High Octane
Summary
A goofball comedy with some wild wuxia wire action, Stephen Chow’s slapstick epic King of Beggars goes completely bonkers in a boulder-throwing and gravity-defying climax that might’ve inspired elements of The Matrix later on. Chow makes an annoying, if endearing heroic, inspired-by-legends character with his “can’t touch this” antihero, and with a bigger budget than most of its ilk showcasing hundreds of extras in any given scene and huge battle scenes and period-era costumes and weapons, Chow directs this one as well as starred in it. He would later find crossover success with Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, and here is one of his bigger films from the early ’90s that proved his skill as a comedy hero and filmmaker. Chow, to me, is an acquired taste, but if you’re on his wavelength, then the film is a blast. If not, this one will be a struggle to get through.
Plot: A spoiled young man goes from riches to rags and then becomes “the king of beggars” when he takes on the mantle of a folk hero.
Review: Spoiled rich and pampered by his illiterate, wealthy parents, So Chan (Stephen Chow) becomes infatuated with a beautiful, royal courtesan (Sharla Cheung) and he declares his love and intention to marry her the first moment he lays eyes on her. She’ll marry him on one condition: That he prove his strength in a royal martial arts tournament. When he wins the tournament by sheer bravado and luck, the world shifts for him and his loyal father when his victory has the opposite effect and destroys his reputation because he was supposed to lose by decree of the emperor. Thrown out in the gutter (along with his father), So becomes a beggar, but having absolutely no skill as such, he begins to starve and must “up” his game as a beggar in order for him and his father to survive. As he integrates into the beggar culture, he stumbles into the “beggar clan” and unwittingly walks right into a sacred battle between the clans to claim the mantle of who will become the “king of beggars,” which is a holy and fearsome responsibility as it requires the ultimate (and virtually supernatural) skill in fighting. Using a sacred text, which he learns almost instantly, So breaks all the traditions and gets the powerful download to be the leader of the beggar clan and does, indeed, become the “King of Beggars.”
A goofball comedy with some wild wuxia wire action, Stephen Chow’s slapstick epic King of Beggars goes completely bonkers in a boulder-throwing and gravity-defying climax that might’ve inspired elements of The Matrix later on. Chow makes an annoying, if endearing heroic, inspired-by-legends character with his “can’t touch this” antihero, and with a bigger budget than most of its ilk showcasing hundreds of extras in any given scene and huge battle scenes and period-era costumes and weapons, Chow directs this one as well as starred in it. He would later find crossover success with Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, and here is one of his bigger films from the early ’90s that proved his skill as a comedy hero and filmmaker. Chow, to me, is an acquired taste, but if you’re on his wavelength, then the film is a blast. If not, this one will be a struggle to get through.
Eureka! brings King of Beggars to Blu-ray in a new 2K restoration, and the disc comes packed with bonus features, including a new audio commentary, a new video essay, a booklet, interviews, and more, plus a slipcover in its limited version.