What asian film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[Markgway]

I'm one of those who hated The Fearless Hyena, although it's been yonks since I've seen it.

I consider it a failed post-Seasonal experiment which Jackie corrected with The Young Master.

And I disagree about Sammo Hung; he's an excellent lead, with plenty charm and charisma.

[chazgower01]

I'm one of those who hated The Fearless Hyena, although it's been yonks since I've seen it.

I consider it a failed post-Seasonal experiment which Jackie corrected with The Young Master.

I don't remember liking it as much as I did watching it now. I definitely didn't hate it back in the day, but I don't remember liking it as much as I do now.

And I disagree about Sammo Hung; he's an excellent lead, with plenty charm and charisma.

I like Sammo as a lead as well, and he certainly had plenty of charm and likability, but he was limited as to what roles he was going to be able to play. He's a chubby guy, with a minor hairlip. Thats just... movies. Chinese audiences certainly liked and respected and paid to see his movies, even as the lead, but outside China he was never going to be the star Jackie Chan became. Even IN China he wasn't the star Jackie Chan was (or is), though in his heyday he gave him a good run.

I would certainly never say he had NO charm or charisma, but he didn't have Jackie's charm or charisma (which is the point I made) - which isn't a knock - very few people do. Jackie is, of course, one of the biggest stars in the world out of China - very few people CAN compare to him.

[chazgower01]

New Fist of Fury (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 1/5
At 21-22, Jackie still looks really young, but it's not entertaining at all to watch him flail around and act like he doesn't know kung fu through 3/4ths of this movie. Nora Miao is her usual stiff self, and other than wincing everytime a Chinese character says 'Jap', I sat in an almost catatonic state while watching most of this.
Chan Sing is doing what he does best, play a great villain, here as a Japanese master that relishes telling the Chinese how worthless they are, but this movie is beyond saving. And I don't know anything about Cheng Siu-Siu, but she at least adds some spice as a badass Japanese fighter (she's actually just ok - she can swing those legs though) who is equally entertained by beating up the Chinese.
The story in a nutshell: The Japanese are terrorizing the Chinese and Nora Miao badly wants Jackie to join their school, even though he shows no interest or skill (and secretly steals Bruce Lee's nunchucks). Finally, the terrorizing and berating gets so bad, Jackie joins and learns to be a master of kung fu in like 3 days. Nora gives him Bruce's 'Fist of Fury' move (which looks goofy) and we're set for the finale!
Nope.
Another 20 minutes of boring crap and the Japanese being dicks, and then finally... at the 1:49 mark, Jackie fights. It seems better than it is, because after 1:49 minutes of boredom, anything will do... but the ending... the ending is a major WTF for even a Chinese movie. What a waste.




New statistic:
Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': 1 minute 9 seconds
or if it's YNW
Time between final Death and the 'The End': instantly

[Markgway]

Maybe you'd prefer the Cantonese edit, it's only 79 mins!

Sammo's 'hairlip' was reportedly the result of him being stabbed in the face with a broken bottle when he was a youth.

[Killer Meteor]

I'm one of those who hated The Fearless Hyena, although it's been yonks since I've seen it.

I consider it a failed post-Seasonal experiment which Jackie corrected with The Young Master.

And I disagree about Sammo Hung; he's an excellent lead, with plenty charm and charisma.

My problem with Fearless Hyena is that it feels like a cheap knock-off of Jackie's Seasonal films, and shows how much Hwang Jang-Lee and Yuen Siu-Tien brought to them. The alternatives are duller, the Taiwanese locations look drab and grey compared to the lush greenery of Hong Kong, the comedy is excessively grating, and the English dubbing with its Monty Pythonish gurning makes you yearn for Ted Thomas and the "but still" gang.

