User Reviews

Jackie Chan had just established his Hong Kong popularity with Seasonal Pictures Snake in Eagles Shadow and the sublime Drunken Master. With the success of those films Lo Wei, who lent him out to Seasonal, let Jackie have complete control over his next picture. Fearless Hyena would be Jackie's directorial debut – though he would be working with a much smaller budget than his Seasonal experience. He would also stunt coordinate and write this film too. This movie would out gross the stellar receipts of Drunken Master and help earn Jackie 6000 HK dollars (his pay was 3000 per film; though he made over 50000 on Drunken Master). This measly pay helped exacerbate the rift between him and Lo Wei which led to his departure and the infamous sequel. Jackie reprises his goofy student role that he played in Drunken Master. This time he is Shing Lung, a talented but capricious student and grandson of Chen Ping Fe (the ubiquitous James Tien). Lung would rather gamble or goof off then study his forms. Little does he know that his Grandfather is marked for death by Yen Ting Hua (the underrated Yam Sai-kwoon aka Yen Shi Kwan) who is trying to destroy the Sien Yi clan founded by Hiu Fei (I just love keeping track of these names, I do not know why). Though Shing is forbidden to teach (or show) the Kung Fu his grandfather teaches him he (of course) does it anyways.

Shing tries to make his grandfather proud by getting a job selling coffins. The coffin dealer played by Dean Shek is an unscrupulous merchant who even sells secondhand coffins. This cameo plays to the strengths of Dean and is quite an interesting and hilarious scene. Hapless Shing blows this opportunity by trapping Dean in one of his favorite coffins. He runs away and while walking the public he is confronted by three ruffians (Great Bear, Stony Egg and Ironhead) he beat up earlier. They want him to teach them Kung Fu.

Shing meets their Master Ti Cha who is in charge of the Everything Clan who has no actual skills except for scheming. Ti offers Lung a position and lots of money to help there school learn effective fighting techniques. Ti uses him in the old ploy as a lowly laborer to fight heads of other schools (so if the lowly laborer is that good, just imagine how good Master Ti is.) This leads to several excellent fight scenes that are incredibly fun to watch. I especially like when Shing fights the Lu Ying and the Willow Sword (using the Pink Panther theme as background music) as a cross-eyed beggar. He then fights a large albeit slow man as a woman (yes, Jackie in Drag and no he is not cute).

Shing then makes a huge mistake by naming the facility under the Sien Yi name. Now the rest of the film is very predictable with the ultimate showdown between Shing Lung and Yen Ting Hua. The way it is handled though is quite sagacious. The training scenes are Jackie at his masochistic best. With him pulling huge sacks, doing amazing upside-down sit-ups with his new trainer the Unicorn having a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Shing is even taught Emotional Kung Fu (which Jackie made up for this film) using Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Happiness to focus on one's enemy "emotional" weak spot.

One of my favorite scenes is the Dueling Chopsticks scene in which the Unicorn prevents Shing from eating by using his chopsticks (of course.) Unfortunately it has influenced me to be quite annoying and apply this whenever applicable.

I would not rate this film as highly as Drunken Master. There are problems with the plot that takes too much from Drunken Master. However, I feel that this is an unheralded martial arts piece that is funny and exciting with excellent ideas and stunt choreography by Jackie Chan. This is also a must see if you want to watch Jackie in drag.

All I'll say about this movie is sit back and watch the mayhem!!! Featuring a young Jackie Chan in his prime, this film contains some of the best choreographed fight scenes you will ever see!! Highlights include an awesome stick fight between Jackie and his grandfather; a gender-bending, cross-dressing female-impersonating Jackie dealing to a muscular chinaman; kung-fu fun with bowls and finally a climactic kung-fu ass kicking fest!! All part and parcel of the insanity we can expect from this period of Jackie's career! Sure, the dubbing is terrible, but who really cares what they're saying with Jackie kicking ten kinds of ass all over the shop!! A must see for kung-fu movie fans!! WICKED!!!

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The Fearless Hyena is Jackie Chan's debut as a film director, although he had been a fight choreographer previously. The plot is the same old tired one we've come to expect of martial arts films of the period, that being revenge for the murder of one's relative, master, teacher, or other by learning or training in a new martial art system of some sort. In this one, it's "emotional kung fu". There is really no real "emotional kung fu" system, but it doesn't matter. Chan carries the film with his fight choreography, comic effects, and silly antics. However, the plot is forgettable, the dialog is really bad at times, and the dubbing is horrible. The acting is laughable too, and get a load of those phony lumps that appear on iron head during his fight with Chan. Chan has a habit of mugging for the camera in this film as well. Still, the film is notable not only as Chan's directorial debut but as a continuation of his stylistic ploy of ingratiating himself to audiences through the use of physical comedy. ** of 4 stars.

This was a Jackie Chan directed and Jackie Chan starred film. The movie was more or less two parts. We can call the parts pre-grandpa's death and post grandpa's death.

The pre-death part of the movie was very light and upbeat. Shing Lung (Jackie Chan) used his clan's style of kung fu to make money. Employed by a con artist, he posed as a kung fu school's brightest pupil and he would take on all-comers. When he won he'd get paid handsomely for the win. The fights were never really serious as he would fight in various costumes and make his challengers look silly.

The post-death part of the movie came when Shing Lung's grandfather was killed by a ruthless martial artist looking to eliminate Shing Lung's clan. All levity and lightheartedness left Shing Lung when he saw his grandpa killed and he really buckled down and got serious about training. