飛渡捲雲山 Magnificent Bodyguards (1978, Dir. Lo Wei) (★★/★★★★★ or 4/10)
Story wise this is standard fair for a Lo Wei adventure epic (with a lowercase e), and from the opening scenes you know it'll be an 'anything goes' adventure. Ridiculous plots, subplots, twists, crosses, double crosses and plenty of long scenes of people walking or riding horses set to music. We start with the standard opener 'my Brother is ill, you must navigate the deadly Storm Mountain to to find the cure'...the rest is down to the viewer to sit back and enjoy (or endure without reaching for the remote).
Jackie shares starring roles here with James Tien and Bruce Leung Siu-Lung (who is really superb here as the deaf Leather worker Chang). Jackie's skill here was fast and very bouncy, so fast he actually makes some of the fights look faker as he moves quicker than his opponents. There are tonnes of fights, and if thats what you're mainly looking for then great. But I found the story so random and silly it really tested my attention span when watching the film. A real bonus though is Bruce Leung Siu-Lung's skill, every fight he has is a showcase for his superb real Martial Arts abilities.
Overall the film was enjoyable trashy fun, but a bit testing at times.
I viewed the film on Ocean Shores VCD, in fullscreen, but with original Mandarin and Theatrical subtitles.
少林木人巷 Shaolin Wooden Men (1976, Dir. Chen Chi-Hwa) (★★★¾/★★★★★ or 7.5/10)
Firstly let me start by saying I don't think Lo Wei had a hand in Directing this film at all. Its a common misconception based on the botched English credits for the film that Lo Wei was Director, in fact his credit translated from Chinese is 'Planning Director' and Chen Chi-Hwa is 'Executive Director'. Having watched the film finally, in Mandarin with good subtitles I can say without doubt Shaolin Wooden Men has nothing of the feel of a Lo Wei film about it. It actually has none of the feel of a studio picture, being shot 99% on location with real exteriors.
Upon viewing, the film instantly struck me as something of an overlook gem. I put that down solely to the fact that the feel of the film is drastically changed if you watch any dub but the original. The Mandarin is soft and far more intimate than either the horrible forced jokey crassness of the English, or the booming delivery of the Cantonese dub. Watching the film with a dialogue track that reflects the gentle style of filmmaking, gives the audience completely different experience.
The story is a touching and emotive drama, and achieves this without ever veering into OTT melodrama (something all too familiar to genre fans). And has a good smattering of comic moments to lighten the story, which has strong focus on traditional Martial Arts teachings, good vs evil, Karma and Buddhist philosophy. Its beautifully shot (and visually iconic!), and features a very classical Chinese score. Jackie is in superb physical shape here - possibly his most impressive ever as a Marital Artist on film. His stances are astonishingly low, his movements clean and crisp. And he kicks extremely well..something Jackie is not known for (in fact I'm so used to seeing Jackie crashing around like a rag doll I was quite taken aback by his performance). All in all a great spirited film with a compelling and fantastical story. Please please someone do the film justice and release it remastered with original audio!!
I viewed the film on Ocean Shores VCD, in fullscreen, but with original Mandarin and Theatrical subtitles.
拳精 Spiritual Kung Fu (1978, Dir. Lo Wei) (★/★★★★★ or 2/10)
Off the back of Jackie's breakout into stardom, Lo Wei totally drops the ball bringing us a horribly goofy, cartoony star vehicle that seems to have been totally massacred in the edit.
While its no surprise for a later Lo Wei production to be brimming over with ridiculous plotting that usually insults the audiences intelligence, and in the digital age, their tolerance for reaching for the remote, Spiritual Kung Fu suffers from terrible narrative structure, continuity (from dead pan straight scenes to pratfalls and gurning faces), meandering story, scenes which jump from one to the next like cards shuffled at random (a series of disjointed ideas, probably written on the fly), and Jackie sleepwalking his own part almost 'outside' of the any dramatic depth the rest of the film manages to carry like he just turned up on set and played the part as himself.
I think Jackies rapidly increasing popularity meant they really strived hard to create something akin to what they thought the filmgoers would want to see...even if it meant making a (probably) bad film, even worse. A totally OTT action finale is just the icing on the cake, and fails to bring the film to a satisfying conclusion. Could easily be Jackie's worst film.
I viewed the film on Ocean Shores VCD, in fullscreen, but with original Mandarin and Theatrical subtitles.
