Yes, that's a dude in a chickensuit fighting a bunch of dudes carrying an armored centipede costume at the top of the poster. And It Makes Sense in Context.
Kid from Kwangtung is a 1982 Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Movie starring Wong Yue, Chiang Kam and Sharon Yeung, notably being Sharon's last martial arts film she made with the Shaws.
He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi are two hooligans who studied in the same school, and are neighbors, who spend their days getting into trouble with their strict, overbearing fathers. After a lion dance tournament which sees He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi, respectively donning a chicken suit and an armoured centipede (What, you think we're making this up?
◊) ending with the troublesome duo getting into serious hot water, they eventually made up after bumping into Chen Xiao-wei, the daughter of another kung fu family who secretly serves the Anti-Manchurian resistance. As luck would have it, a dangerous and powerful Manchurian Warlord, Lord Luo Yi-hu, have plans to wipe out all the surrounding martial arts sect and take over, and the trio, after a series of unlikely encounters brings them closer together, are the unlikely heroes standing in the way of the warlord.
Tropers from Kwangtung:
- Acrofatic: Wu De-zhi may be the Fat Comic Relief with an oversized gut, but he's still a skilled fighter who can take down plenty of mooks, and backs up He Jia-yu against Lord Luo in the final battle,
- Action Girl: Chen Xiao-wei, one of longtime Hong Kong action-girl icon Sharon Yeung's first roles, and she doesn't dissapoint when delivering asskickings to mooks. Her Action Mom, Madam Chen, is also a very competent fighter.
- Animal Motifs:
- The lion dance scene had He Jia-yu fighting the rival class led by Wu De-zhi, using his chicken fist moves against the rivals' centipede pattern. They're also respectively dressed in a chicken suit and centipede armour.
- The final battle had He Jia-yu breaking away from the Power Trio to fight Lord Luo Yi-hu, both of them barehanded. He Jia-yu immediately takes on a monkey fist stance, complete with monkey gibbering, while Lord Luo counters with a tiger stance.
- Asshole Victim: In her first fight, Chen Xiao-wei gets harassed by a rich punk, who first tries flirting with her, and then grabs her and force a kiss on her when she rejects him, even calling her a "bitch" for trying to defend herself and taunting her that he can rape and kill anyone and get away with it due to being from a rich family. Unfortunately for him, Chen Xiao-wei turns out to be a skilled kung fu fighter and Action Girl, at which point she unloads a full minute of whoop-ass on him, culminating with a Finishing Stomp on his throat... which kills him.
- Bash Brothers: The protagonist He Jia-yu and the neighboring punk kid Wu De-zhi, who got off on a wrong foot after the lion dance scene, but later on gets to become besties who squabble as much as looking out for one another.
- Blood from the Mouth: Most of Lord Luo Yi-hu's victims ends up suffering this fate after being bested, since the villain fights barehanded with his indestructible fists. Throwing up entire mouthfuls of blood is a sign that they're absolutely dead, and even if they survive the villain's onslaught (like the Power Trio protagonists) they will still end up with blood trickling from their lips.
- Butt Cannon: In the opening Chicken-vs-Centipede fight, He Jia-yu's chicken suit turns out to have a hidden mechanism in it's butt area which fires dough. He actually taunts his opponents, "taste my chickenshit!" before triggering the mechanism.
- Carry a Big Stick: Wu De-zhi uses a metal club during the botched assassination attempt on Lord Luo, the villain. It works on mooks, but he's forced to ditch his weapon when he's clearly outmatched by the powerful lord.
- Chinese Vampire: One scene had He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi, with a bunch of their friends, sneaking into a funeral parlour in order to steal from a coffin, by dressing up as jiangshis. It works for a moment, but suddenly a Taoist priest commandeering a group of real jiangshis shows up, much their horror.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: In the final battle, He jian-yu managed to rip a hole in the back of Lord luo's pants. But it turns out the villain wears Johns under his trousers.
- Epic Flail: Chen Xiao-wei uses a flail as her preferred weapon, both tips which ends in a dagger, using it to take down enemy mooks in the final scene.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: The last battle had He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi, finally getting the upper hand on Lord Luo, repeating pounding on the villain until he's finally, finally taken down, after an intensely long Duel to the Death.
- Fat Comic Relief: Wu De-zhi, the chubby Fat Idiot classmate of He Jia-yu, who gets dragged into plenty of Jia-yu's antics. Either that or getting slapped around by Chen Xiao-wei.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Master Zhang Liyi, the mentor to He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi, can kill mooks by digging his thumb into their temples. Against the villain Luo Yi-hu, however, it's not effective enough to save his own life.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Fistfights abound throughout the film, with knuckles clashing all over the place.
