Review: If you’re a regular visitor to the various Asian cinema forums available online, you may well have heard the words Kung Fu Wonder Child before. The film is usually mentioned in the same breath as Yuen Clan comedies such as Shaolin Drunkard and Miracle Fighters, but really, it shouldn’t be. Sure, the humour is similar, with strange enemies doing battle with exaggerated cartoon-like characters, but this Taiwanese production is nothing to do with the Yuen Clan comedies apart from the appearance of Heroic Fight’s Lin Hsiao Lin.

Lin Hsiao Lin made her name with the Child of Peach series of movies, in which she was so popular that most films she appears in share a similar wacky (in)sensibility. She also turned up in a TV show, the highlights of which were edited together to create this, the movie many know as Kung Fu Wonder Child.

It’s always been tricky to watch this film without resorting to a grey-market copy from a less than reputable dealer, but when this official Thai DVD cropped up, the excitement of acquiring such a sought-after film was soon replaced with a vague feeling of disappointment. Hype can be a dangerous thing and despite having some fun moments, KFWC just doesn’t quite live up to its reputation.

Things start out quite promising. We are introduced to the bad guy, who is hard at work harvesting souls and resurrecting green haired ghosts. Then there’s a scene with a Kyonsi (Chinese vampire) trying to raise two vampire kids on his own (can welfare not help the undead these days?). However, after the first ten minutes, it becomes obvious that this is very much a family film, with a good portion of its running time plays out like some kind of castrated Carry On movie. People get faces full of cow dung, get tricked into taking cold baths, fall foul to love spells and tend to fall over a lot.

On the more positive side, there are some interesting sequences, even if they do tend to be short lived. Look out for the ‘test’ that our hero has to endure, in which he does battle with a big furry dragon and what seems to be a ‘face hugger’ from the Alien films. Sadly, this sequence ends very abruptly, as do a lot of the best bits. It’s an unfortunate result of being edited together from a TV show, but the pacing is inconsistent, elements of the film vanish without warning (the Kyonsi is tragically under used) and the TV series size cast barely have room to breath within a 90 minute time frame.

Even though the availability of Kung Fu Wonder Child should be celebrated (maybe it would fare better with a better release. See the DVD details for more info), it’s almost upsetting to report that it’s merely ‘OK’. The climactic battle is quite fun, especially the fight against an animated dragon, but watching the build up to it can occasionally feel like a chore.