To Kill with Intrigue (1977)

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To Kill with Intrigue (1977)

Another one of Lo Wei’s futile attempts at throwing shit to the wall and seeing what sticks. Here is another dated stinker from the darkest recesses of Lo Wei’s underpants which tries earnestly to add colour to another flaky drama. The scenery is nice, the costumes are fetching and the kung fu is pretty good, but where it unravels (like the many others of its kind) is in a rambling story line which appears to have been made up as they went along.

Jackie Chan barely musters a smile as another stoic relic who spends the duration of the film searching …

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Shaolin Wooden Men (1976)

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Shaolin Wooden Men (1976)

Jackie Chan sited this one – his second collaboration with movie mogul Lo Wei – as his first “dream project”, in that he was to have some say in the film’s production. But Lo Wei still does Chan a disservice by casting him as a mute, nicknamed ‘Dummy’, who struggles as the new Shaolin recruit until he receives martial arts training from a nifty levitating nun and a crazy long-haired convict imprisoned deep within the temple vaults. Our mute hero’s longing to avenge his father’s death adds an extra dimension to the story, but he must first tackle the wooden …

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New Fist of Fury (1976)

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New Fist of Fury (1976)

Chan’s first collaboration with Lo Wei is a dodgy affair, the official sequel to Wei’s 1972 Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury and featuring some of the original cast and crew. Yet Wei’s idea to cast the young Jackie Chan as the next Bruce Lee doesn’t work. Chan makes a poor Bruce Lee, and never gets the opportunity to shine. The sentimental story follows a familiar Chinese versus Japanese hysteria. Another Ching Wu school has been set up in Taiwan (by the returning Nora Miao and Han Ying-chieh) and the invading Japanese try to take it over. Chan’s a young …

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Master with Cracked Fingers (1974)

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Master with Cracked Fingers (1974)

You wouldn’t inflict this on your worst enemy; a disjointed, tedious affair which has fallen foul of unscrupulous producers and misleading marketing. This was Jackie Chan’s first starring role way back in 1974, playing an orphan seeking revenge for the death of his father. The film performed badly upon its release and was hastily shelved. Fast forward to 1978 and, thanks to Drunken Master, Jackie Chan is now a global kung fu star. This rubbish film was rediscovered and re-edited into a promising new title, with the original film interwoven with excerpts from Drunken Master and footage of a double …

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Profile: Jackie Chan

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Profile: Jackie Chan

Date of Birth: April 7, 1954 (Victoria Peak, Hong Kong)

Real name: Chan Kong-sang

Other names: Chan Kwong Sang, Chen Gangsheng, Chen Yuen Lung, Fong Si Lung, Shen Long, Sing Lung

Occupation: Actor, director, producer, writer, stuntman, singer, cinematographer, action director, art director, philanthropist, entrepreneur

Style: Kung fu

Biography: Chan was born with the name Chan Kong-sang, meaning “born in Hong Kong”. His parents, Charles and Lee-Lee, worked at the French embassy – his father worked in the kitchen and his mother was a cleaner. At six years old, Chan was enrolled in the Chinese Drama Academy in Hong Kong under the tutelage of Master Yuen …

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The Protector (1985)

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The Protector (1985)

Jackie Chan‘s second attempt at international success (the first being 1980’s hideous Battle Creek Brawl) can now be viewed as a landmark case in the east-meets-west action movie culture clash of the 1980s. Fresh from huge native success with films like Project A and creatively at the top of his game, Jackie Chan would eventually leave the set of this troubled B-movie after continual disagreements with director James Glickenhaus. Chan was later forced to return for contractual reasons.

The film, if nothing else, is a rather ugly reminder of just how far ahead of his time Jackie Chan and Hong Kong …

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Thunderbolt (1995)

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Thunderbolt (1995)

Jackie Chan follows his passion for motor racing to create this commercially endorsed full throttle feature – the type of hearty Chan flick where he sings the theme tune. Produced by Golden Harvest via a Mitsubishi sponsorship deal, Chan thankfully keeps one eye on the road by not completely alienating his core kung fu fan base. He sandwiches two brilliant kung fu fights into the film, perhaps as a compensatory device for a movie which derives most of its thrills from people driving fast cars.

Sammo Hung is drafted in to help with brawls in a manufacturing plant and a Japanese …

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The Victim (1980)

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The Victim (1980)

Sammo’s masterpiece is essentially a vehicle to showcase the talents of Leung Kar-yan, and he has simply never looked better. But The Victim works on many levels. The action scenes are worthy of Sammo’s status as one of the genre’s best choreographers. The comedy touches are subtle in comparison to the director’s usual bawdy standards, and the film’s dramatic outpouring – detailing an ongoing family feud – makes this thoroughly more exciting than your standard run-of-the-mill kung fu pulp. Sammo plays his typical happy-go-lucky persona seeking out a new sifu in Leung Kar-yan, but Leung’s a man with problems of …

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Come Drink with Me (1966)

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Come Drink with Me (1966)

Seminal wuxia film, slicker than your average and bubbling with a colourful elan, although contrary to popular belief this isn’t quite the best martial arts film ever made. To western eyes, the stalwart knight-lady at the heart of the film appears more radical now than it did back in 1960s Hong Kong, a place already familiar with strong female protagonists from traditional Beijing Opera stories to wuxia novels and movies. Cheng Pei-pei, aged 19, commands the role of the lethal Golden Swallow with enough intensity to put Bruce Lee in his place. Directed by King Hu – still technically under contract …

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The Prodigal Son (1981)

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The Prodigal Son (1981)

A rip-roaring classic of a kung fu movie, this is undoubtedly one of the greatest martial arts films ever made and arguably Sammo’s crowning achievement.

By the time this mature fight fest landed in 1981, Sammo‘s uneven trait of mixing sincerity with absurdity was a distant memory, even if it would take Sammo a while to entirely grow out of his penchant for slapstick extremities. The semi-autobiographical story recalls a boyhood spent behind the scenes and on the stage as part of a travelling Beijing Opera group. Alongside a cast featuring his former Opera friends and performers, the film feels both heartfelt …

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