Review: Yuen Wo Ping and his brothers have an odd sense of humour. Their unique take on kung fu comedy is ingenious and enthusiastic, if a little baffling, but even when they lack in plot, they are such an assault on the senses that it’s best to just sit back and allow your brain to embrace the insanity.

Miracle Fighters is no different, and is the first in the thematic series which includes ‘Young Taoism Fighter’, ‘Shaolin Drunkard’, and less directly, ‘Heroic Fight’. These movies take the oddball humour of the Yuen Clan to its illogical extremities, unbound by such formalities as such as realism or a tight, coherent plot, and scares all competitors away so badly that their grandchildren will have nightmares and wet the bed.

Yuen Yat Choh (Simon Yuen Jr) may be the protagonist, but the real stars of ‘Miracle Fighters’ are bickering conjurer neighbours Yuen Cheung Yan as Grandma, and Leung Kar Yan as her argumentative opposite number. Admittedly, he holds his own, and his character is amiable, but you would usually expect to see Yeun Cheung Yan playing his other alter-ego, the Buck Toothed Drunken Taoist. He’s just a more interesting character, whereas Leung Kar Yan just takes it easy and gives centre stage to Grandma.

Events move at a swift pace, and there are many, many memorable moments that stand out as well conceived set-pieces in their own right. There is a human tug of war as Grandma and her neighbour try to drag Simon Yuen back and forth over the divide between their houses, while Grandma swings an over sized axe of Loony Tunes proportions. Later in the movie, an assassin arrives at Grandma’s house disguised as a beautician, She lulls grandma to sleep and tries to garrotte her, but the batty old boxer seems to fight back in her sleep, and then starts a deadly game of Cat’s Cradle!

Hardest to describe is the scene in which our two heroes poke their arms and legs out from behind some curtains. Simon Yuen pops his head out, and it looks like some kind of human midget-puppet. Then this midget starts to fight, even using a wooden bench as a weapon. Just look at the screenshots, it’s easier for us all that way.

Then there is the ghost in an urn. Again, seeing is believing, and much easier than trying to actually describe using the little black squiggles that we know as words. Basically a spirit enslaved and trapped in a large black wine urn, this tragic-comic figure is a cross between a weeble and a clown, with her arms and legs poking out of holes in the sides of the urn. She fights with a deadly paper sword, and when her movements become too restrictive, she disappears back inside the urn and rolls around the floor. Definitely one of the most memorable images of all the Yuen comedies.