Early Chan

 

 (imdb)

DRAGON FIST-1979-Ton Huo-wan (Jackie Chan) seeks retribution for the death of his master by the villainous Master Li. He travels with his master's widow and daughter. He gets caught in a war between a clan ran by a one-legged master and a band of “gangsters”. He joins the gangsters to get medicine for the widow.

Fairly entertaining early Chan outing is constricted by a low budget and usually pushed aside. Directed by Wei Lo (THE BIG BOSS; NEW FISTS OF FURY).

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More Chan (Jackie, Not Charlie)

 

 (themoviedatabase,org)

SNAKE AND CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN-1978-8 Kung Fu masters create a new martial art called the 8 Steps of Snake and Crane. Yin-Fung (Jackie Chan) has the book the 8 masters wrote. He's looking for a man with a tattoo on his shoulder and he has lots of fights. The daughter of the leader of The Flying Tiger clan (Nora Miao) also wants it. 

There's a lot of characters who go in and out of the story and some great fights. Eventually Yin-Fung reveals all and gets his revenge. Directed by Chi-Hwa Chen who later made POLICE STORY (1985) with Chan.

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Chan Vs. Wooden Men

 

 (imdb)

SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN-1976-in a Shaolin temple, a guy everyone calls Little Mute (Jackie Chan), because he can't speak, gets in trouble a lot with the monks and meets a prisoner Fat Yu (Kang King) chained up in a cave who teaches him to fight. A nun (Ping-Yu Chang) also helps train him. He passes the test of the 36 Shaolin wooden men, a long corridor with giant wood men who continually punch, and leaves the temple. In the city, he meets a cafe owner (Hsin Chin) and his son (Kam Cheung) and daughter (Chun Lung). 

The Green Dragon gang kidnap her and Little Mute and the son go looking for her. They save Yu from being re-captured but split with him when they learn he’s a vicious killer. The story takes several turns with Little Mute having a showdown battle with his father's killer. Early Chan film directed Lo Wei.

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Chan

 

 (imdb)

CRIME STORY-1993-A police inspector Eddie Chan (Jackie Chan), who may be suffering post trauma, becomes involved in the kidnapping of a real estate magnate (Kar-Ling Law) and his ailing wife (Auyeung Pui San), planned by Detective Hung (Kent Cheng), a corrupt cop. 

There are some incredible stunts and sfx, especially in the finale but this is much more serious than Chan's usual serio-comedy outings. Directed by Kirk Wong (with an assist by Chan).

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Jackie Chan

 

(Rotten Tomatoes)

PROJECT A-1983-In 19th century Hong Kong the navy has their ships destroyed by smugglers and they are all "reduced" to being part of the police force (who they never got along with). Navy Lt. Dragon Ma (director/co-writer Jackie Chan) becomes a Sgt. and locks horns with Capt. Tzu (Biao Yuen). However bureaucracy and corruption cause him to quit the force. He meets his old friend con-man Fei (Sammo Hung). They get into trouble over some stolen guns. 

Eventually Ma is put in charge of bringing down the pirates led by Sam Pau (Dick Wei). He enlists Winnie (Isabella Wong) and Tzu to help him. In disguise he infiltrates the pirate base. Later of course Fei winds up helping Ma, Tzu and Jaws (Mars) in the incredible final battle. 

This was a huge hit in Asia and garnered several nominations and awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Chan made a sequel in 1987.

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Jackie Chan is Back

THE ACCIDENTAL SPY-2001-A fitness equipment salesman in China named Buck (Jackie Chan) inherits a fortune from his biological Korean father but becomes involved with the search for a powerful new drug and a war between Turkish and Chinese drug lords. This has the usual great semi-comic fights but is a lot more serious and violent than most of Chan's earlier US releases. A real crazy but kind of typical scene (at least for a Jackie Chan movie) has him fighting nude in a mall! The superb climactic ending features a flaming gas truck. Director Teddy Chan (no relation to the star) had been an actor, production assistant and wrote BLACK MASK with Jet Li.

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Jackie Chan

THE INVINCIBLE FIGHTER:THE JACKIE CHAN STORY-1996?-A narrator tells us about Jacky (Jackie) Chan (born Chan Yuen Long) becoming the new Bruce Lee, a Kung-Fu international star. The movie highlights 10 movies featuring Chan. The narrator also explains about the 18 fighting styles and weapons used. Then scenes from "CUB TIGER FROM KWANTUNG, SPIRITUAL KUNG-FU, THE FEARLESS HYENA and others (mostly directed by Wei Lo) are shown with the narrator explaining some of the action. The sub-titles have lots of mistakes and are sometimes out of sync with the action. Also a scene that's suppose to depict Chan's training is actually a scene from a movie!

Despite all that it's worth seeing for the stunts and styles especially if you're a Jackie Chan fan. I'm not sure of the year it was made or who directed. It recently came out on DVD.

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Karate kid? He's learning Kung-Fu!

THE KARATE KID-2010-A 12 year old boy (Jaden Smith, right after another remake THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL) and his mom (Taraji P. Henson, later a regular on TV's PERSON OF INTEREST) move to China where he encounters language problems and very violent bullies who know Kung-Fu. He meets a cute local girl but gets beat up very badly by the martial arts bullies. He's saved by his apartment's handyman Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) who decides to teach him "real Kung-Fu". He trains a lot and absorbs the cultural and philosophical aspects of his new home and the art he is learning. Later he competes in a tournament where he has to fight most of his tormentors.

