Exasperated and still desperate to find his next new big star, producer Lo Wei allowed Chan to take creative control of his next project. Chan had long been intrigued by the notion of incorporating comedy with kung fu, and the local audience's desire to see something different in martial arts films made this a perfect opportunity for Chan to see if his ideas would work.

The results here, unfortunately, pretty much fall flat. The comedy is clumsy and far too broad, relying on obvious overcranking, musical cues stolen wholesale from cartoons such as "Popeye", and boring toilet humor. Overall, Half a Loaf of Kung Fu seems like an experiment gone wrong, with Chan throwing everything at the viewer with very middling results. When gears switch to a more traditional mode during the final act, the film does pull itself out of the depths of cinematic ineptitude, but by then, most people will have lost interest.

Of course, Chan would find success in the comedy kung fu genre later the same year with the classic Drunken Master, which begs the question: what the hell happened here? Chan himself has admitted that Half a Loaf of Kung Fu was a sort of practical joke that he pulled on Lo Wei, a person whom he did not get along with at all.

The big problem with that type of film-making is that if you're creating something just to please one person (especially if it is yourself) you're most likely going to alienate the viewer in the process. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is an entry for Jackie Chan completists only - and even they should approach this production with a bit of caution, or perhaps a nice six-pack.

Review: Jackie first emerged as a comic kung fu star in Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, an early Lo Wei-produced kung fu comedy that is sustained by more enthusiasm than skill or wit. Low-brow antics, a dull blend of wuxia and classic kung fu elements, and mediocre supporting talent limit the film's appeal. It doesn't help matters that Jackie was attempting to turn on the very genre that was to make him a superstar.

Despite a rocky relationship that ended in controversy, Jackie Chan owes much of his initial success to producer and independent filmmaker Lo Wei. Lo had attempted to turn Jackie into the next Bruce Lee in films like New Fist of Fury and To Kill with Intrigue, but the young star wanted no part of it. After wrangling over several lackluster films done the Lo 'Way,' the producer backed off and let Jackie take creative control on Half a Loaf of Kung Fu. Like an untamed beast set loose from captivity for the first time, Jackie ran wild with an almost desperate attempt to find his own voice. The result was a scramble to get as far away from the standard martial arts roles of the day as possible, by making a mockery of them.

The opening credits sequence, which is traditionally the place to display a preview of the martial arts action to be seen throughout the film turns into a series of sketches where Jackie pokes fun at just about every genre staple from Shaolin monks to noble swordsmen. At one point, the camera pulls away to show Jackie sparring with a miniature wooden dummy and at another point he even portrays Japanese star Shintaro Katsu in his Zatoichi guise. The opening sequence isn't a complete joke though. He briefly gets serious with a pair of broadswords.

The film itself is sadly routine and only hints at the genius of Jackie's breakout classics beginning with Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. Jackie spends most of Half a Loaf as an untrained and unlikely hero who gets lucky on more than one occasion as he joins an escort company in protecting artifacts. This goes against the theme of most of Jackie's better films where his characters only overcome adversity through painstaking effort and self-sacrifice. The drunken beggar role that became so popular with Simon Yuen's performance as Sam Seed in Drunken Master is introduced here when a kung fu-fighting beggar (Lee Man-tai) sees through Jackie's disguise as a famous whip hero and takes the lad under his wing. Unfortunately, his method of training Jackie is rather implausible and unsatisfying.

Character actor Dean Shek Tin, who almost exclusively played comic roles, is a compulsively-farting beggar who teaches Jackie some lame kung fu moves with names like "Concubine" and "Steel Finger." But practice makes perfect and by the end he's taking on the toughest of opponents. Tough isn't really the right word though since Jackie doesn't take any of these engagements seriously enough to make anyone look genuinely imposing. Lead villain Kam Kong is reduced to making crude stabs at the groin while Jackie makes like Popeye after eating Spinach and rips off Kam's queue and wields it like nunchaku.

The final match is overlong, and disappointing by Jackie Chan standards. Members of several clans who have been struggling to get some artifacts team up to take on Jackie and his pals including so-so martial arts actress Doris Lung and Dean. The choreography lacks the punch and intense rhythm Jackie would perfect latter on and none of his foes can match Hwang Jang-lee or any of Jackie's other great screen adversaries to come. But one nice touch occurs when Jackie is forced to read a kung fu manual while fighting Kam in order to learn some new moves. This gimmick is performed again by Jet Li at the end of Kung Fu Cult Master (1993).

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu isn't a terrible film. It's better than all of the films where Lo Wei tried to fit Jackie into a mold. Jackie has a certain charm, but with a lot less substance. The main problem is Jackie's effort to break down the kung fu hero stereotype. It results in inferior kung fu choreography that is somewhat sloppy with Jackie intentionally relying too much on cheap gags and basic acrobatics. Therefore, this is not an essential film, except to see Jackie making his first baby steps towards becoming the next kung fu superstar, his way.

Jiang To (Jackie Chan) is a happy go lucky fellow who is not good at reading as well as being pathetic in the martial arts. After failing to find numerous jobs, he meets a beggar (Dean Shek) who teaches him a martial arts technique which proves useless after trying it out. He finds 2 men fighting. One is a killer named Ta Su (Lee Min-Lang) who kills Lu, the Whip Hero. When Jiang meets another beggar, Mao (Lee Man-Tai), who helps him get out of a jam, he wants to learn kung fu from the beggar, who mistakes him for the Whip Hero after collecting a reward pretending to be the hero.

