Leung Chang (Yuen Biao!!) lives in the town of Fut Shan and is widely known as the Street Brawler. He has built an impressive reputation on never losing a fight despite the many challengers that cross his path. In fact, even while sitting in a teahouse with his servant a martial artist that wants to make a name for himself in the town so he can open a martial arts school attempts to take Chang on. He and his cronies are no match for the young man though, and is sent packing. What Chang doesn’t see however is that his servant goes out after the losers and pays them for their troubles – the Street Brawler’s whole reputation is actually an elaborate deception, and in fact his wealthy father has made sure that every single challenger has been paid off without Chang’s knowledge to make sure that his son is not hurt. Even his teachers go easy on him and exaggerate the progress he’s made in order to make him think he truly is a great fighter. Some of Chang’s friends go to see a visiting Peking Opera troop that night and one of them is struck by the beauty of the leading lady. Being Peking Opera, this is no lady at all but is in fact the actor Leung Ye Tai (Lam Ching Ying!), who teases the young man’s idiotic advances before utterly humiliating him with some impressive martial arts ability. Leung Chang is then brought in by his friend to use his martial arts skills to teach Leung Ye Tai a lesson. Despite the offers of money made by Chang’s servant, Ye Tai will have none of it and crushes Chang with his expert Wing Chun technique, telling him that his kung fu is useless. Chang feels let down by his family, and his teachers who give him a thorough kicking before going on their way. Anxious to make amends, Chang’s father attempts to ask Ye Tai to take Chang on as his student but he refuses, rightfully saying that he’s too young and thoughtless and would only use what was taught to fight and get in trouble. So instead Chang has his father buy the whole Opera troop so that he can tag along as Ye Tai’s assistant.

Leung Chang proves to be a thorn in Leung Ye Tai’s side as he constantly attempts to persuade him to become his sifu. Things become more complicated during a performance however when a misunderstanding sees Chang getting attacked by a large group of thugs. Eventually ending up on the stage where Ye Tai is perfoming, the Wing Chun expert dispatches the goons much to the entertainment of the crowd. In attendance however is Lord Ngai (Frankie Chan) and his two bodyguards Suen and Law (Dick Wei and Chung Faat). Ngai is a member of the local royalty, but is also a highly skilled martial artist who travels between towns and provinces looking for the very best martial artists to compete against. Impressed with the Wing Chun displayed by Ye Tai he invites the whole opera troop to dinner the next night. Ye Tai and Chang sit with the Lord and after some persuasion from both Ngai and Chang, Ye Tai reluctantly agrees to fight the royal martial artist outside. However during their battle, Ye Tai is struck with an asthma attack and the fight is ended prematurely. Despite the draw, Ngai’s bodyguards were suitably perturbed by the Wing Chun master’s skills and it is revealed that Ngai’s father was not that different from Chang’s – he ordered the two men to make sure his son never lost, even if that means murdering his opponents. The local police chief is brought in and being presented with a royal seal, assembles a group of men to go accompany Suen and Law, who resolve to kill the entire opera troop. With pure luck, Chang avoids the massacre and comes to Leung Ye Tai’s aid amidst the burning remains of the opera troop. Chang’s arm is broken in the melee but the two of them escape into the night. Ye Tai takes the injured Chang back to his old home, where he lives next-door to his old martial arts brother, the arrogant Wong Wa Po (Sammo Hung). With his old brother poking his nose in where its not wanted, Leung Chang more eager to learn Wing Chun from him than ever, and still the threat of royal guards wanting him dead because of his abilities, what can Leung Ye Tai do?

The Prodigal Son is a true classic of the genre, and few can claim to feature such amazingly well choreographed and accurate fights and techniques. Striving to find something different in the kung fu genre to develop, director Sammo Hung hit upon the idea of using Wing Chun – a martial art that does not contain the visual, showy style of other kung fu styles such as Wu Shu and has never had the same exposure of the more elaborate styles. Wing Chun is understood to be over 200 years old and has been often seen as a women’s martial art, as the techniques that make up the art are ideally suited to smaller practitioners when taking on larger opponents, and many believe it to have been learnt and popularised by a woman called Yin Wing Chun who learnt it from a Buddhist nun. The techniques used are extremely close-quarters which utilise a whole series of strikes using just about every body part possible which not only makes it very unpredictable, but also means a larger opponent has no space to fight back. Perhaps due to the perceived feminine nature of the art, Lam Ching Ying’s character is often portrayed as diminutive and effeminate through both his performing as female characters in the Peking Opera and through other characters in the film such as Wong Wa Po making jokes about his feminine appearance. However his Wing Chun, superbly performed by Lam Ching Ying, is seen as extremely powerful and ably shows that a great amount of technique can compensate for lack of size. During training sequences later in the film we get to see up-close displays of impressive Wing Chun technique, including an excellent scene where teacher and student spar at close range on top of a table. While this does not allow for flashy kicking and flipping, and those familiar with the actors involved know they are extremely capable in these areas, these displays of pure technique are an absolute wonder to watch and help The Prodigal Son stand out from the less realistic and less practical styles used in other films of the time.

