Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you a martial arts comedy film from 1979, titled Knockabout.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
In a town in Hong Kong, beggar Fei's wandering around asking for change, but banker Wei quickly
gets rid of him.
However, Wei does pay attention to the next person that shows up: it's Yipao, bringing
a tiny piece of gold to sell.
Sadly, Wei can only give him two coins for it.
On his way out, Yipao bumps into his older brother Taipao, but pretends he doesn't know
him because both siblings are conmen currently playing a trick.
Taipao claims to just have arrived from abroad and brings Yipao a package with a letter from
his uncle.
Yipao can't read so he gives the letter to Wei, who explains Yipao has received twenty
ounces of gold from the sale of the house.
Obviously, Yipao doesn't hesitate to cash the gold, and when Wei weighs it, he discovers
it's actually twenty-eight ounces.
Since Yipao doesn't know this, Wei lies and pays him for the twenty ounces the letter
mentioned, even adding a receipt so nobody can complain later.
Delighted by the sale, Yipao announces he'll be celebrating at the restaurant and leaves.
At that moment, Wei's father arrives and is happy to hear about today's profit, but when
Wei shows him the gold bar, his father discovers it is fake.
Wei and his dad leave to find Yipao while Fei watches them, laughing at their stupidity.
At the restaurant, Yipao is enjoying his lunch when he is interrupted by Wei.
He denies knowing anything about fake gold and a fight ensues, but this is also soon
interrupted by the police captain, who demands to know what is going on.
Wei's father shows the captain the fake twenty-eight-ounce gold bar and says Yipao gave it to them, but
Yipao is ready for this: he takes out his uncle's letter and the bank receipt, proving
he sold a twenty-ounce bar.
The captain brings some scales and wastes no time in noticing that indeed, Wei's fake
bar is too heavy to be Yipao's.
To prove his point further, Yipao shows the captain the payment he received for only twenty
ounces and discovers the coins Wei gave him are also fake.
Furious at such crimes, the captain makes Wei and his dad pay Yipao what they owe him
with real money this time.
Afterward, Yipao and Taipao get together to celebrate their two bags of money, because
the fake money Yipao had taken out at the restaurant had also been a trick of theirs,
so they were paid twice.
Unaware that Fei is in the area, the brothers put both piles of coins together and begin
dividing the money equally - or at least, that's Taipao's intention, but every time
he's distracted, Yipao grabs extra coins for himself.
By the time they are done, Yipao's bag is three sizes bigger than Taipao's.
This doesn't go unnoticed and Taipao begins fighting his brother to claim the bigger pile,
but during the struggle, they accidentally kick the bags into the forest.
A mysterious hand steals the bigger bag and swaps the smaller one for another one that
looks the same.
The siblings search for the bigger bag and since they can't find it, they both go for
the smaller one.
This time, before a fight can begin, they agree to gamble with the money together.
At the casino, the brothers place their bets and win, but when they're asked to pay up,
they discover that the coins in the smaller bag are fake.
The casino owner sends his men after them, and another fight ensues.
At first, the brothers do well: they're very skillful fighters trained in the Choi style.
But that's still not enough to make up for the difference in numbers, so the casino men
eventually manage to surround the siblings and beat them up.
The brothers apologize for what happened, saying it was an honest mistake, so the owner
allows them to go as long as they promise not to come back.
Now they need to find a new way to make money.
Yipao thinks they should use Taipao's ring, which was a gift their father left them, but
he refuses to give it up, reminding Yipao he already wasted his.
The next trick they end up trying happens at the fish stall, where clients can pick
the fish they want from a barrel.
Taipao puts his arms inside and a moment later, pulls them out empty, claiming he couldn't
catch anything.
But actually, he's hidden a bunch of fish inside his sleeves.
The brothers take these fish to the restaurant to ask the cook to use them for their lunch,
but there's still the issue of paying for the drinks, rice, and labor.
Yipao looks around and when he sees an old man called Silver Fox, he gets an idea.
After convincing Taipao to give him the ring, Yipao puts it in a handkerchief, then walks
around the tables and pretends to trip to casually hide the ring inside Silver Fox's
bag.
However, Silver Fox notices this and after Yipao is gone, he takes the ring away.
Taipao suddenly arrives with the captain and accuses Silver Fox of having stolen his bag.
To prove it, he mentions there's a ring with his family name inside, but when they open
the bag, the ring is nowhere to be found.
