Dragon Fist
Director: Lo Wei
Year: 1979
Rating: 7.0
Viewed at the Subway Cinema Fest
After Bruce Lee died Hong Kong tried very
hard to find someone to fill his shoes - either an imitator or just the Next
Bruce Lee. Most of these folks are long forgotten - Bruce Leung, Bruce Liang,
Bruce Li among them - but there was also a more familiar name - Jackie Chan.
Chan had been around the film industry since he was a child (with Sammo,
Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah) at a Peking Opera School. But director Lo Wei got it
into his head that Jackie would be the next Bruce Lee.
Lo Wei had rather an amazing career as
a director. Many HK film fans consider him a hack for the two films he directed
Bruce Lee in before they parted in acrimony - Fist of Fury and The Big Boss
- but he goes way back directing films in the 1950's and then joining Shaw
Brothers where he directed some enjoyable flicks often with female action
heroines - Lily Ho in Angel with Iron Fists, The Angel Strikes Again and
Cheng Pei-pei in Dragon Swamp and The Shadow Whip. After leaving Shaw he
directed Bruce but also Nora Miao in The Comet Strikes, The Hurricane and
the Invincible Eight in which she was an action star - unlike being the love
interest in the three Bruce Lee films she was in. Wei also directed two of
my favorite Polly Shang-kuan films - Back Alley Princess and Chinatown Capers.
Then he latched on to Jackie and directed him in seven films trying to fit
a round peg into a square hole. After Jackie moved on Lo Wei basically gave
up the director's seat, but he is credited with advising Jackie to have some
cosmetic surgery done! Jackie wasn't really to find that round hole that
fit him until 1983 with Winners and Sinners and Project A.
These Lo Wei/Jacky Chan films are very
traditional kung fu films - played straight as a nun on a Sunday and now
almost forgotten because of the films that Jackie made later on. Still much
of the martial arts action is terrific. As is the case for this film. Jackie
had taken over the duties of action choreography on his films and though
again sticking very much to kung fu norms it is extremely intricate and fast.
I mean fast. There is a lot of action going on here - two big fights in which
Jackie takes no part before the opening credits come on. Then it is one fight
after another until we get to the astonishing and brutal finale in which
Jackie has one opponent (among many) who he duels with for 10-15 minutes
and it is brilliant. But this is not the Jackie Chan that he became - no
humor, no incredible stunts - just unsmiling incredibly skillful kung-fu.
The plot is a little more complicated than
many of these early kung-fu films. His master is defeated in a duel with
Master Zhong (Yen Shi-wan who was to go on to a fine career in HK films usually
as the villain) who kills the master after he has indicated that he is defeated.
Bad form. Jackie can't beat him now but three years later he, his master's
wife (Shaw veteran Ou Yang Sha-fei) and his master's daughter (Nora Miao)
travel a thousand miles to gain back the honor of his master. But here is
where the film pulls a switch on us - Master Zhong is actually an honorable
man who let his emotions get away from him and he is extremely repentant
for what he did. But Jackie is manipulated into working for the real villain
of the film - another clan leader and he begins doing evil deeds. Watching
this with an audience was fun and when Jackie loses it and starts killing
people they got a little loud!
