SYNOPSIS
Although interested in kung fu, Jackie is forbidden by his father to practice any fighting styles. As a child he stumbles onto an old beggar who takes him in as a student. For many years Jackie was able to hide his kung fu practice from his family until he had to face up to a gang who threatens his family and his uncle's business.
REVIEW
Jackie Chan in an old kung fu movie - isn't that always a good thing? Yes, and no. This is one of his earlier movies and does suffer a bit in various departments, but don't let that stop you from watching it. The combination of Jackie Chan and the ever popular beggar (Simon Yuen) must contain something good and it does.
The movie starts off with the usual kung fu practice scenes that contain a few jumps and pots are kicked, etc. We also get to see how the evil warlord kills Jackie's real father, which fits in with the story later on. Next, we get to see Jackie as a little kid watching kung fu classes and doing the moves by himself. After a brief argument with the instructor who doesn't want people looking without paying, Jackie goes to the woods outside town. Here he meets an old beggar who laughs at his kung fu ability. The beggar then agrees to train Jackie in secret, in the woods at night. The old man actually has the young Jackie taking off his clothes and puts him in a bag full of snakes, eek! Unfortunately none of the training scenes are very impressive, but there isn't much emphasis placed on them either.
Now, the fighting - and fun - starts after we get to see the older Jackie showing some moves to his sister. Their father happens to walk in on them, but lets Jackie get away with it. We also get that funny guy, Little Frog (Hon Gwok Choi ) from Dragon's Claws making his appearance at the restaurant where Jackie works. Soon after sitting down, Little Frog who is a pick-pocket gets roughed up by his employers and they also get in a fight with Chan over their food. Now, Jackie got himself involved with the wrong people and the real trouble is yet to come! A few moments later we see how Jackie's father forbids him to fight anymore, but only to be encouraged again by Simon Yuen's character. Finally when father gets fed up with his fighting he forces Jackie to thrust his hand into a pot containing broken glass (ouch!).
One of the funnier scenes is a fight between the beggar and the landlord who extorts money from Jackie's uncle. This must be seen and is worth watching the movie for! The landlord (Dean Shek) creates all kinds of styles off-hand and ends up with the old beggar's behind in his face! Throughout the fight the beggar makes jokes and they play these silly tunes which adds to the atmosphere. Another good fight scene later in the movie is when Jackie goes to the docks, posing as a worker and fighting against loads of baddies including the higher ranking criminals. The fight contains some acrobatics too as he jumps onto a docked ship and moves around on it. This is the only big fight in the movie and an entertaining one as such. As with his other movies, the use of wires are minimal which adds to the realism of the fights. The comedy found in most of his other movies is not present here though, but made up for by Yuen. The beggar then trains Jackie some more, including how to fight blindfolded which comes in handy at the end.
By the end fight we can see the Jackie Chan double fill in. All I know is that Jackie didn't finish the movie, the company ran out of money I believe. The final confrontation happens with both fighters being blindfolded. The fight is quite good. They start off fighting hand-to-hand but use weapons towards the end. The last image you get to see is that of the beggar and Chan standing in the middle of the fighting area, from a distance (probably to disguise the Jackie clone!). |
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