When stopping at an inn, Jiang meets Ms. Fong (Doris Lung), the daughter of Fong Wei (Li Hai Lung), the leader of the Sern Chuan bodyguards with Mao (James Tien), who are assigned to protect the Evergreen Jade and Soul Pills, which can cure a man of any sickness. When Fong Wei notices a necklace on Jiang that belongs to Mao, he helps Jiang out of trouble and asks Jiang to join the bodyguards. After meeting Lu Chin Ping (Kam Ching Lan), the sister of the Whip Hero, Jiang tells her that he saw her brother get killed and buried him out of respect. She befriends the young man, but soon he gets into trouble when rival clans led by a bandit (Peng Kang) and an evil woman (Lee Chi Lun) are after the Evergreen Jade and the Soul Pills.

Trouble also comes in the form of Yin Fu (Kam Kong), a former student of Beggar Mao, who has turned evil. While helping Fong and the bodyguards, Jiang learns how to study the martial arts thanks to the help of a manual given to him by Mao. A battle royale soon ensues on the road and Jiang is in the middle.

From the opening credit sequences to the battle royale finale, you can tell this is truly one of the 1st kung fu comedy films. However, feeling that the comedy was lame, Lo Wei shelved the film until 1980. Jackie and good friend Chen Chi Hwa were given creative control and they experimented with combining comedy into the fights. In the opening, Jackie practices on a wooden dummy only 12 inches tall, spoofs the famous blind swordsman Zatoichi, and even acts as an Abbot of Shaolin. The finale has Jackie swinging Doris Lung as a weapon, a move he would go on to pull off 15 years later with Chingmy Yau in City Hunter, and uses a toupee as nunchakus. Chan even spoofs Popeye in a dream sequence. For a taste of Jackie Chan pre-Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, check out this one.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Half A Loaf of Kung Fu is one of the first kung fu comedy films, a first look at the true form of Jackie Chan.

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (which I've always called "Pinch a Loaf of Kung Fu") is a perfect example of the comedy-kung fu genre. Chan is, as always, brilliant at both the physical humor and the daffy facial expressions. He and the rest of the cast are walking cartoons, contorting their mugs and bodies in silly and impressive ways. As always, the fighting is good fun, although the way it's shot here is distractingly amateurish. The picture also looks terrible, although this is no surprise for this ultra-low budget film. Still, Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is about the personality of its cast and, for that, it's definitely worth a look. Chan was doing great work in films like this during the 80's but really hit his stride for Drunken Master II, a masterpiece that gets everything right. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is more raw but still tremendously entertaining.

By no means a classic, Half A Loaf Of Kung-Fu is still an undemanding and quite enjoyable early Chan film. The comedy that punctuates the film is messy and scattershot as is the action, but the film retains a pleasant experimental flavour and when put into its historical context it is quite unconvential. It's likely that Chan fans who are used to his Hollywood efforts will be totally alienated by the film, but for seasoned Hong Kong film fans it's a bit more comprehendible. One point of particular interest is the excellent credit sequence; long before Chow Sing-Chi, Jackie Chan provides a superb lampoon of kung-fu films that remains amusing today.

As with much of the period, the funniest bits are the ones that aren't supposed to be funny. Why does it take the thieves in the restaurant about half a day to figure out that Jackie robbed them, when he patted them down minutes before they realized their money was gone? Well, presumably, the thief used the same powers of deduction figuring out that one as he did when he chose to wear the gold lamé cape (unless he was planing to make a stop at Studio 54 afterwards). Well, I could be exaggerating about the time frame. After all, time passes very quickly in the land of Half a Loaf. Anyone else notice that when Jackie first sees the real Whip Hero, it's nighttime, then they're in daylight a minute later?

Anytime a film has the same production values as Plan 9 From Outer Space, it's time to throw in another buck or two. But my favorite line is from the bad guy who was pretending to be good until his cover's blown. "From now on, I'm gonna act like my real self." I couldn't tell if he needed a better script writer or a psychiatrist. What the movie has going for it, is with Jackie himself directing the fighting, their actually is some very entertaining action. True, the biggest drawback is that since Jackie plays a guy who doesn't really know how to fight, guess what? Jackie doesn't fight much in the movie! But Jackie give the rest of the cast plenty of jammin' to do, and they do it well. They even had that guy who played meanie-jerkoff-can't-do-so-he-teaches-dude-who-hates-Jackie from Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master.

He can really fight! And it was cool to see him play a nice guy for a change (even though it was actually before those other ones). Still, Jackie learns to fight in time for the big finale, and it's actually one of the better group rumbles that I've seen in a 70's chopsocky flick. It includes everything from fighting babes, wigs used like nunchucks (that's right, you gotta see that), and a pretty neat sequence where Jackie has to learn techniques on the spot from pages from an instruction book scattered on the ground during the big one on one showdown. But my biggest question about that one is, the rest of the enemies are gone, and all the good guys just stand and watch while the guy who couldn't even fight half an hour ago (Like in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Jackie learns fast) fights for his life against an evil master. Hello! A little help please!

Just one last question. The bum who teaches Jackie various styles makes me wonder, in these old chopsocky flicks, why are all the good kung fu masters beggars? They got some pretty talented vagabonds over in that country. Well, I guess kung fu mastery wasn't a growth industry. No union, no job security, no comprehensive dental plan. Good thing the bums here in New York City aren't like that, they'd probably get a little more insistent when they're holding those ATM machine doors. On the other hand, with one of those guys on every corner you'd really see crime drop. Or not, people don't really fight in the city ('cause people have guns here).