wanna be scholar, who is illiterate! ‘So’ is very talented in Kung Fu, but lacks substance in other areas of life including honesty & integrity. Due to So’s mischief & deception to the public, he & his father gets sentenced from the higher court to be beggars for life with no traces
of material renderings to fall back on. Beggar So then meets up with an evil court general that dislocates his four limbs for just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Beggar So & father find themselves struggling to survive. They join the Beggar Clan society & try to gain strength with Beggars of similiar fates. The leading lady of the film conspires with the Beggar Clan to try & rid of this evil court general. This general fatally injures the leader of the Beggars Clan which forces Stephen Chow to take the reign of the leader of the Beggar Clan. With the help of a Master in his dreams, he regains his confidence by learning “Sleeping Kung Fu” to rid of the evil empire. Overall, this film is a good template for a classic Stephen Chow movie. Chow incorporates comedy,good acting, & above average kung fu skills to the screen. Chow always displays a message or two for paying homage to these Chinese heros of the past that he portrays in the film with a Stephen Chow signature. In all his movies, Chow always does a pose or two, a facial expression or three, and a grunt or 4, to pay respects to the great Bruce Lee! His other movies of note include ‘Shaolin Soccer, Fists of Fury, Legend of the Dragon, Kung Fu Hustle, & Kung Fu Hustle 2 is currently in production mode. If you chopsocky fans can get a hold of “King of Beggars” for a monetary equivalent of half a dozen pork buns, then I definitely would recommend you spend an afternoon to watch it!
–Mr. C (5 out of 10 steamed pork & vegetable buns)
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Tags: beggar clan, beggar so, gordan chan, king of beggars, kung fu comedy, sleeping kung fu, stephen chow
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