The Spiritual Boxer Part II [茅山殭屍拳] (1979)
AKA The Shadow Boxing
Starring Wong Yu, Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Cecilia Wong Hang-Sau, Lau Kar-Wing, Lee Hoi-Sang, Norman Tsui Siu-Keung, Wilson Tong, Wong Ching-Ho, Shum Lo, Ou-Yang Sha-Fei, Cheung Chok-Chow, Keung Hon
Directed by Lau Kar-Leung
Expectations: Curious to see how Lau’s approach to spiritual boxing has changed since his debut.
Any fan of Hong Kong movies knows that a sequel isn’t always a sequel in Hong Kong. Many sequels use similar premises as their hopping-off point, but don’t continue the story of the original. Along these same lines is Hong Kong’s loose definition of the remake, where a spiritual successor sometimes carries the same Chinese title with an attached year (such as Police Story 2013). The case of The Spiritual Boxer Part II is a sort of bridge between all available options. Despite the English title, it’s not technically a sequel to The Spiritual Boxer as no story elements or characters recur. The Chinese title is also completely different — the first film is 神打 (translating to something like God Hits [the character inhabits personas of Gods when fighting]), while Part II is 茅山殭屍拳 (translating to Mao Shan Jiangshi Fist, as in the martial arts style from Mt. Mao, one of the most important places in Taoism, of the Chinese hopping zombie/vampire).
Looking at the broad foundations of the two films’ stories, though, they do share the basics of an apprentice Taoist (played by Wong Yu in both films) bungling his way through taking over his master’s business. The master’s role and how the apprentice achieves their goal is wildly different, but it feels like the type of connection that would warrant a 神打 ’79 title in later years*. In any case, I feel that Lau Kar-Leung and screenwriter Ni Kuang were consciously making a spiritual sequel to Lau’s debut film. The official English title from 1979 is The Spiritual Boxer Part II after all, even if Celestial changed it to The Shadow Boxing in all remastered versions.