Both Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying are on absolute top form in this film, Yuen Biao plays the impetuous young hero that has become a trademark of the genre while Lam Ching Ying excels as the reluctant martial arts master. Their dynamic is a strong one as Leung Chang starts as a great irritation (possibly to the viewer also) but slowly starts to endear himself to Ye Tai who finds his persistence annoying but increasingly admirable. While Yuen Biao’s performance of the young man who slowly develops into a much more mature person is good, it is a character that has been seen 100 times before be it Biao himself playing it in films like Knockabout and Dreadnaught, or Jackie in the likes of Drunken Master and it is Lam Ching Ying’s outstanding performance that really takes this film to another level. Leung Ye Tai acts cold and distant to Chang for much of the first part of the film, as if he is putting up a wall of strength and stoicism that he does not wish people to see beyond. However Ching Ying brings an excellent comedic element to the character, thanks to some superb comic timing and a wonderfully restrained performance you do occasionally see cracks in the image he projects. His performance is more than just acting however, as he is superb in the expertly choreographed fight sequences that pepper the film. His techniques are crisp and convincing, most probably helped in part by Sammo Hung’s requirement for physical contact during the fights, and he brings out the very best in both Yuen Biao and Frankie Chan. Many, including Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan, believe that the sadly short-lived fight between Ngai and Ye Tai is one of the greatest ever committed to film and its difficult to disagree, the amazing execution and the use of the set (two narrow plank bridges are used to maximum effect) make it stand out to the point where the rest of the film finds it difficult to match it. Yuen Biao does his very best however and the climactic battle is a wonder to behold, especially as we get to see some great attention to detail as he uses technique taught to him earlier in the film which was another great touch. There is also extensive expert doubling done by both Lam Ching Ying and Yuen Biao done for other performers in the film, most notably Frankie Chan is doubled by both Ching Ying and Biao in the final scene, but is done so seamlessly you'll have to watch it for hours in slow motion to see.

Without a doubt one of the greatest martial arts films ever made, but it is not quite perfect. Sad to say, but Sammo Hung’s character is more of a hindrance than anything, his character is somewhat wacky to say the least and his appearances more often than not bring with them some rather uneven humour which at times harm the flow of the film. The comedy scenes with Biao and Ching Ying worked due to the subtlety of performance given (their argument put to song is superb, for instance), but Sammo is his usual ‘larger than life’ self and while it works in some instances such as an entertaining calligraphy scene, at other times it risks becoming invasive, such as one particularly poignant scene between Ye Tai and Chang that sadly ends with him barging in with a bad gay joke. Does the presence of Wong Jing in the credits as a writer have anything to do with this? While it would be easy to make him a scapegoat, he has been responsible for some truly unfunny attempts at comedy in the past such as the diabolical Future Cops, and his humour was even deemed too silly by Jackie Chan when they had a major falling out over the making of City Hunter. Of course Sammo Hung also directed and choreographed the film so it would not be surprising if he wanted to give himself some screen time, even though the film does truly belong to his colleagues Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying. There is little else to complain about however, as even the supporting cast of bit characters all excel superbly, Frankie Chan looks mightily impressive in his fight sequences and portrays a good-hearted side to what at first seems like a mean character, while Dick Wei and Chung Faat are just out and out evil as they plot behind the scenes without their master’s knowledge. The cinematography too perfectly captures the beautiful sets, amazing choreography and excellent performances of the brilliant cast. The uneven attempts at humour can be forgiven considering how strong the film is in every other area.

A true great of the genre, but also one of the last, The Prodigal Son is a crowning achievement for Sammo Hung as director, and Yuen Biao and Lam Ching Ying give two of their greatest performances. This is especially true of Lam Ching Ying, who so expertly embodies the style and teachings of Wing Chun and makes for a believable and impressive expert, who deserved to be remembered for more than just chasing after hopping vampires in the many horror comedies he would go on to do. Hong Kong just doesn’t make them like this anymore - unfortunately Yuen Biao’s film appearances have diminished considerably in recent years and sadly Lam Ching Ying died of liver cancer in 1997, but this film will forever be an enduring reminder of their amazing skills that will be wowing generations of audiences to come.