Jackie's Lo Wei pictures...anyone like any of them?

[PandaPawPaw]

[PandaPawPaw]

Edited April 16 by PandaPawPaw

[starschwar]

Well, Fearless Hyena II.  First and foremost - this really barely counts as a movie.  I'm glad 88 released it, but it should have been demoted to a bonus disc for the first movie.  On a technical level - is this now the worst movie to be released by Criterion?  Even that Godzilla movie that was mostly stock footage was assembled better!

There's debate as to when the "new" Jackie material was filmed.  I am in  agreement with @Cognoscente ' s version of events, where it originates from an early Lo Wei directed effort that began after the release of Drunken Master, but was scrapped mid-production.  Most of the cast and sets were retained, Jackie took over as director, and the project was remounted as Fearless Hyena.

But it really doesn't matter.  The "movie" such as it is exists as an incoherent mess.  There is something resembling a plot running through, some scenes connect, but there are obvious disconnects.  Attempts to bridge things with unconvincing doubles and stock footage from earlier Jackie movies only makes the patchwork nature even more apparent.  There's a gap so jarring that I honestly believe it may have partially inspired the "missing reel" scene in Robert Rodregeuz's Planet Terror.  I don't say this lightly: Robert Clouse's Game of Death is a more coherent and overall better film!
 

Of particular interest is Dean Shek's one scene (sure is nice to get second billing for that!).   His dialogue appears to be functioning as a mouthpiece for Lo Wei himself?  He admonishes Jackie's (character's) appearance, intelligence, and berates him for breaking a contract.  Am I reading into things too much, or was that just the pure manifestation of spite?

There's some weird meta humor, intentional anachronisms, and gratuitous English that seem to exist for the sake of attempted comedy, but I doubt they were ever intended to be a part of whatever this movie was meant to be in its original context.  And if it wasn't obvious - this movie has no plot or character connections to Fearless Hyena at all. 

 

If you want to see some obscure Breakout Era Jackie footage you can't see anywhere else, this movie might be worth the watch.  But this is for Chan completists only.  I knew what I was getting in to - I saw it on VHS back in the day, but somehow this Frankenstein assembly is only more monstrous in its original language and aspect ratio.

If you want to see a more polished, more entertaining, and earnest effort at finishing an incomplete martial arts movie, watch New York Ninja instead. 

 

Current rankings:

• Fearless Hyena
• Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin
• Shaolin Wooden Men
• Spiritual Kung Fu
• New Fist of Fury (long version)
• Dragon Lord (extended work-in-progress version)
• Dragon Fist
• Half A Loaf of Kung Fu!
• New Fist of Fury (short version)
• The Killer Meteors
• To Kill With Intrigue
• Fearless Hyena Part II

Edited June 5 by starschwar

[SDJ]

There's a Jackie stream on yt playing a few of his less loved movies in an endless loop, a lot of them Lo Wei era.

To Kill with Intrigue is a little underrated I'm thinking, as long as you think of it as what it is: a ridiculous low budget wuxia melodrama. Some of the fights are pretty decent, about as good as a dozen other cheapo martial arts movies I like by directors like Tso Nam Lee, Chen Kuan-tai, etc.

On the other hand I nearly went into a coma trying to rewatch Killer Meteors. Although the fact it gave the world a pretty good Jackie v. Jimmy Wang Yu fight scene is cool.

Edited June 5 by SDJ