7 Grandmasters (film) at Trylon Cinema, Minneapolis (05 Feb 2023)

Jue quan (1977)

 

We caught the last showing for 7 Grandmasters, as part of the An Exploitation Extravaganza showcase, at the tiny 90-person non-profit Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis.

Turn out was terrific, although I heard Friday night’s showing was entirely sold out and there were talks that it might sell out based on pre-sales. Fans who showed up have never seen this independent 1977 production from Taiwan.

 

Of course, as an avid film collector, especially in the Kung Fu genre, I own the DVD release from Tokyo Shock (Media Blasters). The disc came out in 1999, and the video was taken directly from the source at Mei Ah Film Production Co., Ltd., which did a great job restoring the film for licensing. In many ways, the DVD copy is a better representation of the film, because it has the English dub (as well as original Mandarin with English subtitles).

According to film collector and programmer, Dan Halsted, he spoke to director Joseph Kuo, and said that what we’re about to see is the only 35mm print of the film. It’s a rare treat to see these films on 35… but unfortunately, due to time passage, the print has not aged well. Colors were washed out, in some area of the film, looks like it could be a black and white film.

Despite poor subtitle translations (and sometime impossible to read when there’s a white shirt in the shot…), you do get the general idea of the story. Speaking of which, the story is about a retiring Kung Fu master named Sang Kuan Chun who was challenged before his retirement. He takes his three students and his daughter to defeat the 7 Grandmasters to become the ultimate Grandmaster.

Along the way, an unknown young man begs the Grandmaster to take him as a student. It’s a fairly simple story, but they try and add in more plot, such as how the Grandmaster only knew 9 of the deadly Pai Mei strokes as a masked man stole the other 3 deadly strikes. It seems sometime that the filmmakers were making up the story as they started filming (since so many of these elements weren’t established early in the story).

Look, you don’t watch these films for the amazing stories, you watch them for the action… and this film delivers. The teacher has to fight 7 fighters, resulting in what seems like a super long fight after fight. In fact, during his fight with the Mantis Fist style, I was left wondering, “Is this number 5 or 6?” There were so many masters to keep track of!

With these films, it’s always better to watch it with an audience. The audience would laugh at some scenes… which you wouldn’t know it was funny if you watched it alone. Also, when the film ended, everyone was clapping in approval. I love that kind of experience; it tells me that there are many fans who appreciate these films.