Keeping in mind the fact that asking for continuity in a kung fu movie is akin to asking for understanding and compassion from a politician, THE BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE opens with Kuo Tsing (Kuo Chui) and his bride arriving at Peach island only to discover the bodies of several of his 6 teachers and an unfinished written message. Chang Cheh seemed to have a penchant for martial arts murder mysteries, and this one's a prime example. Evidence points to the bride's father, Huang, a druggist nicknamed "Eastern Evil." Blind master Ko, a survivor of the alleged attack(s), sends Kuo after Huang, suggesting that he might want to remove Huang's daughter's head in the meantime. It turns out that Ouyang Fung ("Western Poison") has been tricked into killing Kuo's teachers by the ambitious but unscrupulous Yang Kang- who dies after being poisoned by impaling himself on a sword. All of the foregoing is deducted by Kuo's wife, Yung Er. Kuo and Yung Er decide to take Kang's orphan son and raise him as their own on Peach Island. The boy, Yang Guo, grows up to be Alexander Fu Sheng. He's raised along with the Wu brothers, Siao and Sau Man, and the lovely Fu Er- who all use Fu Sheng as a punching bag until he outfoxes them and teaches them the error of their ways. In the ruins of the Iron Spear Temple, Guo meets the aged Ouyang, now a mad hermit driven mad by the reading of a kung fu manual purposely written to drive him mad by Kuo. Ouyang "adopts" Guo and promises to teach him "frog fu." Frog Fu, apparently, is a mystical martial art that allows the user to use air (?) as a weapon: Guo has only to "push" air at an opponent to send him flying. Alexander Fu Sheng mugs his way through the movie, but Kuo Chui steals the show: he's absolutely brilliant in this movie (thanks in no small part to the character as written and the actor as directed). Again: continuity be damned, this is one kick-ass kung fu movie.
Review of Brave Archer and His Mate
