Story: Two very close friends named Taipao and Yipao are always looking for new victims to pull a trick on them to make quick a buck. But one day the inevitable happens, someone who is even trickier than them catches them in the act and that man is named Chia. Taipao and Yipao decide to give that man a lesson but again the mans kung fu ability reveals to be stronger than the skill of the two poor friends combined together. Like the old expression says, "If you can't beat them, join them" Taipao and Yipao decide to follow Chia and take him as their master.

After doing everything for their new master, Chia finally decide to take them as students. With the new techniques that Chia teaches them, Taipao and Yipao are becoming great kung fu fighters but their old bad habit kick back again and it doesn't take too much time before they are in trouble with the town people. But meanwhile two strangers have just arrived in town and both of them are looking for Chia. After some investigation the two suspicious strangers manage to locate Chia and a physical confrontation is unavoidable. Yipao, by pure chance, witnesses his master killing the two men with no remorse. His new master seems to hide a dark past, which Yipao would have preferred to never hear about, but now it too late and Taipao and Yipao now have to battle against their master.

Review: I thought I saw the best from Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao with Millionaire's Express and Prodigal Son, but I was wrong. Knockabout is indeed one of the finest Sammo/Biao productions. I had heard a lot of good comments about this flic before watching it but I was not expecting the movie to be so good and spectacular. It's true that the story is not original and follow the usual Kung Fu movie path but the characters and the fighting, especially the fighting, make Knockabout an essential movie to watch if you are a fan of Yuen or Sammo.

As I said the story is very typical, nothing really unexpected happens and you can easily find the usual kung fu movie clichés. This of course doesn't really bother me but a good story never hurts a production. At least the story is always pleasant to follow and never fails to be interesting, but nothing more so don't expect too much from it. The movie doesn't really kick in before the first 45min, when the "Master against Students" twist start. But anyway, this is a kung fu movie after all, so there's always something more to get a hold on to…like fighting.

Nothing really spectacular on the character side either, except for the all star cast itself. Yipao, the brain of the main duo is played by no one else than the amazing Yuen Biao. His character is very typical but was always great to watch, especially when he was fighting or making fun of his partner in crime, Taipao. As for this second character it was played by another well-known figure in the martial art genre, Leung Kar Yan. Both actors created a very memorable duo on screen. Of course Sammo Hung himself, who also directed the movie, stars in the movie as a beggar with special kung fu ability, the Garbage Style. His role is very minor, don't expect to see him all along the movie, but his presence was there enough to please any Sammo Hung fans.

Now what about those crazy fighting scenes, because yes there's plenty of it of course. But nothing really extraordinary happened during the first 45 min, I mean there's a couple of nice fight sequences but nothing to make you say "wow". But when it finally starts, you will not be disappointed for having waited. There's also a lot of different fighting style used in the movie, such as drunken, and monkey performed by Sammo Hung and also that strange Garbage style. But my favorite part was the training sequence with Yuen Biao who blows away the intro sequence of Drunken Master with Jackie Chan, where by the way Yuen Biao doubled for Jackie Chan. In that sequence you will witness and wonder why Yuen Biao never had much more exposure than Jackie Chan, that I personally think didn't have as good abilities as Biao.

The kung fu is also very traditional and believable; you won't find any arial flying kick a la Jet Li here but only pure old school kung fu. The fighting choreographies, directed by Yuen Woo Ping, were also very impressive, as I said the movie starts really slowly but as the story progresses the fights get better and longer which of course make the ending fight the highlight of the movie.

Combining an outstanding martial artists cast with some spectacular kung fu fighting sequences, Knockabout is a must see for any kung fu movie fans. After seeing this movie, when you will talk about Yuen Biao, Knockabout will ring in your head for sure. If you are a fan of Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung and like movies such as Prodigal Son, Eastern Condors and one of my personal favorite Millionaire's express, be sure to not miss Knockabout, because you have seen nothing yet.