Movie Review: The Victim

            It was my first time at the Baghdad Theater’s Kung-Fu night. The film showing was an old Sammo Hung--



--flick called The Victim.

The guy who curates the Baghdad’s Kung-Fu series came out before the film started and told the packed house we we’re about to watch the only known 35mm print of the film, a print which he himself had painstakingly tracked down in somebody’s London basement and even more painstakingly dedicated three days to untangling and cutting and splicing it back together again. That we were even able to see the film in a theater was a work of crazy love.

            I wish I could say the film truly deserved it.
            I mean, I really wish.
            The story goes something like this: Sammo Hung’s character is looking for a Kung--Fu master, fighting guy after guy after guy (the last guy he fights is the best because this spacey warble-music plays whenever he’s on the screen) until he finally finds one (KA-Yan Leung). But there are a couple of problems: (1) that Sammo’s new master doesn’t want him as a pupil and (2) that Sammo’s new master is in a little bit of trouble with his crazy, one-eyed brother.

What follows in the film was not quite comprehensible and included Samo Hung faking like he was a vampire (which, considering the film is supposed to be set in feudal China...), and faking like (SPOILER!!!) he’s double crossed his master.

             Anyways, I probably wouldn’t want to see The Victim ever again, but I would like to go to another of the Baghdad’s Kung-Fu nights if anyone’s interested.