The Mystery of Chess Boxing

1979
6.7| 1h31m| en
Details

Lee Yi Min stars as an eager young kung fu student who seeks to improve his fighting skills with the aim to avenge his father's murder at the hands of the Ghost Face Killer, an overwhelming force of destruction and master of the death-dealing Five Element Fist. Lee's eagerness to study attracts the attention of the master of Chess Boxing, Jack Long, who is the Ghost Face Killer's arch enemy. Together master and student devise a wicked cross fertilization of the Chess Boxing and Five Element Fist styles and set out to put an end to the Ghost Face's deadly reign.

Director

Producted By

Hong Hwa International Films (H.K.) Ltd.

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Reviews

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
brlfrndz I heard about this movie because of the famous rap group The Wu-Tang Clan. So i checked it out on youtube. And man is it fast!!!! When i say say fast, I mean it is difficult to keep up with a technique that is so complex. There are excellent fight scenes, especially at the ending! The acting isn't so terrific, but since this is real genuine kung-fu that very few practice, it doesn't matter. The storyline is decent, but you don't always need a storyline for old fashioned fun. Funny haircuts, funny English dubbing, intensely good scenes. It would make an excellent remake. Plus, it's not overly violent either. Kids tend to watch kung-fu movies regardless of the violence level. So this would also fall into parental approval.
Chung Mo If you remember anything that made watching kung fu films fun in the late 1970's and early 1980's this film has it. The crazy dubbing, the bizarre behavior of the kung fu fighters, nutty old man wigs and elaborate energetic fighting moves that make no practical sense.I somehow missed this one completely and finally caught up to it. I can see why it remains a cult classic. The lead villain, the Ghost Face Killer, likes to verbally taunt his victims while performing kung fu moves by himself. He intersperses the moves with half a sentence here and there so it takes a while to complete his taunt. The rest of the film would be standard low budget kung fu film fare but the fighting scenes are really, really well done. These actors (well some of them could act) really could move. Not that all the moves make a lot of sense but it's entertaining.The only problem I had is the TV print I saw is very badly transfered which made the film a chore to watch at times. It was missing an entire scene so that the young hero shows up all beaten up and we never see why. Also the cook character played by Simon Yuen is killed off-screen by the villain but it's only mentioned in passing. It seems like that scene is missing also.Good fun.
Dan Ninja Checkmate is a good kung fu film. It has a cool story, great fights and funny dubbing.The plot of Checkmate Ninja is about a young man who admits a kung fu school in which his class mates don't really like him. Therefore, He becomes a friend of school's cook whose kung fu techniques are very interesting. However, the cook sends him to a chess master who at first, refused to take him as his pupil, but he agreed to take him as his pupil. The chess master teaches the young man some great techniques with which he will use while fighting against the bad guy.This film contains many fights, private kung fu lessons, funky haircuts, funny clothes and controversial dubbing which I actually like. I really like Ninja Checkmate despite its lack of ninjas. However, I suggest that you check this kung fu film. The fights at its ending will totally blow your mind!!
[email protected] Ninja Checkmate, or The Mystery of Chessboxing, is a little gem of late 70ties kung-fu. Lee Yi Min plays the young man how is very good at dodging swords and taking beatings on his search for a kung-fu teacher that will enable him to get revenged over the Ghost-Faced Killah, the kung-fu master who killed his father. The Ghost-Faced Killah, played by Mark Long, runs havoc across the land, searching out and challenging a string of kung-fu masters, overwhelming them with his superior five elements style in many amazing fights throughout the film. These fights are creatively choreographed and extremly entertaining, and break up the film in a very nice way, so there is always something fun going on. The problem otherwise is that the first half of the film containing Lee Yi Min is fairly irritating because of his senior students who continously hound him. There are two very good scenes though, one when he meets the cook who will become his first teacher, played by Siu Tien Yuen, father of Yuen Woo Ping, and a scene in which he juggles ricebowls thrown at him from every where. Lee Yi Min gets kicked out of school, but meets up with the kung-fu and chess master played by Jack Long, a kung-fu master in hiding from the Ghost-Faced Killah, who agrees to teach Min the five elements and combines them with the art of chessboxing so Min can help him fight the Ghost-Faced Killah. The big finale, where Ghost-Faced Killah first fights Jack Long, then Lee Yi Min and finally both of them, is long, elaborate and most of all, great fun. Despite some bad editing and strange clips, and the everpresent at times irritating humour of these type of films, this is a very entertaining kung-fu film, and one of the best of that time. Clearly a pearl for everybody interested in the pure elegance of kung-fu!