As the fourth entry in Dragon Dynasty’s Shaw Brother’s Collection, get set to revisit My Young Auntie, Hong Kong director Lau Kar-Leung’s (36th Chamber of Shaolin) comical whupass kung fu epic.
My Young Auntie is the story of a young female servant who weds her wealthy but ailing benefactor in order to legally withold his estate from the hands of one of his unscrupulous brothers. Her mission is to hand over her husband’s estate upon his death to another of his more dependable brothers. But when she meets her hyperactive grandnephew who can’t seem to believe they’re about the same age, all of her carefully laid plans start to go haywire…
My Young Auntie is essentially a kung fu comedy which uses the Shaw Brothers cannon up until that point as source material for parody. Not that it’s making fun, understand, more that it’s revelling in it’s own anything-goes playfulness. The film is a sort of melting pot of ideas, focused but with no problem turning genre conventions on their head. The film takes place at a time when Western influence is encroaching on rural China and Kar-Leung uses this backdrop to maximum comedic effect. The film skewers sterotypes at will, both Asian and Western alike and seems to be constantly reminding us not all Kung Fu movies need to be so serious. That is until any of it’s myriad of impressive fight sequences hit the floorboards, in which case Auntie would like your serious attention; wink wink, nudge nudge.
As usual, Shaw Brother afficianados Andy Klein and Elvis Mitchell break out the solid scholarly repartée for the disc’s mandatory commentary track. In much the same vein, you’ll find a relatively short interview with resident experts Klein and David Chute. But the real standout in terms of extras is an interview with the film’s comely star, Kara Hui. Hui seems to have a fantastic memory and discusses all sorts of minutiae regarding her own background, the road to Auntie, her co-stars and whatever else she can cram into a tight 13 minutes. And of course, you’ll find the requisite stills and trailer galleries.
My Young Auntie is an excellent starting point for anyone who’s interested in martial arts film’s, but is put off by the ultra-serious alpha male posturing. It’s certainly a unique viewing experience and you can be sure the film hasn’t looked this good since it was released more than a quarter century ago.
