Various members of the Yuen Clan and ‘Taoism Drunkard’ producer Lo Wei reteamed for another go at Taoist sorcery comedy (the flick also goes by ‘Mircale Fighters 4’) but to somewhat less success here. A mixed bag of what is essentially a series of heavily leaning comedy sketches spiced up with some creative action, the Yuen Clan seem to be firing on less cylinders here.

Perhaps their creative Taoist-tinged juice was running low by the time they got to this flick, but ‘The Young Taoism Fighter’ still has enough cooly crafted fight action and imaginative comedy hijinks to pass its very convoluted running time.

It’s a little difficult to sum up the plot cohesively but it mainly involves mischievous young fighter Yuen Yat-Choh (from ‘Taoism Drunkard’) getting into all sorts of trouble in his kung fu school leading him to be sent off and trained/punished by his martial arts master and his two brothers. This leads to all sorts of elaborate and imaginative set-pieces as the young upstart has to endure such training as not getting his face put in a pile of poo (!) by his combative master, has to fight his own shadow when he unleashes some Astral Kung Fu magic, and fend off and get very perturbed by some disco dancing turtles (!). After all this, the would-be fighter then has to fight the evil leader of a rival school who has got all powerful by drinking children’s urine and eating placentas (!!!).

Yep, drinking children’s urine and eating placentas: ah the magic of Golden Era Hong Kong action cinema! ‘The Young Taoism Fighter’ certainly isn’t lacking in the crazy concept and imagination department as the makers dish up a seemingly never-ending collection of crazy concoctions. In fact, the aforementioned sequence of the hero fighting his own shadow is imaginatively done and shows, even in lesser films, old-school Hong Kong films could still deliver the practical effects magic.

Yuen Yat-Choh certainly has the energy and acrobatic fight skills to keep the pace going when the film lags or focuses for too long on stretched out comedy: here the silliness is perhaps pushed to breaking point even for those with a high tolerance for this sort of thing. The focus is certainly more on comedy than action and with the haphazard narrative and the sense that everyone is perhaps running on fumes, means ‘The Young Taoism Fighter’ isn’t quite as full-on fun as one might hope.

Still, Yuen Yat-Choh’s lead performance, the cool effects, and some decent fight action come the finale means the flick is still a mostly entertaining old-school magic-infused adventure.