Martial arts icon Jackie Chan stars in this period piece as Lord Ting Chung, a Kung Fu expert who is hired by a young woman to protect her and her supposedly sickly brother as they make the journey to a distant city for medical attention. Chung decides to do the job free of charge, bringing along other companions played by James Tien and Bruce Liang. Naturally, the entourage will face all manner of human adversaries on their journey - and they will be in for some surprises, as well.
Jackie may be top billed in order to help sell the movie, but in truth this is just as much Tiens' and Liangs' movie as it is his. It certainly does contain some comedy, but not to the extent that would characterize Jackies' best known vehicles from this period. Of course, it would probably play a fair bit better were it not for the cheesy dubbing and dialogue in the English language version, rendering it rather goofy much of the time. The fight scenes are fairly breathless and numerous - but the movie does focus on plot a substantial amount of the time. Viewers can take some amusement from the fact that this is pretty violent, with some priceless, tacky gore as faces actually get sliced off. The production does look to be on the cheap side, but the widescreen photography of some very nice scenery still works pretty well.
Jackie shows off a natural, easygoing charm, although, as said, he doesn't get THAT many opportunities to strut his stuff. Other performances are similarly engaging.
I'm guessing that the film was picked up by 20th Century Fox for distribution in America, which may account for the liberal use of John Williams' classic "Star Wars" soundtrack. Since this music is so intimately connected to that Hollywood blockbuster, it merely becomes distracting after a while.
Overall, this is decent enough entertainment, but it gets kicked up another notch for the hilarious, twist-laden climax.
Six out of 10.
Jackie may be top billed in order to help sell the movie, but in truth this is just as much Tiens' and Liangs' movie as it is his. It certainly does contain some comedy, but not to the extent that would characterize Jackies' best known vehicles from this period. Of course, it would probably play a fair bit better were it not for the cheesy dubbing and dialogue in the English language version, rendering it rather goofy much of the time. The fight scenes are fairly breathless and numerous - but the movie does focus on plot a substantial amount of the time. Viewers can take some amusement from the fact that this is pretty violent, with some priceless, tacky gore as faces actually get sliced off. The production does look to be on the cheap side, but the widescreen photography of some very nice scenery still works pretty well.
Jackie shows off a natural, easygoing charm, although, as said, he doesn't get THAT many opportunities to strut his stuff. Other performances are similarly engaging.
I'm guessing that the film was picked up by 20th Century Fox for distribution in America, which may account for the liberal use of John Williams' classic "Star Wars" soundtrack. Since this music is so intimately connected to that Hollywood blockbuster, it merely becomes distracting after a while.
Overall, this is decent enough entertainment, but it gets kicked up another notch for the hilarious, twist-laden climax.
Six out of 10.