I first bought a copy of Sammo Hung’s 1979 hit film, Knockabout, a little less than twenty years ago via 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD. It was during a time when I could do nothing but spend all my hard earnings on DVDs and certainly Fox’s line-up of Hong Kong classics had piqued my interest.
Nowadays Arrow Video is carrying the torch for the film’s North American distribution per its acquisition and matriculation of Hong Kong niche releases and they’re soon welcoming it on a newly restored 2K Blu-Ray format with tons of special features, including on their exclusive streamer, Arrow Player beginning March 28.
The language, official trailer and Blu-Ray art can all be viewed below. Pre-orders are up as well!
Having established himself as Hong Kong’s premier action choreographer throughout the 1970s, Sammo Hung ended the decade by directing a non-stop assault of kung fu classics for Golden Harvest, starting with the brutal Iron-Fisted Monk. But it would be his 1979 directorial effort that would finally give his Peking Opera brother-in-arms, acrobatic ace Yuen Biao, his first chance at leading man status: Knockabout!
Brothers and partners-in-crime, Yipao (Biao) and Taipao (Warriors Two’s “Beardy” Leung Kar-Yan), have made an up-and-down career out of being hustlers, conning everyone from bank tellers to casino dealers. One day, they push their luck with the wrong man, martial arts master Chia Wu Dao (legendary Shaw Brothers fight choreographer Lau Kar-Wing), but convince him to reluctantly become their teacher in hand-to-hand combat. But upon learning Chia’s dangerous true nature, Yipao turns to another master: a portly blinking beggar (Hung) trained in the ways of the monkey fist. Will this new skill defeat Chia’s secret snake style?
Combining Hung’s hard-hitting choreography with the Mo Lei Tau style of humor that was increasing in popularity at the time, Knockabout is a thrill-a-minute action spectacular that would pave the way for later masterpieces such as Hung and Biao’s subsequent collaboration, the Wing Chun tour-de-force The Prodigal Son.
