Mystery of Chess Boxing Review (1979)

Posted by The Marksman at 5 April, at 05 : 10 AM Print

Lee Yi Min attempts, plays a simpleton desperate to avenge his father’s death by learning kung fu to defeat the murderer, a fighter known as the Ghost Faced Killer.

Lee joins a kung fu school where he gradually earns the respect of his fellow students by mastering the art of serving rice bowls. The only one who isn’t impressed is the school’s first brother and resident weasel.

Lee’s only friend at the school is the cook; one element that is a bit different than some movies from this genre is that Lee is not taught any skills by the Master of the school. Instead the cook trains him in some various skills, one of which he had to steal rice from the cook.

Throughout the movie we are shown scenes of the Ghost Faced Killer humorously confronting a series of fighters by leading off with typical verbal challenges and a series of flashy forms representative of the fictional Five Elements kung fu.

When the kung fu school master discovers one of the Ghost Faced Killer’s trademark talismans in Lee’s possession, he assumes Lee is working for him and kicks him out of the school.

Lee is sent to Chi Siu-tin (Jack Long) for further training. Chi happens to be on the Ghost Faced Killer’s hit list so it’s just a matter of time before they end up fighting with Lee caught in the middle.

With his flirtatious granddaughter looking on, Chi begins taking Lee through some odd training, which initially involves games of Chinese chess to prepare the mind. It moves on to a painful stretching regimen where Lee is suspended in mid-air by ropes with legs spread eagle and weighed down by stacks of bricks.

At some point Simon Yuen’s day of shooting came to an end and he’s killed off by suggestion only. Lee discovers this when attempting to visit Yuen. In the available version of the movie, there is apparently a fight at this point but we never get to see it. Instead we see a mysteriously bruised and battered Lee back at Jack Long’s house, where he steps up his training before the Ghost Faced Killer arrives.

Mark Long plays another relentless and colorful killer, but seemingly in scenes from a different movie altogether. Even the milder slip ups in CHESS BOXING suggest that this movie was heavily edited and maybe some of the scenes do not seem to match.

The film was originally released as NINJA CHECKMATE, no doubt to exploit the ninja movie craze started by Lau Kar-leung when he released HEROES OF THE EAST (aka SHAOLIN CHALLENGES NINJA) at the end of 1978. The film has no ninjas in it, and has nothing to do with them.

The film has also notably been a key inspiration for members of Brooklyn hip hop masters the Wu Tang Clan with member Dennis Cole assuming the name “Ghostface Killah” and a track off their triumphant debut album titled “Da Mystery of Chessboxin.’”

I picked this DVD up because of that fact, and a fair amount of hype that comes with this movie. MYSTERY of CHESS BOXING is a good, but not great kung fu movie. The editing, dubbing, and video quality are all sub-par, even as I was taking screenshots of the movie it was difficult.

CHESS BOXING really shows its strength when the two main actors are fighting onscreen, but the training scenes among other things are fairly weak. The Ghost Faced Killer is actually one of the best villains I have seen in a long time, his challenges and trash talking abilities get you through the weak parts of the movie. A good fight scene followed by a violent ending to make up for a long and slow moving story allows THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING to finish strong.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]