The captain hits Taipao for having wasted his time and Taipao intends to hit back, but
he stops himself when the captain reminds him of his gun.
A few moments later, the brothers ambush Silver Fox in the forest to ask for their ring.
When the old man pretends he doesn't know what they're talking about, the siblings decide
to attack him, which proves to be a bad idea.
Silver Fox is extremely talented and easily beats them both up, using only one hand for
most of the fight.
After teaching them a lesson, he gives them the ring back, but when he hears Taipao call
it an expensive heirloom, Silver Fox laughs and easily breaks it to prove it's just a
cheap trinket.
After the old man is gone, Taipao laments the loss of his last valuable, but Yipao already
has a new idea: they should ask Silver Fox to accept them as his students.
That way, they can live for free with him for a while, and once they've learned the
best kung fu technique, they can abandon him as revenge.
By then, their kung fu will be so good that they'll be able to use it to get more money.
The brothers go after Silver Fox and try to convince him to be their teacher, but Silver
Fox turns them down.
Not willing to give up, the siblings still follow Silver Fox around, doing various things
to prove their worth like acting as a bridge between Silver Fox and a boat.
Later at a restaurant, they clean his chair before his seat, pour his tea and guard him
while he eats.
Hearing their grumbling stomachs, Silver Fox finally takes pity on them and invites them
to eat with him.
When the meal is over, the siblings carry Silver Fox's bag together, and he finally
accepts them as his students.
He takes them to his home to teach them kung fu through some peculiar exercises that look
weird at first, but Silver Fox quickly puts them into action to show them how useful they
actually are.
This way, Yipao learns the Lady Leg technique and Taipao learns the Womanly Fist.
Days pass, and the brothers get really good at these new styles.
After congratulating them on a well done job, Silver Fox leaves them training while he goes
to the restaurant, but instead of obeying him, Yipao convinces Taipao to go to town
and test their new skills.
When they arrive at the market, they find a group of thugs demanding money from a seller
and destroying her stall when she fails to pay.
A man called Silver Dog tries to stop them and fails, so the brothers decide to step
in and fight the thugs.
With their new techniques, the fight is incredibly easy, and the siblings even allow themselves
to play with their opponents.
Once the thugs are defeated, their leader pays for the damages, but the duo only gives
the stall owner half of it and keeps the rest.
Silver Dog tries to ask them some questions, but they ignore him to go to the casino instead.
While this time they have real money to gamble, the brothers still try one of their tricks.
They go to a table that uses buttons as part of the game, so Yipao takes the buttons from
Taipao's shirt to cheat.
The plan is for Taipao to distract everyone while Yipao adds buttons to get the number
he bets on, and the first time it works perfectly.
However, Fei shows up to gamble too and notices their trick, so he interferes with Yipao's
second try and causes the brothers to get caught red-handed.
Once again, the casino owner sends his men after them, but this time, Yipao and Taipao
easily defeat them all thanks to their training.
While they take care of the owner as well, Fei sneaks behind them and steals the money
from their first cheated win.
The brothers notice this and go after him, only to find Fei giving away the coins to
other beggars.
Furious, Yipao and Taipao attack Fei to get revenge, but Fei surprises them by easily
defeating them with his Monkey technique.
Since Fei escapes, the brothers return to Silver Fox's house and find two men waiting
for their master: Seven Dwarves and Snow White.
When these men hear the siblings are Silver Fox's students, Seven Dwarves puts them to
the test and is impressed by how good their technique is.
He refuses to let them win though, so after congratulating them, he decides they shall
split up: Seven Dwarves fights Yipao while Snow White goes against Taipao.
Unfortunately, the brothers are no match for them, and the men go away after leaving a
message for Silver Fox saying to look for them at the local inn.
Speaking of Silver Fox, he sees Seven Dwarves and Snow White leave his house when he returns
and begins to worry.
When his students tell him what happened, Silver Fox explains these two men are old
enemies that have finally found him and asks for the brothers' help to defeat them.
The key is not to let them team up, so the siblings will go against Seven Dwarves together
while Silver Fox fights Snow White.
A message is sent to Seven Dwarves and Snow White asking them to come to the forest for
a proper duel.
Fortunately, Silver Fox's plan works out and the brothers manage to defeat Seven Dwarves
by fighting him together, including a dirty kick in the groin.
Meanwhile, Snow White is no opponent for Silver Fox, who easily beats him up and kills him.
