Jackie Chan and his grandfather live alone, while grandpa trains Jackie in kung fu. Eventually the big bad guy, who dresses and has hair like Lucius Malfoy comes along and kills the old man. Jackie wants to run after him and fight him, but a little man with a crutch stops him, then begins to train Jackie in more kung fu so he'll have a chance.
Chan's first movie as director (although he has Richard Lo credited as "Executive Director") is a pretty standard plot, with the young disciple who slipped, seeking vengeance against the chief baddie. It's the handling that is a bit different. The second quarter of the movie has Jackie as the head teacher of a martial arts school, and he has to fight a bunch of people. It's all circus clowning, with Chan whipping people while dressed as a feeble-minded individual, in drag, and so forth. It's positively cartoonish, and the sound choices emphasize this: there's the introduction to "The Pink Panther" and sound stings that sound like they came out of Treg Brown's library. Plus for the big finish, he invents new, ridiculous styles of fighting that are, of course, successful.
in the meantime, it's a fine movie that combines silliness and seriousness, despite a few glitches in He would get better and better, peaking in the middle of the 1990s. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and this is a very good start.
Chan's first movie as director (although he has Richard Lo credited as "Executive Director") is a pretty standard plot, with the young disciple who slipped, seeking vengeance against the chief baddie. It's the handling that is a bit different. The second quarter of the movie has Jackie as the head teacher of a martial arts school, and he has to fight a bunch of people. It's all circus clowning, with Chan whipping people while dressed as a feeble-minded individual, in drag, and so forth. It's positively cartoonish, and the sound choices emphasize this: there's the introduction to "The Pink Panther" and sound stings that sound like they came out of Treg Brown's library. Plus for the big finish, he invents new, ridiculous styles of fighting that are, of course, successful.
in the meantime, it's a fine movie that combines silliness and seriousness, despite a few glitches in He would get better and better, peaking in the middle of the 1990s. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and this is a very good start.