What Year Did Jackie Chan Film His Scenes in 'Fearless Hyena 2'?

[One Armed Boxer]

I was recently doing some research on Jackie Chan's 'The Big Brawl' from 1980, and multiple sources state that the reason why Chan was in America was because of him breaking contract with Lo Wei while filming 'Fearless Hyena 2'.

I'd never noticed it before but since 'Fearless Hyena 2' has a 1983 release date, does that mean that when Chan was still attached to the production the filming took place in either '79/'80, and then Lo Wei presumably revisited the footage a couple of years later once Chan had achieved mega stardom and completed it using the Chan doubles?

@TibetanWhiteCrane, @masterofoneinchpunch, @Cognoscente - I'm looking at you guys!

[Killer Meteor]

There is a considerable time-gap between Jackie's scenes and the rest of the film as Pearl Lin looks noticeably different.

 

I think Jackie, Golden Harvest and Lo Wei were settled by mid 1981 as Lo Wei was a co-producer on DRAGON LORD.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I think JC bounced to do Young Master, cuz he was reportedly editing that while in Texas shooting BB. And I believe part of the deal that Jimmy brokered was that Lo Wei could do with the existing FH2 footage what he wanted, including market it as a new JC film. I've heard different versions though.

But I don't think he "hid" in the US, as he had already escaped a Lo Wei set in Korea earlier on, and gone back to HK, where LW sent his wife to talk to him and bring him back to wrap up the shoot, and promising he could do the action. I think after that he just flat out broke contract with LW and stood his ground, no more hiding. But again, there are several versions of these stories, and I wasn't there.

[Josh Baker]

I haven't seen the film all the way through. Has someone done a scene by scene of what's Jackie and what's a body double?

[mpm74]

In other news, a New Netflix docu series titled The Disappearance of @Cognoscente is set to stream next month. Was anyone in this forum interviewed for the series?

[cooksandkungfoodle]

I’m sure Rick baker a few years ago shared some rare behind the scenes pictures that were filmed but never appeared in any of the 2 films..

[Asmo]

Weren't Jackie's (and maybe some other?) scenes a mix of unused footage shot for FH and new footage?
I remember hearing that some scenes with Dean Shek's character were originally shot for FH.

So that would possibly place some of the scenes filmed in 1978/79, and maybe others later in 1979?

[starschwar]

Cognoscete provided a lot of info on this topic a little while back over here:

 

 

In short:  Fearless Hyena 2's Jackie footage consists of material (deleted and otherwise) from at least the following sources:

• Spiritual Kung Fu
• Fearless Hyena
• An unfinished Lo Wei directed film that was scrapped early in production.  Jackie became director and the entire endeavor was re-imagined as Fearless Hyena.

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by starschwar

[One Armed Boxer]

1 hour ago, starschwar said:

Cognoscete provided a lot of info on this topic a little while back over here:

 

Yep I'm aware of this thread, however at no point does it mention what year the scenes Chan filmed which were specifically for 'Fearless Hyena 2' took place.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

On 4/15/2023 at 6:27 PM, Asmo said:

Weren't Jackie's (and maybe some other?) scenes a mix of unused footage shot for FH and new footage?
I remember hearing that some scenes with Dean Shek's character were originally shot for FH.

So that would possibly place some of the scenes filmed in 1978/79, and maybe others later in 1979?

You can definitely tell some of the Shek scenes are from the original film (which is most likely filmed early 1979) and some footage is from Spiritual Kung Fu which starschwar.

Chan was in America for a few reasons: one to avoid the triad issues and two to promote him in America.  He mentions this in his first autobiography (much better than his second one) as well as what Tibetan mentions above that Wang Yu brokered the deal (which had JC owing favors to him which resulted in a couple of films hee hee).

Here is my ancient review of the second film:https://hkmdb.com/db/reviews/show_review.mhtml?id=12155  

I'm still not sure why he did not put it out earlier.  I'll look at my books tonight.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Random info: Bey Logan states in his book that the James Tien fight sequence in the tea shop was the one he did before he left the set.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

From I am Jackie Chan (most books tend to use this as a resource for this info):

"We'd already begun shooting [on Fearless Hyena II] when I got an urgent phone call from Willie..."

"He [Lo Wei] retained the rights to the movies I'd made under that contract (including the unfinished Fearless Hyena II and the undistributed Half a Loaf of Kung Fu), bug agreed to release me to Golden Harvest without restrictions and without further harassment."

[Willie] "Although there is the matter of owing Jimmy Wang Yu a few favors."

One interesting aspect here is that JC states "I told them I'd agree to do Lo Wei's next film, as long as they let me finish production on my Golden Harvest film.  We were going into postproduction on Young Master anyway; it wouldn't be too hard to get away to work on another set." [named Action Movie: The Feature Film]

[Killer Meteor]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:22 PM, mpm74 said:

In other news, a New Netflix docu series titled The Disappearance of @Cognoscente is set to stream next month. Was anyone in this forum interviewed for the series?

I'm fairly sure he's still here, just point under a different name. Several of the new posters seem to be using his modus operandi.