Afterward, Silver Fox takes advantage of the boys having defeated Seven Dwarves to kill
him as well.
The master thanks his students for helping him lift this weight from him and sends them
to the restaurant to celebrate, promising he'll be joining them soon.
At the restaurant, the brothers are approached by Silver Dog, who shows them a picture of
Silver Fox and asks them if they've seen him before.
They give him their master's address and Silver Dog wastes no time in paying Silver Fox a
visit.
Dog calls Fox smart for having escaped while Seven Dwarves and Snow White took the blame
for a past incident, so these two men went to jail while Silver Fox enjoyed his freedom.
Fox explains they've already come to him for revenge and he killed them, so now he'll have
to kill Dog as well.
While the two men begin fighting, Yipao gets worried about his master and comes to check
on him.
When he sees the fight, he hides behind a wall and hears a big revelation from Silver
Dog - it turns out Silver Fox has done many evil deeds in his life and the law is after
him.
However, Silver Fox shows no remorse and kills Silver Dog too.
After Fox hides the body, Taipao shows up looking for his brother, so Yipao has no choice
but to come out and admit he's heard everything.
Not wanting his cover to be blown, Silver Fox attacks his students, who at first refuse
to hit their master, but they begin defending themselves when they realize Silver Fox isn't
stopping anytime soon.
By fighting him together, Yipao and Taipao manage to do enough damage to create an opening
to escape, causing Silver Fox to reveal his secret snake-style technique to stop them.
This style is too powerful for the duo to beat, so Taipao decides to sacrifice himself
to allow Yipao to escape.
Silver Fox kills Taipao before chasing Yipao into town only to lose him in the crowd.
Yipao spends the day suffering his grief until he comes across Fei's little home and decides
to steal his chicken to help his mood with some delicious food.
However, it's easy for Fei to find him by following the smell of the chicken, giving
him the opportunity to offer Yipao wine in exchange for half of what's left of the bird.
Yipao accepts without noticing he's being tricked and ends up drinking vinegar while
Fei takes back his food.
Furious, Yipao attacks Fei only to be easily defeated once more.
The next morning, Yipao sees Fei train and asks him to be his master, but Fei refuses.
Yipao doesn't give up and follows Fei into town, offering him a bet: if Yipao wins, Fei
will teach him his technique; if Fei wins, then Yipao will do the street begging for
him.
Fei accepts, so Yipao shows him a little game to play against the other beggars that Fei
ends up losing, so now he must accept to be Yipao's master.
A few moments later, the duo is already training.
Fei puts Yipao through many different training techniques to teach him his Mish Mash and
Monkey styles, like tying pointy sticks to the back of Yipao's legs to improve his jumps
and kicks.
As days pass, Yipao quickly improves, but his stamina is still poor.
Fei decides on a very particular training method to fix that: skip rope.
It's difficult at first, but with practice, Yipao manages to pull every kung fu while
rope jumping, and even trades places with Fei so he can train his stamina as well.
One afternoon, Yipao goes to the market to get wine and mistakes a stranger for his brother.
Memories of Taipao remind Yipao of what he's actually been training for and Taipao decides
it's finally time to get his revenge.
He searches for Silver Fox and follows him out of town, taking him by surprise with his
new techniques.
The fight is more balanced this time, but Silver Fox is still a formidable opponent
and he tosses Yipao inside a restaurant where Fei happens to be getting food.
After all the clients run away, Silver Fox sees Fei and reveals he's a detective pretending
to be a beggar as his cover.
The fight continues, this time with Yipao and Fei combining their monkey techniques
to fight Silver Fox as a team.
Silver Fox is forced to use his snake technique sooner than he expected and badly hurts Fei's
legs by breaking a chair against them before throwing him out the window.
As Silver Fox takes Yipao outside to keep on fighting, Fei finds a spiked vine and brings
it over with a plan in mind.
He tosses a vine end at Yipao, who quickly catches on, and together they begin whipping
Silver Fox with it before forcing him into a round of rope jumping.
Yipao ties his end of the vine to a tree and leaves Fei in charge of it while he joins
Silver Fox on the jumping, allowing him to finally defeat his old master because Silver
Fox has no experience with the rope.
Yipao grabs Silver Fox by the neck and Fei drops his weight on top of him, killing him.
Fei admits he's indeed a detective undercover, but now his legs are too hurt to even walk,
so Yipao has to carry him back to his home.