Wits of the Brats

Jing Wong learned the tricks of the trade under the watching eye of the Shaw Brothers. Wits of the Brats is a pretty typical Shaw Bros production, at the same time it's interesting to see how Wong starts to introduce his own touches, both in front of the camera and from his comfy director's chair.

The plot about a trickster who likes to make a fool of others is something Wong would recycle (quite a lot) in his later work, only this time it's done in a more Shaw Bros-appropriate setting. It's a rather strange mix of two worlds colliding, an intermediary film that helps connect two distinct eras of Hong Kong cinema.

Performances are decent, there are some decent martial arts scenes and people who know Jing Wong might have some additional fun connecting the dots with his later work. The Shaw Bros' monotony is quite present though and it holds the film back a little. It's no surprise the studio would implode soon after. Decent filler.