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Early Jackie Chan films?


Asmo

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I've got a couple, and was wondering if there are any people would recommend I get earlier than others (opinion wise).

I'm talking his 70s films like the films he did for Lo Wei, and stuff like Hand of Death, Killer Meteors (a Wang Yu film, I know) and Magnificent Bodyguards.

Being the completist I am, I'd love to obtain as many as possible but I'd like some opinions on the subject, and for the record I have Snake In The Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master.

Thanks.

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bruceleeclones

My personal favs from the Lo Wei movies in order are

Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin

Fearless Hyena

Dragon Fist

Spiritual Kung Fu

Shaolin Wooden Men

Half A Loaf of Kung Fu

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Killer Meteors was pretty bad. Chan, as you would guess, played the villain and it was an attempt to relauch Wang Yu, but failed.

Magnificent Bodyguards I would recommend not just for Chan fanatics, but he gets to team with Leung Siu-Lung in the film and my favorite fight involves them using bells to defeat a band of evil monks.

Otherwise, bruceleeclones pretty much summed it up.

Hand of Death I liked. Tan Tao-Liang was the star and Chan was his partner, a spear expert. Sammo looked laughable with his buckteeth. Yuen Biao doubled for Tan on some of the more acrobatic moves.

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Hand of Death I have, just threw that in as I had a mental blank, same with Magnificent Bodyguards. I had the opportunity to purchase Magnificent Bodyguards a few weeks ago, I got other movies instead though. I hope to see it somewhere again soon though.

Are those films from the Lo Wei era available to purchase at reasonable prices? I don't want to pay exorbitant sums for them at this point.

Fearless Hyena I've seen, is Fearless Hyena 2 any good or is it just using the same footage as the original (as I've heard).

Thanks for the opinions, I'll have to do some searching now!

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bruceleeclones

I think theres about 20mins of new jackie chan footage in Fearless Hyena 2, the rest is from other jc movies and part one.

All those ones I mentioned are from when he was under contract with Lo Wei. You should be able to pick up the old jc movies cheap, most are out on budget labels. Although the remastered versions are now getting released by hong kong legends in the UK.

I'd steer clear of Eagle Shadow Fist from his early work, as he's only got a small role in it, and it's a bad move too.

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All those ones I mentioned are from when he was under contract with Lo Wei. You should be able to pick up the old jc movies cheap, most are out on budget labels. Although the remastered versions are now getting released by hong kong legends in the UK.

Yeah, I just got their New Fist of Fury release. (As you can telll from my new avatar :cool:) That is one of the most amazing prints! They did a great job. I still have yet to see the transfer for HKL's Shaolin Wooden Men :D I'm excited for that one. Apparently DD just bought that one for release in October, frankly, I can't wait for that one.

I enjoyed the film, I just didn't like him in the film. They put him as the principal character, when in reality it was Nora Miao. She wasn't all that amazing either, it's just interesting to watch him in '76.

By the way, if you look at New Fist of Fury and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, his eyes changed. Lo Wei told him he was too ugly, so after the box office failure of New Fist of Fury he had eye surgery to make his lids wider shortly before starting with Ng See Yuen. Less 'asian' :( I always hated Lo.

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kungfusamurai

All of his films are worth checking out, but out of all of them, I'd say Dragon Fist is the best. If you want the widescreen versions, but not in English or original language, there are the French releases of his films. For english widescreen and/or uncut (like in the case of Dragon Fist) you should seek out the Beverly Wilshire discs. The quality is crappy, but they are like I said w/s and uncut.

I can't really say Lo Wei did a bad thing. It wasn't that Jackie had to look less asian, but you have to admit that when you compare his eyes to other leading stars, they just looked too small. I don't know about in HK, but I think a lot of people view having large eyes as being an attractive quality (sorry to those of you who don't have large eyes). Someone with small beady eyes also appears to be less intelligent or less trustworthy, for some reason. Lo Wei's decision was probably the best thing that happened to Jackie Chan, besides the name change and of course his pairing up with Ng See Yuen.

