HAEGYEOKA (Secret Executioners,1982) *** There are no doubt a great many things that might be said about Godfrey Ho: he's a man, he has a name, he was born,...well, any number of things, no doubt. None, however, could be more central than to note that he knows what is funny about the kung fu genre. This is fine entertainment, folks. It's not immediately clear, and it never becomes that way, but that's only a minor part of its charm...yes, in the wrong hands such a weapon could be annoying, but fear not, Ho is a master. There's the early scene where they're all standing around listening to some old lady who's never even been in the picture, the slovenly racist slurs as the prelude to a fight scene, everything else as a prelude to every other fight scene yet...there's very rarely much explanation about why anyone might be fighting, a state of affairs that seems to please all...the lines of hubris and cliché embracement...just scene after scene of brilliance of a magnitude, well I mean, not a super-high magnitude, but of a certain brilliance anyway...one of my exciting new goals in life is to be in a Godfrey Ho film, just imagine witnessing genius of this magnitude at work. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to take martial arts lessons, it doesn't look like anyone else did.
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