I won't tell you what happens but do you think if your Dad was the executive producer of a movie you were starring in would you lose the big fight in the climax? I found the first half of this movie very slow going. Also everyone might think Will's boy was a cute wise guy but I found him rather bratty and way to small to be taken seriously as a fighter no matter who trains him.

In the second half the story picks up (after Mr. Han's past demons are revealed) but the final battle is too over the top. Still Chan is very good in the serious role.

Director Harald Zwart had previously made ONE NIGHT AT MCCOOL'S, THE PINK PANTHER 2 and AGENT CODY BANKS.

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Crazy Chan

CITY HUNTER-1993- is Jackie Chan's slapstick martial arts taken to the max. Nearly every scene is comical with a character spouting some dumb dialogue and/or joke and making funny faces. Director Jing Wong loads the film with gags and there's this weird "Streetfighter" video game parody near the end! It's based on a Japanese manga.

Chan plays Ryu, a womanizing detective trying to rescue his late partner's daughter from a cruise ship taken over by terrorists led by Australian martial arts vet Richard Norton (but he's suppose be American) and Gary Daniels (a local kickboxing champ who's starred in his own movies including a live action version of FIST OF THE NORTH STAR). It's a little annoying at times but it's never dull (despite a very long musical number). Norton was later in MR. NICE GUY with Chan.

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3

I've heard bad things about THE MEDALLION (2003) with Jackie Chan but I kind of enjoyed it. It's much better than the Hollywood lensed THE TUXEDO and in some ways rather similar. Chan is a detective who has to protect a young boy dubbed "The Chosen One". While doing this he's killed but the title object that the boy possesses brings him back to life and as a invulerable superman to boot! Some of the SFX do leave a bit to be desired but Jackie gets to actually kiss his girl (Claire Forlani) a couple of times. The biggest disapointment for me was the boring Julian Sands as the main villian and the great Anthony Wong wasted in a "lackey" role. English comedian Lee Evans is also around to act stupid and Gimli himself John Rhys-Davies appears too...



DRAGONS OF THE ORIENT (actually made in 1988) is really more like a travelogue than a documentary. It's mostly footage of temples, movies clips, segments of Jet Li as a kid and some nice martial arts style demonstrations (the "duck style" is the most unusual). For some reason two fictional characters are also present. A guy who claims to be Li's sparring partner and a woman claiming to be a reporter. They challenge each other then provide some narrration of their own but the voices are of the ridiculous dubbed '70's variety providing some unintenional chuckles.



FAST WORKERS from 1933 is interesting for a number of reasons. It's based on a play (called "Rivets") and much of it takes place on the frame of a soon to be skyscraper. Two riveters (Robert Armstrong & John Gilbert) have problems with a woman (Mae Clarke, Elizabeth in the original FRANKENSTEIN). Jealously threatens their friendship in this drama directed by the once great Tod Browning. Both he and Gilbert were at the end of their long careers. 

Browning who had made FREAKS the previous year and DRACULA 2 years before would make only three more movies: the disappointing MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, the clever DEVIL DOLL and the uninspired MIRACLES FOR SALE in 1939. He never made another film and died in 1962 poverty stricken and forgotten. 




John Gilbert was actually in "comeback mode" while making FAST WORKERS after several years of alcoholism and vicious rumors related to his "high feminine" voice. However he died of a heart attack in 1936 having made only one more film. Of course Robert Armstrong played Carl Denham in KING KONG (and SON OF KONG) the same year. FW also features the unique talents of Sterling Holloway...

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Three Quickies

MAN-THING-2005-Not much to recommend in this low budget adaptation of the swampy Marvel Comics character. A new sheriff (Michael Le Nevez) runs into problems from hillbilly locals, tribal legends and an evil swamp creature. Jack Thompson is the bad guy. It debuted on THE SCI-FI CHANNEL edited for TV. The uniqueness of the original character (created by Steve Gerber) and the weird comic storylines including it’s tagline “Whoever knows fear burns at The Man-Thing’s touch”, are abandoned for the usual bad script, sub-par SFX and boredom. Director Brett Leonard also made THE DEAD PIT, THE LAWNMOWER MAN and VIRTUOSITY as well as videos for Peter Gabriel, Billy Idol and Siegfried and Roy!

THE GOLDEN KILLAH (THE GOLDEN MASK)-1980 –Fairly action filled Taiwanese Martial Arts period piece featuring the usual “out for vengeance” storyline and a character that roams around in a gold mask. Two old men have a pretty funny battle near the end and in the finale the hero fights several Gold Mask Guys with “flying guillotine” type weapons.

THE YOUNG TIGER-1973-I’m leery of a Martial Arts movie that plays a weird “disco-fied” version of Led Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song” during the opening credits but then the packaging of this video makes it seem like Jackie Chan is the star but he only appears in the last 12 minutes in a kind of documentary-workout! In the main story a Martial Artist (Fei Meng who was in 5 FINGERS OF DEATH) is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He escapes the police and goes after the real killer and a bunch of gangsters.

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