[Killer Meteor]

New Fist of Fury (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 1/5
At 21-22, Jackie still looks really young, but it's not entertaining at all to watch him flail around and act like he doesn't know kung fu through 3/4ths of this movie. Nora Miao is her usual stiff self, and other than wincing everytime a Chinese character says 'Jap', I sat in an almost catatonic state while watching most of this.
Chan Sing is doing what he does best, play a great villain, here as a Japanese master that relishes telling the Chinese how worthless they are, but this movie is beyond saving. And I don't know anything about Cheng Siu-Siu, but she at least adds some spice as a badass Japanese fighter (she's actually just ok - she can swing those legs though) who is equally entertained by beating up the Chinese.
The story in a nutshell: The Japanese are terrorizing the Chinese and Nora Miao badly wants Jackie to join their school, even though he shows no interest or skill (and secretly steals Bruce Lee's nunchucks). Finally, the terrorizing and berating gets so bad, Jackie joins and learns to be a master of kung fu in like 3 days. Nora gives him Bruce's 'Fist of Fury' move (which looks goofy) and we're set for the finale!
Nope.
Another 20 minutes of boring crap and the Japanese being dicks, and then finally... at the 1:49 mark, Jackie fights. It seems better than it is, because after 1:49 minutes of boredom, anything will do... but the ending... the ending is a major WTF for even a Chinese movie. What a waste.

Lo Wei seemed to forget how to make good movies around '73. I genuinely enjoy his Shaw wu wxias and early Golden Harvest work, but with A Man Called Tiger, he started making very talky and po-faced drama interspersed with a few fights, New Fist being the main example. He did rebound though with Dragon Fist, which is a return to form.

[chazgower01]

Lo Wei seemed to forget how to make good movies around '73. I genuinely enjoy his Shaw wu wxias and early Golden Harvest work, but with A Man Called Tiger, he started making very talky and po-faced drama interspersed with a few fights, New Fist being the main example. He did rebound though with Dragon Fist, which is a return to form.

It's been so long since I've seen some of these that I'm not 100% sure I've seen Dragon Lord or not... I'm going to go in order and get to it though...

[Killer Meteor]

Dragon Fist is a Lo Wei film starring Jackie, Dragon Lord is directed by Jackie

[chazgower01]

The Hand of Death (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 2/5
Fierce kicking Shaolin student Yung (Dorian Tan) goes on a quest to put together fighters to take on the 'Manchus' (yet again) and kill their leader (James Tin), while trying to escort a messenger (director John Woo) to safety. Sammo Hung plays a top henchman (with his fake 'Japanese' teeth) and a young Jackie Chan in a supporting role is a recruited fighter for the good guys.
This film was released the same month as 'New Fist of Fury'.
The fighting is actually decent (24 year old Sammo was the action director), though a little mechanical, but there's nothing here that would make you think it was a John Woo directed movie (He was also only 24 years old at the time). It was only his 4th film (within a year!), and he's a bit heavy on the zoom, but his written dialogue struck me as a little stronger than some of the movies from this time (though that could be in the translation/dub). The finale is actually decent.
An interesting view for the people involved.

Dorian Tan, John Woo, Jackie Chan, Yeung Wai and Wilson Tong



Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': 45 seconds

[Killer Meteor]

Hand of Death shows Sammo learning how to Shaolin style kung fu on film, just as Lady Whirlwind shows him taking baby steps at chroeographing empty handed combat. Great theme tune!

[chazgower01]

The Killer Meteors (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 2/5
Not Jimmy Wang Yu's best by far, but his 'bar room brawling' style of 'martial arts' and cocky attitude are still fun to watch. Jackie Chan as the bad guy is refreshing and he's actually pretty good at it (minus the ridiculous dialogue), but his part isn't all that big.
Some of the dialogue makes the John Woo movie 'The Hand of Death' I just watched, sound like a work of art though:
"Killing is not hard. NOT killing is hard."
"The rich man likes to say he's poor. The sick man thinks that he's immortal. That's life. That's how men are. And I'm no different."
But honestly, at the end of the day, there's something about this goofy movie that makes it kinda watchable, and the finale had a pleasant surprise, even if it was a bit underwhelming.





Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': long

[Killer Meteor]

Killer Meteors definetly grew on me, but it seems that just as Lo Wei kept miscasting Jackie, he did Wang Yu a disservice here by casting him in a romance/intrigue filled melodrama which doesn't suit Wang Yu's style at all. The fights also rely too much on wirework and Wang being acrobatically doubled, which I think contributed to people dismissing his whole body of work based soley on his Jackie collaborations.

