Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Kung Fu League Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2019

How many kung fu movies have you seen that start out with an over the top action sequence featuring outlandish stunts and moves that unabashedly defy the laws of physics? Kung Fu League would seem to be yet another outing firmly ensconced in that same general template, except there are some kind of odd and funny differences. In one instance a combatant jumps from a second story window and lands on the pavement below, where in any “ordinary” kung fu film, he’d simply jump up and continue the battle. Here, though, his ankle crunches and he’s seriously injured, begging his cohorts to get him out of further harm’s way as quickly as possible. Another piece of whimsy has two guys going at it with each other in a frenzy of wire work, except at one point one guy licks the other guy’s nose. What is going on? Well, a fairly quick denouement reveals that this opening scene is actually the fantasy of a struggling comic book artist named Fei Yingxiong (Ashin Shu). Fei is in some kind of dead end job (that part of the film could have used a little more development), where his actual duties seem far less important to him than his obvious obsession with his gorgeous co-worker Bao’er (Madina Mahmet). When Fei’s “auntie” offers him a little miniature birthday cake, she tells him it includes a “magical wish” component, and she urges him to do something to finally let Bao’er know how he feels. After having been accused of stealing from Bao’er, when in actuality he was attempting to place a little love letter in her unattended bag, Fei walks off the job and uses the birthday cake to magically invoke help from four kung fu and/or martial arts legends. And that in a nutshell is what Kung Fu League has to offer.

Fans of other Well Go USA fare might be intrigued by the idea of a film that teams up a bunch of martial arts icons often seen in Well Go USA releases like Ip Man (Dennis To), Chen Zen (Chan Kwok Kwan), Wong Fei Hung (Vincent Zhao) and Huo Yuan Jia (Andy On), but kind of surprisingly, Kung Fu League never really fully delivers on its promise of a comedic take on these characters. Some effort is put into the consternation the quartet encounters trying to understand 21st century life, but the film also settles more or less for pretty traditional, if sometimes wacky, combat scenes, all in support of Fei’s quest to get to happily ever after with Bao’er (and guess how that one turns out).

Kung Fu League Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kung Fu League is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is another Asian film where I haven't been able to track down much technical data on the Western internet, but I'm assuming this was digitally captured and finished at a 2K DI. Some of the CGI here is fairly lackluster looking (see screenshot 5), but a lot of the rest of this presentation pops with considerable authority. Brighter lit moments without much in the way of grading often provide excellent levels of fine detail, and even some colorfully lit sequences in places like nightclubs offer generally nice detail levels as well.

Kung Fu League Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kung Fu League 's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in the original Mandarin) springs enjoyably to life throughout both the action elements and the goofier asides featuring Fei and his now modern martial arts mentors. The film has a kind of cartoonish sound design at times which nicely exploits the surround channels. Fidelity is fine throughout this problem free track.

Kung Fu League Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers includes:

  International Trailer (1080p; 1:38)

  
  

  U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:37)

As usually tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, this disc has been authored so that the supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on International Trailer is essentially a Play All option). After the U.S. Trailer for this release plays, the disc is authored to move on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Kung Fu League Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kung Fu League has a kind of wonderfully gonzo premise, and it occasionally manages to eke out a laugh or two along the way, but the film is almost curiously ineffective at times. Fans of the legendary martial arts characters at the core of the story may get more of a kick out of this than a more generalist audience, and for them technical merits are solid.