KFS

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bruceleeclones - I see those versions (dubs) on ebay here all the time. If HKL's releasing them, I'll wait for a quality job.

As for Eagle Shadow Fist, I've seen it. I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it (if that makes sense). Is it me or have some of these old films been retitled to cash on his fame (Not Scared To Die -> Eagle Shadow Fist, Police Woman -> Young Tiger/Rumble In Hong Kong)?

As for Fearless Hyena 2 I may steer clear of it, unless I give in and get the boxset from HK that has Fearless Hyena 1 with it.

Morgoth - I'll have to check that out.

Thanks, everybody!

PS. I did notice the eyes.

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The Amazing Psycho Per

I can't really say Lo Wei did a bad thing. It wasn't that Jackie had to look less asian, but you have to admit that when you compare his eyes to other leading stars, they just looked too small. I don't know about in HK, but I think a lot of people view having large eyes as being an attractive quality (sorry to those of you who don't have large eyes). Someone with small beady eyes also appears to be less intelligent or less trustworthy, for some reason. Lo Wei's decision was probably the best thing that happened to Jackie Chan, besides the name change and of course his pairing up with Ng See Yuen.

:confused: That's one of the stupidest thing I have ever heard! You don't actually believe that an eye surgery helped his carreer!!! Who the f*** cares what size his eyes are!?!

By the way you should definately stay clear of Fearless Hyena 2... I believe, personnaly, the most watchable movies Jackie has made in that era (of course except DM and SITES) are Snake and crane arts of shaolin and Fearless Hyena, the rest is pretty forgettable or sometimes painful to watch.

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I have to agree. Fearless Hyena II was beyond crap. The only new scenes worth mentioning aside from Jackie Chan in the teahouse were scenes involving Austin Wai from Five Superfighters (as Jackie's cousin), Hon Kwok-Choi, and Yen Shi-Kwan and Kwon Young-Moon as the bad guys. As for the finale, they recycled the first film's finale between Chan and Yen and intercut it with Wai taking on Kwon.

Horrible...

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In that case I'll definitely skip it.

Was I mistaken in hearing/reading that Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin was getting a Dragon Dynasty release as well as Shaolin Wooden Men?

If not, it shouldn't be too hard to find given some searching..

EDIT: it is.

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kungfusamurai
:confused: That's one of the stupidest thing I have ever heard! You don't actually believe that an eye surgery helped his carreer!!! Who the f*** cares what size his eyes are!?!

You may not believe it, but physical appearance in the movie industry is everything. Do you seriously think Jackie Chan pre-surgery would have had the same mass appeal? That's not saying people with small eyes are unattractive. But it can work in one's favor if they do some slight adjusting to their physical appearance, especially if they're hoping to attract a wider audience. And the practise or belief wasn't just isolated to Jackie. If you look at most of the big name chinese movie stars, few or none of them had or have eyes like Jackie did. Whether they had surgery to alter their appearance I cannot say... Anyway, I'm not saying it was something that made or broke his career. It was just one of many factors that came together to work in his favour.

KFS

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I seen nobody mentioned "The Young Master" which I thought was pretty good, more of a comedy but it had some good fight scenes in it. Definitely worth adding to your collection.

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I seen nobody mentioned "The Young Master" which I thought was pretty good, more of a comedy but it had some good fight scenes in it. Definitely worth adding to your collection.

I've seen a dubbed version, it is a great film. Just waiting to find a subbed dvd over a dubbed one.

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Morgoth Bauglir

I prefer the dubbed version. The voice acting is top notch, the music is fits the movie perfectly, and Jackie sings a song at the end.

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bruceleeclones

Hong Kong legends have so far released:

Fearless Hyena

Snake and Crane arts of shaolin

New Fist of Fury

Shaolin wooden Men

Dragon Fist

Spiritual Kung Fu

Magnificent Bodyguards

Hand of Death

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