The music score is lifted from this, would you believe? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RjCp2dmpU

[chazgower01]

Killer Meteors definetly grew on me, but it seems that just as Lo Wei kept miscasting Jackie, he did Wang Yu a disservice here by casting him in a romance/intrigue filled melodrama which doesn't suit Wang Yu's style at all. The fights also rely too much on wirework and Wang being acrobatically doubled, which I think contributed to people dismissing his whole body of work based soley on his Jackie collaborations.

The music score is lifted from this, would you believe? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RjCp2dmpU

Definitely a strange choice!

[Killer Meteor]

Just wait till you see Magnificent Bodyguards...

[chazgower01]

The Himalayan (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 3/5
I was looking for Shaolin Wooden Men and saw this on youtube and thought... why not?
Released as the last movie Jackie was in before New Fist of Fury, it stars Chan Sing (who'd play the Iron Fisted monk a year and a half later) as a guy who kills his own brother to insert a patsy look-alike into a wealthy family marriage that he wants to reap the financial reward of.
Dorian Tan however (who I just saw in the Hand of Death) is in love with her though, but gets tricked into fooling around with her, so Chan Sing can have them caught... Meanwhile Chan Sing frames Angela Mao (who is the billed star of the movie, but doesn't really show up to do anything until almost half way through it) for the death of his brother (actually the double who HE kills) and Mao and Tan go on the run.
Mao and Tan sort of take over the 2nd half of the movie, and they want revenge. But first... training. The movie is called the Himalayan because it takes place in the mountains of Tibet where there's a secret monk who practices the Mi art of Kung Fu (I have no idea), and he teaches it to them (begrudgingly at first, of course) so they can use it to beat Chan Sing.
Sammo was co-action director and having Mao (who is cute, but always a fierce fighter), and Tan who is pretty exceptional (man, he can kick!) always helps. Chan Sing has some skills as well, but in at least one scene they under crank the camera (more than usual ) to speed it up for some reason. Overall the fights are pretty good though.
Jackie Chan has a very small part as one of the wealthy man's forest guards and has a couple of small skirmishes, and Sammo Hung is one of Chan Sing's henchmen who's in the finale, but not for long.
And the finale is excellent. Mao's initial square off with Sing where we actually SEE some of Sammo's trademark style in early phases (like a nice slow motion Mao foot to Sing's face) is awesome and she isn't shortchanged in the team up with Tan to win the day for being a female.
Yeah, one of the better finales I've seen in a bit.
The whole movie runs just a bit long at 1:47, but really, not a bad little flick!


Angela Mao

Angela Wang


Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': 55 seconds

[chazgower01]

Shaolin Wooden Men (1976, Hong Kong) youtube 3/5
Jackie Chan's 5th and final movie of 1976 (and 2nd lead role) is as a mute Shaolin student who's seen as kind of a slacker half-wit. But he befriends a prisoner (Kam Kong - his movie name pronounced as Fok Yu!) in the dungeon who teaches him some techniques to advance his training and learns others from different people so that he can pass the Wooden Men obstacle to get set free in the world and avenge the death of his father.
The Wooden Men course may look a little goofy by today's standards, but having grown up in the 70's, I thought it was cool and well filmed in a tightly shot, claustrophobic way. Jackie succeeds in front of his teachers and fellow students and he's now free to venture out into the world for his revenge. Of course, he gets sidetracked with some other drama... or so we think....
It may seem strange that Jackie plays a mute, but really he does a good job of displaying emotions without dialogue, and his character actually gains a level of sympathetic appeal he might not have with words.
One of the better scenes in the movie, where Jackie comes to the aid of a waitress (Doris Lung) and her restaurant family from a group of thugs, is a good example of why the Lo Wei/JC collaborations have trouble connecting. We see hints of the Jackie we'd come to know, but its filmed so uninspired, even by HK mid-70's standards, that it just doesn't have the power to it that it could've had. Jackie is stretching as an action director and performer, but Wei's direction (or whoever shot and edited it) does him no favors.
Still, this is MUCH better than New Fist of Fury (though at the HK box office it did about the same) and the story ties together nicely and the finale battle is good once it picks up steam.
Yeah, there are some loose threads in the story, but I'd watch this over Mr. Nice Guy any day.





