In my mind this was a gritty, modern-day film. But no, it’s not that at all. It’s at least two different films. Neither of which makes a whole lot of sense. Having several incongruent plots is normal for Sammo’s films of this era, but The Victim is more incongruous than most.
The first half of the film is almost entirely comedic. Sammo is just some random dude looking for a fighter better than him. When he stumbles across Leung Chung Yau (Beardy, Hung’s frequent star), he decides that he’s found his master and follows him everywhere. Jokes ensue.
But Beardy’s on the run from an old Shaw Brothers plot and frequent Shaw Brothers star Chang Yi. There’s an evil brother, filial piety and lots of drama.
These two films co-exist uneasily for a bit. There will be a scene where Sammo helps a goofy weirdo stab himself followed by Chang Cheh-style bloody revenge. Then Sammo wears a Dracula costume for a bit before we head back to melodrama. Eventually the film sticks to the melodrama side of things and introduces a twist that makes the first half of the film make even less sense.
Side note on that Dracula thing. The Victim was released about 10 months before the next film in this series, Encounter of the Spooky Kind which I am very excited to dig in to.
I see a lot of love for the final fight scene. And it’s certainly more furious than most of Sammo’s choreography. But it also runs at two distinct speeds, which I found distracting. When Chang Yi’s on screen, the film is clearly undercranked and the whole thing feels cartoony. When Chang Yi’s being doubled or is off screen, the film returns to normal speed. So you spend the whole fight bouncing between these two speeds. Which, honestly, is a lot like the movie itself. It’s partly late-70s ‘real’ kung fu comedy mixed with heightened, sped-up Shaw-style melodrama.
