Reviews:36 Crazy Fists
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ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
Wong Tai-Kwong spends his life being beaten up by martial artists. To protect himself, Wong enrolls in a kung fu school, but spends most of his time cleaning. But while carrying water from the river Wong meets a drunken hermit who becomes his kung fu teacher--and teaches him the "36 Styles" that will lead him to victory.
-VHE
ALTERNATE SYNOPSIS:
Jackie Chan directs this action-packed fist fest. A young fighter (Tony Leung) gets himself into a street brawl. The only problem being that he can't fight! Two Shaolin wanderers take pity on the lad and introduce him to their master, but he refuses to teach the boy. Seeing that he is not strong enough, luckily, the lad runs into a drunken master who decides to teach him the 36 Crazy Fists to prepare him for the many a wesome martial challenges that await him.
-Ground Zero
| First off, despite some of the alternate titles and packaging, Jackie Chan doesn't star in this movie. In fact, his only appearance comes during the credits where he demonstrates some techniques, and (in some prints) at the end during a "behind the scenes" sequence. But he does a good job co-ordinating the fights, which is why this movie gets a higher score than it really should.
Why? Well, given that it uses the tired old "kid who doesn't know kung fu must learn it to get revenge" plot (even going as far as to use a bad Simon Yuen "drunken master" ripoff) and some very lame comedy. Even Jackie, the world's biggest PR machine for his movies, termed it "comedy" (yes, he used quotes) in his autobiography. Taking this in mind, 36 Crazy Fists should have been regulated to B-movie hell. Actually, some of the jokes are funny, but unintentionally. At one point, some monks must convince their master to train the kid, so they bring a prostitute into bed with him for blackmail purposes. When she gets into the bed, her bare breasts literally take up the whole screen due to the poor center framing. For some reason, I found that pretty funny, but most (if not all) of the other attempts at jokes are just painfully unfunny. However, the fights are very solid -- nowhere close to Jackie's best work -- but they almost make the crap in between them interesting and/or funny. Almost. This is only really recommended for die-hard Jackie or old-school fans; most others will be frequently using the fast-forward button to get to the fights. |
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