Review: I quite enjoyed this authentic movie which sees a young Jackie Chan (Hsiao Hu), take on a bunch of village bullies who are causing havoc around his small town. He plays a young waiter who has a unique Kung Fu skills, which he uses to tackle the bullies who find it hard to beat him. The bullies soon get fed up with Hsiao and they start to take advantage of his loved ones, which just gets him more upset and sends him on a path of vengeance. The only problem is that Hsiao's father forbids him to use his Kung Fu skills to defend himself and he is constantly punishing him for fighting in there village but when the bullies go a step too far, he gives him his blessing to take out the crime kingpin who has caused trouble in his life before. I really tried my hardest to get into this movie because you can't read the subtitles on the DVD and the bonus subtitles only pop up every now and again. I managed to piece the main parts of the storyline together but I missed a lot of the dialogue, which is a shame because the film isn't that bad. With that aside, it's not the greatest action that I have seen from Chan but for his age, he really does show that he has a promising future in action movies. His acting isn't too bad and there are some emotional scenes, which he performed quite well but the whole look of the film pretty bad. For entertainment, it's a watchable movie, if you get a dubbed version, and the epic fight at the end is worth a watch so for its time, it's actually not that bad. Watchable.
Round-Up: This movie was directed by Hoi-Fung Ngai who only directed this movie and the Witch in 1975. For the time, he done quite a good job with bringing an authentic action movie to the big screen but the dodgy camera work near the end, really does need a remastering.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/martial arts movie starring Jackie Chan, Biao Yuen, Pei-Pei Shu and Hung Lieh Chen. 4/10
Snake Fist Fighter
1973 [CN]
Action / Comedy / Drama
Plot summary
Hsiao Hu has been secretly training in martial arts, as his father (Tien Feng) has forbidden him. Later, some local store owners ask Ah to help protect them from a greedy Chinese extortion ring. Ah discovers that the crime lord behind the extortion had killed his father years before and is determined for revenge.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
January 10, 2023 at 03:45 PM
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Watchable but the camera work is dodgy! 4/10
The movie that started it all for jackie chan
Although it was not one of his best this is in reality the first movie dealing with pure martial arts and in the way the public loved Jackie in the future doing such films that Jackie had the main and lead role.
Jackie appeared in a few more films before that 1973 film dealing with classic kung fu concept but not as the leader.
this was the first and decent effort also.
the movie is ok and I wonder what those dudes who dismissed it are smoking.
this is a must have for the Jackie martial arts fan.
from there Jackie went on to make a dozen more martial arts films starting from new fists of fury in 1976 ending with fearless hyena 2 in 1984.
from the middle of the 80s he changed his genre in to action films and later in to comedy action films too but occasionally he returned to martial arts genre with films like the sequel to the drunken master in 1994 and a few more in later years like shaolin in 2010.
Jackie chan was saluted by the late 70s as the successor of bruce lee with his famous films snake in the eagle's shadow, fearless hyena and the drunken master but this 1973 film is where all really begun for him.
here are the most influential chan martial arts films for you to enjoy.
Master with cracked fingers
Hand of death
spiritual kung fu
half a loaf of kung fu
snake and crane arts of shaolin
fearless hyena 1 and 2
drunken master trilogy (part 2 is without Jackie chan)
snake in the eagle's shadow
dragon fist
dragon lord
the young master
shaolin 2010
A tale of two halves
This was Jackie's first lead role filmed (partly) in 1971 and originally called The Little Tiger of Canton. Jackie's father is killed in a feud between triad gangs leaving his young orphaned son to grow up, learn kung foo and avenge the death of his father. The problem is half way through the filming the director and producer did a runner leaving the actors unpaid and the movie unfinished. In 1978, after Jackie had become famous with Snake in the Eagles Shadow and Drunken master the film was finished using a dodgy Jackie look-alike. They even go to the extent of fighting blindfolded in order to hide his face. It's a shame because to spite the obvious low budget and poor script I found it fairly entertaining up to that point. So be warned unless your happy with half a Jackie Chan film (and not his best by any means)I wouldn't recommend paying the price of DVD to see it.