New statistic:
Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': Incomplete - my version cuts out....

[Killer Meteor]

I'm very fond of Shaolin Wooden Men - it's a charming film with it's heart in the right place. The old VHS I had was missing the entre first reel!

[Killer Meteor]

Considering he had five films out in '76, it's kind of surprising that only one Jackie film saw a HK release in 1977 - To Kill With Intrigue.

[chazgower01]

Unless you make the mistake of counting...

36 Crazy Fists (1977, Hong Kong) youtube 2.5/5

I wonder how many people bought a copy of this movie originally, thinking it was a Jackie Chan movie? I did, back in the mid-90's, and I was more than a little annoyed by it.
Jackie is in it for not quite a minute at the start, which isn't even a part of the story!
And for anyone who thinks there wasn't any comedy in Kung Fu movies before Jackie 'invented' it, this typical chop-socky flick has plenty of exaggerated silly behavior in it.

The story is pretty standard: some Shaolin students intervene in a young guy (Tony Leung) getting beaten up, and find out some thugs are terrorizing the town. After meeting his really cute sister (Michelle Yim), and finding out the gang killed their father (of which Leung wants revenge of course) they decide to try and enroll Leung in their school. Their teacher says no, so they convince a rival school to take him in, and he begins his...training. And more training. And then later... more training. But lots of fights!

And the fights are actually pretty good because the one area of this movie that Jackie Chan DOES involve himself is as the Action Director, and it shows. Some might say this is for Jackie Chan completists only, but really, if you like movies with a LOT of fighting and don't mind the looney tunes type humor (it also includes one of the silliest nude scenes), this isn't a bad Sunday afternoon viewing.

In fact, some might say... in looking at the fight choreography Jackie does, and goofy humor involved... this might be a template for what Jackie begins the following year, before Jackie actually played the part! It's no surprise then that director Chen Chi-Hwa would direct Chan in two of his 'new career' movies the following year (Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin and Half a Loaf of Kung Fu).

They also put Jackie in the post credits via his movie posters - did they think people would mistake Tony Leung as a young Jackie?

And it looks like they even tried to trick people in a theatrical release!




New statistic:
Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': 1 minute 17 seconds

[grim_tales]

I didnt know Jackie directed this!?

[chazgower01]

I didnt know Jackie directed this!?

Action Director.
Chen Chi-Hwa was the director.

[grim_tales]

Thanks I was confused by the 'Directed by Jackie Chan' credit on the poster.

[Killer Meteor]

Jackie's Fist of Unicorn...

[chazgower01]

To Kill With Intrigue (1977, Hong Kong) youtube 2/5
I'll be honest - when Hsaio's (Jackie Chan) father says, "It's the Killer Bee Clan.", I chuckled out loud. And some of this dialogue is really bad, even for 70's HK movies, and I don't only mean "I'm just a beast!".

Jackie Chan is a character here it's not likely you'll see him play again - smacking his pregnant girlfriend, ringing the chimes (literally) in bed with the woman who killed his family just hours before (she whooped his ass previously, so her protests at getting bedded are a little suspect)... he's kinda glum in general and yet... this movie is neither as bad as people say or really all that good, but it is watchable with some interestingly colorful characters. You can almost feel Jackie ready to burst out as a star, and his fight choreography looks assured here. Lo Wei's direction even feels more focused.
But then there's the 'is he dead?' sequence that goes on a little long, the fight - train - fight - swallow this! - train - fight... ugh. Get on with it already. Oh and for the finale, it's probably not in the best interest of the star (Jackie) to have a pancake sized scar covering their face and big loose shaggy bangs covering their face. They're the STAR - you should be able to easily recognize them!
And did I mention the dialogue?
Overall it could've been better, but I've seen much worse.

Was this Jackie Chan's first movie after his eye surgery? Maybe THAT's why he only had one film in 1977...


Hsu Feng and Jackie Chan

No rubbing the eyes for at least a week!



New statistic:
Time between the Death Blow and the 'The End': 44 seconds

[chazgower01]

Thanks I was confused by the 'Directed by Jackie Chan' credit on the poster.

Trying to pull in every sucker they could!