- Goofy Suit: This is probably the first kung fu film featuring a protagonist kicking ass while dressed as a chicken.
- A Handful for an Eye: In the finale, He Jia-yu managed to momentarily turn the battle around by grabbing a handful of burning joss sticks and blowing it's flames and smoke into Lord Luo's eyes, blinding the villain enough for a Curb Stomp Cushion moment.
- Headbutting Heroes: He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi are classmates, neighbors, and bickers around constantly when not kicking ass as a team.
- Hero Killer: Lord Luo Yi-hu, see You Killed My Father for the examples. ALL of it.
- In a Single Bound: All over the place in the finale, with Lord Luo and He Jia-yu leaping vertically upwards to ceilings, and across from one end of the hall to another.
- It's Personal: He Jia-yu, Wu De-zhi, and Chen Xiao-wei, towards Lord Luo Yi-hu, in order to avenge - in order - his father his uncle, and her mother... and later on, their' teacher, all whom are killed by Lord Luo.
- Knight of Cerebus: For most of the first half, the film is a lighthearted, schlocky comedy, with the fights being played out like a comedy, mostly revolving around the antics between the rivals He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi with plenty of scenes with the two bumbling around and getting into trouble. And then, the Big Bad, Lord Luo Yi-hu, shows up, and starts killing off named characters closest to the protagonists in order to secure dominance in the martial world, and the movie gets considerably darker.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: In the final temple battle, He Jia-yu managed to remove the villain Lord Luo's boot. Being a Combat Pragmatist, he then turns what was originally a Curb-Stomp Battle for the heroes by scattering burning joss stick ashes all over the temple floor to subdue the villain.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Master Zhang, the mentor and teacher to He Jia-yu and the heroes, is the last named character to be killed by the villain Lord Luo, right before the final act. In order to segue into the final Roaring Rampage of Revenge...
- Of Corpse He's Alive: After Lord Huo had killed off Master Zhang, knowing that He Jia-yu and friends - his only remaininf obstacles in his way to dominance of the martial world - are coming in to rendezvous with their mentor, the villain then props Master Zhang's motionless body in the middle of the temple where the meeting is supposed to happen, in order to lure the protagonists into a trap.
- Real Men Don't Cry: Referenced, when He Jia-yu is moping over the death of his father, Wu De-zhi states that their new friend, Chen Xiao-wei, just lost her mother - in the hands of the same villain, no less - and she's not crying over it. It helps that Chen is The Stoic most of her screentime.
- Revenge Before Reason: He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi, after discovering their father's and uncle's killer to be Lord Luo, immediately goes out to ambush the villain without a clear plan beforehand, and ends up interfering with Madam Chen, Chen Xiao-wei's mother, who is spying on Lord Luo. In the following botched assassination attempt, both the protagonists ends up being forced to flee, while Madam Chen ends up getting beaten to death by Lord Luo. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero doesn't even cover how badly they've screwed up...
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: For all the heroes, because Lord Luo had killed their father, mother, uncle AND mentor, and the final battle to the death is dedicated to avenging the loved ones they've lost.
- Right-Hand Cat: Lord Luo Yi-hu owns a black cat, which he strokes in numerous scenes while watching his minions kill off Red Shirts, in a rather obvious nod to Blofeld. When the villain get into fights though, the black cat somehow remains in his hands without being scared off.
- Training Montage: If the main characters aren't kicking ass, they're training themselves to improve their skills in kicking ass. Right in the start, the opening credits and titles are played over He Jia-yu training himself in kung fu.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The protagonist He Jia-yu, the chubby sidekick Wu De-zhi, and the resident Action Girl Chen Xiao-wei forms the primary Power Trio of the movie. They ALL had a vendetta towards Lord Luo for plotting to rule over the martial world and causing the deaths of those closest to them.
- The Worf Effect: Really, ALL the named characters which aren't the Power Trio protagonists only serves to either get their asses kicked, or brutally killed by the villain, Lord Luo Yi-Hu in order to establish how big of a threat he is.
- You Killed My Father: Lord Luo Yi-Hu is likely the biggest parent-killer in the martial world, whose victims include protagonist He Jia-yu's father, Master He, Wu De-zhi's uncle Master Wu Chang-jiu, Xiao-Wei's mother, Madam Chen and right before the finale, kills off He Jia-yu and Wu De-zhi's mentor, Master Zhang Li-yi. Resulting in all three of the protagonists having a vendetta against him, setting up the climatic fight.
