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無名小卒 (1979)
His Name Is Nobody


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 02/14/2006

Lau Kar-Wing plays "Nobody", an orphan who grows up stealing food to survive, learning some meagre skills as a con artist. When he meets a true master con artist (Dean Shek), he begs to become a pupil and learn some tricky kung fu. The pair are later separated, and Nobody finds another master (Leung Kar-Yan) to learn more deadly skills.

The plot for the film is thread-bare, riffing on the conventions of the Kung Fu Comedy and to a degree subverting/deconstructing them. The master/pupil relationships seen in films like Drunken Master are explored in some different ways, and the rationale behind the desire to learn ultimate kung fu or to risk life and limb for vengeance are presented in a more thoughtful way, and/or poked for fun (my favourite moment of the film is Leung Kar-Yan scornfully telling Nobody his "Drunken Snake Fist" is "so outdated" :p).

Lau Kar-Wing has always been a likeable chap and his kung fu skills are beyond question, but he has mostly been in supporting or background roles or behind the camera. It's nice to see him in a lead role, and HNIN is a good showcase for him. He also served as the film's action choreographer, and there's some quite inventive stuff. The film takes a more practical approach to martial arts than period pieces, with Leung Kar-Yan telling his pupil "use anything as a weapon", and the advice being absorbed - chairs, tables, benches, poles etc are grabbed, thrown and smashed in the pursuit of damage... anticipating the style of action that became popular in the 80's to a degree. The choreography isn't great though, and certainly nowhere near as impressive as the weapons work in ODD COUPLE.

The film is a fairly entertaining indie Kung-Fu film, which satisfies in most respects but excels in few. Worth a watch for genre fans, but not one of the era's classics.

Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: mpongpun
Date: 08/22/2004

This flick is about the adventures of a boy without a name and family due to some serious bad luck. (Watch the movie!). This hapless, homeless, but happy boy becomes known as the Nobody Kid (Liu Chia Yung). The Nobody Kid meets a conman (Dean Shek) and learns some tricks of his trade. The twosome take on a contract and attempt to kill Ping (Chung Fa), a notorious killer, but the assassination attempt falls through. The conman runs off and leaves the Nobody Kid to fend for himself. The Kid escapes and later happens on another killer named Koo the Iron Heart. The Nobody Kid becomes Koo’s student and takes the opportunity to learn his style of gung fu in earnest. Sadly, Koo is killed by Ping in a brothel as the Nobody Kid arrives just a tad bit late to witness Ping take out Koo. Ping escapes from the Nobody Kid after a brief brawl, but that’s OK, the Nobody Kid will track down Ping at any cost to avenge the death of Koo. Unexpectedly, the Nobody Kid meets up with his old Sifu, the con- artist, and together, the two set out to pummel Ping. Oddly, after the twosome kill Ping, they decide to move to the U.S. to become dishwashers. Huh?