Ninja Checkmate, aka Mystery of Chess Boxing, was a somewhat legendary film where I grew up (Queens NY, early 80's). Along with FIVE VENOMS, this was one film every kid who loved kung fu films always talked about.It's reputation as one of the best is a bit unfounded, but it is nevertheless a very good kung fu film.My thoughts on J Kuo:
Joseph Kuo is my favorite old-time kung fu filmmaker. His films have such a daffy brilliance, they are weird, unique, and sometimes profound. In conventional terms they may be sometimes sloppy, poorly scripted, badly dubbed. But that's not what makes his movies interesting. The have these touches of surrealism and abstractness that other famous kung fu films really lack, and it's something I find endlessly fascinating.
Anyway, this film is a somewhat standard kung-fu comedy training film, in the vein of Eagle's Shadow. the fights are quite good, in the acrobatic style. Jack Long is elegant as the old chess master, and Mark long suitably nasty as the Ghost Face Killer. This is rather tame Joseph Kuo, very conventional by his standards.
The best scene in the film, however, is where one of the ghost Face Killer's intended victims, an old kung fu teacher, tells his students to evacuate the school, because GFK is on the way. A very poignant scene ensues where one by one, we see the students sadly get up off their knees and reluctantly leave the school, while the dejected master hangs his head in the foreground.
It's these bizare touches make J. Kuo so good.