Great Film overall

Fresh and Exciting

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

...and these words are NOT from a Jackie/Sammo fan. The point is that, for instance, Mr Jackie Chan is able to give us a perfect mixture of comedy and drama (well, not always of course) and here the young actor ("Student") can deliver neither comedy nor drama, at least he cannot do it properly (but mostly in a nauseating, even repulsive way). "Auntie" is very impressive as the movie starts but further on she gets more and more manipulative, becoming a kind of rag doll who gets in corny situations. Some parts of the flick are too prolonged, stupid and simply awful (like "the musketeers masquerade fight" - it's so bad that my urge was to shut the whole cinema down, or "the serenade dance" in front of "Auntie" - the Chinese actors were pathetic and it was painful to watch this dancing-singing schlock).The story had sucked me in to watch this one and the beginning looked promising, but soon it all turned out to be a mediocre kung-fu flick of a dubious quality. The funny moments are very scanty and the fights (tons of them here, but... in vain) don't feel impressive to me (because the director failed to build up the story and the characters). It's very sad that the leading actress, being so beautiful and knowing how to kick some rear, falls flat because of poor direction and because her overacting colleague ("student") looks and sounds embarrassing. Besides, the main villain's character is very underdeveloped. What do we know about him apart from wanting to get the property and having a bunch of henchmen?Just a 3 out of 10 for this third rate flick from the past (the IMDb rating here was absolutely misleading to me, and these Chinese actors ruined my evening when my plan had been to enjoy a kung-fu cinema of good quality). Thanks for attention.

First of all I loved this movie. But it got strange points that bothered me. Sure we're accustomed to the American movies and their formulas. In the same time, it isn't a problem to be accustomed to other formulas as long as they proved themselves solid. This time I think it didn't. At its start the movie puts a story with a great basis. An widow grand auntie who is less than 20 year old, hiding her youth and suppressing her rebellion under so serious looks and old fashioned clothes. Now she had to meet someone of her age who's totally the opposite (love must be in the air by now). Not to mention, that there is also an evil antagonist who chases both and wants to steal and destroy them. So, it's some romantic comedy about the hypocrisy of the past, while not living the present (the girl represents the past of Hong Kung, while the boy is the present with all the recent inventions, modern culture, etc), and it's a kung-fu movie in which fights must solve a big conflict and beat a very wily relative who has such an incredible booby-trapped house and unbeatable henchmen. The thing is; the romance didn't end up; I don't know is it inappropriate, in the Hong Kung's culture, for the guy to marry the girl at last ?? And the climactic sequences went on and on like it's forever. True that bringing the 4 old men into the battle was a good move that must attract the older audience, giving Lau Kar-Leung, who performed the character Yu Jing-Chuen, and wrote, directed the whole movie, the time of his life as well. But I felt so board, especially with not changing the place.Save the last 20 minutes, still this movie is so watchable. Kara Hui is the jewel of it, as the auntie (Jing Dai-Nan). She proved that her acting is as perfect as her martial arts. It's fascinating how she was turning from a staid statue into just a teen girl with all the natural astonishment. Her amazed looks to a new colorful world she didn't experience before, waking up her youth inside, assured how a gifted actress she is. The scene in which she fights some guys in the market while wearing a naked dress (beating them up, then hiding her exposed legs) was one of the loveliest and sexiest moments I ever saw in a movie. Fair enough to win the Best Actress honors at the first annual Hong Kong Film Awards for that performance. Yu Jing-Chuen wasn't less powerful himself, making such a nice character. And I believe by writing that end he kind of implied that the new generation can't have victory only by itself; they need the old one to really overpower. Hsiao Hou, as the son (Ah Tao), was the least interesting cast-member, doing well in the fighting scenes and the comic ones, while lacking the charisma of everyone around. The cameo of the legendary Chia Hui Liu (aka : Gordon Liu) as the friend (James) was strange, he didn't do much as if that was a rest role for him, and he looked extremely ridiculous in that big blond wig too ! Anyway, the entire movie is enjoyable, having sense of difference for the Shaw Brothers movies at the time. I mean we have the beginning of the 20th century, with automobiles, masquerades, singing, dancing, and sex tone, getting totally out of the Shaolin Monastery and the bald monks! Simply the decorous atmosphere got finally broken, even if a little. I loved this story, with its comedy, action and wind of change indeed. I just didn't like most of the third act; it ruined the taste of the final product.

"My Young Auntie" seems to be considered a minor kung fu classic by some people, and indeed it has a lot to admire: Kara Hui is a marvel to watch in action (with each new film I see her in, I become more and more convinced that she must be one of the 5 greatest female fighters in movie history; she is also underrated in terms of beauty), Hsiao Hou makes a very compatible and playful partner / rival for her, and old-school kung fu fans are sure to get a kick out of the final fight between Liu Chia Liang and his "evil" relative. The problem is that the film barely has enough story for 14 minutes, and yet it goes on for 114! Needless to say, it feels overlong. The last half hour is non-stop fighting: this may sound good in theory, but in this case it becomes repetitive, perhaps even exhausting. Also, it's a little weird that the central character, the Auntie of the title, is almost completely written off the action during the finale. (**1/2)

Some martial-arts purists think that comedy was the worst thing that could have happened to the old-school kung-fu flick; and it is true that the introduction of comedy into the genre signaled the end of the "chop-socky" period in Hong Kong film. But the fact is, one can only carry-on a primarily physical exhibition of prowess for just so long, then everyone gets bored with it. And that's really why the chop-socky died and how the Hong Kong "New Wave" action film was born: the producers, the actors, the directors all just got bored with hitting people for ninety-minutes straight.Given that, and given the fact that Liu Chia Liang is a professional director with a considerable list of films in his resume, this film has to be seen as something other than just another kung-fu comedy. Rather, it is a comic film within the martial-arts genre, and in fact one of the best ever made.What Liu has done with this film is really a pleasant surprise: he has taken a martial-arts plot and re-constructed it along the lines of a Hollywood-style musical! Complete with episodes of singing and dancing! It was around the time of the making of this film that some film-makers and film fans began to recognize that the cinematic performance of martial-arts (really derived from the acrobatics of the Chinese opera) has more in common with dance than with fighting. (I will continue to point out this connection until most Americans realize what they are actually supposed to look for when watching a martial arts film - well-choreographed body movements, using the plot of an action film as an excuse for their performance.) At any rate, quite clearly Liu Chia Liang made this connection and decided he would explore it close to its limits.The result is an incredibly charming entertainment, filled with marvelously human characters attempting miraculous kung-fu (and tripping over their own shoelaces as often as not when they do so). and the film being set at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, allows Liu the opportunity to explore the nature of the Westernization and Modernization of China that contributed so greatly to the making of the China we know today. So the film has considerable historical import as well.Also, fans of Stephen Chow's recent Kung Fu Hustle should really watch this movie carefully, as Chow clearly learned from it before the making of his own film.A very amusing, well-made film. Oh, yes, and the kung fu in it is really, really good.Purists won't admit it, but this is probably director Liu's best film.