LITTLE MAD GUY
aka Chao Zhou xiao han
Dir. Hsing-Lai Wang, 1982
China/Australia, 102 mins.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – MIDNIGHT

From the dusty abyss of chopsocky marginalia comes Hsing-Lai Wang’s 1982 LITTLE MAD GUY, projected off of a discount-rack VHS dubbed into Australian English – perhaps the only extant version of the film today. Ming-Tsai Wu stars as shirtless field-urchin Little Fatty, the titular Mad Guy on the hunt for Wu (Tiger Yang) – a notorious outlaw with a severe bounty on his head. Wang’s film is essentially one long tilt-a-wheel of skull-crushing, capillary-busting wall-to-wall action, interspersed with some attempts at comedy and occasional glimpses of the Chinese countryside. Wikipedia would have us believe Little Mad Guy is “labeled as the madcap tale of a simpleton who fights for the people” – but really, what film isn’t? Featuring a prolonged cameo from “Simon” Yuen Siu-tien – the original DRUNKEN MASTER, and father of Yuen Woo-Ping!

“A bandit pretends to be a master in a small county. He causes chaos with all the villagers by doing tricks on them and cheating. The bandit picks on the Little Mad Guy without knowing what it will mean, and Little Guy gets crazy, at which point a hot pursuit begins that takes you through hilarious action-adventures. How will this chase end? One thing you know is that you’ll be in stitches.” – Cobra Video

“Hilarious storyline, many humorous interactions between ‘Little Fatty’ and anyone who he comes in contact with, including bowing down to a frog and chanting ‘I worship the toad’ and falling face first into a pile of crap in his quest to earn a living bringing in a criminal.” – WilliamSchweizer, IMDB

“Almost entirely fighting from start to finish between a core trio of antagonists, Master Ma, Little Fatty and Chun Wu. Little Fatty appears to be the central character, owing his martial arts ability to a life long study of frogs and toads. The bandit Wu is portrayed by Tiger Yang, who the opening credits claim was Muhammad Ali’s martial arts instructor. Funny, but I don’t recall ever hearing of Ali having an interest in the martial arts.” – classicsoncall, IMDB

“The movie also tries to be more than just your average martial arts movie too, by incorporating some comedy elements into it. However, the movie is only funny for about the first 10 or 15 minutes, and then it just gets way too serious.” – Rob Battersby, Geeksquisite