H ung Kuen is a school of martial art with centuries of tradition. At the dawn of the 20th century, renowned martial artist Lam Sai Wing brought Hung Kuen to Hong Kong, creating a local art which flourishes till this day.

The organiser of this event is Lam Sai Wing's grandnephew Grand Master Lam Chun Fai. Grandmaster Lam began learning Hung Kuen from his father Lam Cho, and has dedicated to share this art to the rest of the world. At the ripe old age of 83, Grandmaster Lam continues to promote Hung Kuen and the competition is to do just that by allowing the public to participate and become aware of the Hung Kuen tradition.

M artial Club is one of Lau Kar Leung’s masterpieces. As with so many of his films, its compelling nature derives from a seamless combination of realism, nostalgia and make-believe. Set in the by-gone days of late Qing Guangzhou, Martial Club evokes a golden era when intense, febrile interactions between northern and southern martial arts in the bustling commercial hub of Guangzhou city gave birth to many of the Lingnan kung fu styles we know today.

The nostalgia for a “lost paradise” is given the grit and substance of reality, however, as Lau fleshed out the narrative with vignettes his father might have personally witnessed or even taken part in, and handed down to Lau Kar Leung.

The elaborate lion dance scene in the beginning of the film is directly taken out of a chapter from Guangzhou’s history. During the Republican period (1911-49), lion dance in Guangzhou reached new heights, as rapid commercialization and rising popularity of martial arts under the Nationalist government led to an unprecedented growth of kung fu schools (or clubs) in the Pearl River Delta. At temple festivals and shop openings, different schoolswere invited to perform lion dance, and they vied with each other in ever more creative routines and performances. The opening sequence is a reference to the famed stacked-pyramid lion dance performance, and as such may be viewed as a cinematic reconstruction of a legendary performance, which was regarded as the peak – unsurpassed since – of lion dance.

The finale, a seven-minute boxing duel between Gordon Liu and Johnny Wang (Wang Lung Wei) in a narrow alley, is often hailed as the greatest fight scene choreographed by Lau Kar Leung, who truly elevated kung fu movements into a rarefied art form. This scene continues to be a constant source of reference and inspiration.