THE ODD COUPLE (Hong Kong, 1979)
Directed by: Chia-Yung Lu
Starring: Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-wing, Leung Kar-yan, Chia-Yung Liu

There are 18 different weapons in Chinese martial arts, 9 long and 9 short, and by the end of this movie someone’s going to get stabbed by every single one of them. Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing (the brother of martial arts maestro, Lau Kar-leung) play elderly martial arts masters — one a master of sword, the other a master of spear — and every year they fight to decide which weapon is better. And every year, their duel ends in a draw. Now they’ve each taken a student (also played by Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing) and decide to leave it to the younger generation to duke it out for technique supremacy. Problem: their students get kidnapped by an old enemy of both masters (played by the inimitable martial arts mimic, “Beardy” Leung Kar-yan). Solution: both masters team up to kick maximum butt with maximum weaponry. A face bomb of comedy kung fu as well as serious, old school action, this might be one of the lesser-known movies in Sammo Hung’s filmography, but it’s one of his best. We’re using it as the opening and closing movie of the Old School Kung Fu Fest because it is, quite simply, the alpha and omega of martial arts movies. Truly unbeatable.