Killer Kung Fu

Put on The Mystery of Chess Boxing (1979) because I just felt like a like old-school kung fu action. I was not aware of the Wu Tang connection.

It starts with Mark Long going around challenging various kung fu masters, throwing down a metal plate with a mask on it, and killing them with his Five Elements Style. The son of one of the victims is Lee Yi Min. He vows vengeance and goes to enroll in a kung fu school. Before he arrives, he gets in a fight outside a chess school. The chess master's cute daughter gets him to stop the fight, and Long discovers that the guy he was fighting is a senior student at the kung fu school. But he decides to attend anyway.

At the school, he is bullied by the seniors, and made to wait on them at meals. He notices that the cook has some skills, and gets him to teach him some kung fu - mostly rice bowl related. So the next time the senior tries to bully him at dinner, he can skillfully maneuver as many rice bowls as needed. 

But someone finds that he has the metal plate that the killer leaves as a challenge. We know find that this man is ... Ghost Face Killer! The plate is the Ghost Face Killing Plate. Long is mistaken for an accomplice, rather than someone seeking revenge, and expelled. 

So he seeks out the chess master, who has been hiding from GFK. He doesn't want to teach our hero, but his daughter talks him into it. Training is mostly chess, with some light torture (they string him up in a split, while daughter contemplates his crotch) thrown in. But will he understand chess boxing before the Ghost Face Killer shows up?

So, now I know where Ghostface Killah got his name. I understand there is a song as well. That's cool, although I'm too old for Wu Tang Clan (it's for the children, right?). But this also delivers a lot of kung fu exercises and stunts, delivered well. I particularly liked the rice bowl gags. I don't know if the Five Elements forms were particularly interesting, but we got a lot of them, and many other styles - including chess boxing.