It's another early Jackie film, so you know what to expect: Period costumes, Jackie being the unruly pupil to the stern master, Jackie throwing loads of furniture around, a typical bad guy and a couple of showdowns. Spiritual Kung Fu manages to rise above the standard plots of these films by taking a turn into the weird with some truly bizarre visuals and weirdness.
Jackie, this time, is a pupil at the shaolin temple, and when we first see him he's getting punished for some crime. That night, a ninja breaks into the temple and steals a rare martial arts book which ends up in the hands of our bad guy, who wants to be head of all the clans. This involves him beating the crap out of all the clan leaders periodically throughout the film.
Meanwhile, back at the temple, things get weird as a meteor hits the temple (looks like someone holding a sparkler) and five spirits that look like Toyah Wilcox appear and torment everyone. So you get to see a) A spirit appear from nowhere and head butt a guy on the arse b) The guy dubbing Jackie shouting 'I'm no queer!', c) Jackie peeing on the spirits d) Jackie shoving a live frog down his pants e) A monk inviting a girl to sniff his finger and f) Jackie showing a live eel down his pants.
Sadly, things get a bit more normal again later (although Jackie's first time encounter with a girl is pretty funny) and the film turns into a bit of murder mystery before descending into a fight fest for the last half and hour. Jackies battle with the monks at the temple is pretty good, as he takes on about a dozen guys armed with poles, and the last battle between the murderer, involving a reappearance of those spirits was pretty surreal.
What I love about these films is that once everything's done and dusted, they just get the big old THE END up there on the screen, and that's that. This is your usual late seventies Jackie-fest with an injection of weirdness. The copy I had was pan and scanned and cut off a lot of the action – I'm sure there's better copies out there.
THE END.
Jackie, this time, is a pupil at the shaolin temple, and when we first see him he's getting punished for some crime. That night, a ninja breaks into the temple and steals a rare martial arts book which ends up in the hands of our bad guy, who wants to be head of all the clans. This involves him beating the crap out of all the clan leaders periodically throughout the film.
Meanwhile, back at the temple, things get weird as a meteor hits the temple (looks like someone holding a sparkler) and five spirits that look like Toyah Wilcox appear and torment everyone. So you get to see a) A spirit appear from nowhere and head butt a guy on the arse b) The guy dubbing Jackie shouting 'I'm no queer!', c) Jackie peeing on the spirits d) Jackie shoving a live frog down his pants e) A monk inviting a girl to sniff his finger and f) Jackie showing a live eel down his pants.
Sadly, things get a bit more normal again later (although Jackie's first time encounter with a girl is pretty funny) and the film turns into a bit of murder mystery before descending into a fight fest for the last half and hour. Jackies battle with the monks at the temple is pretty good, as he takes on about a dozen guys armed with poles, and the last battle between the murderer, involving a reappearance of those spirits was pretty surreal.
What I love about these films is that once everything's done and dusted, they just get the big old THE END up there on the screen, and that's that. This is your usual late seventies Jackie-fest with an injection of weirdness. The copy I had was pan and scanned and cut off a lot of the action – I'm sure there's better copies out there.
THE END.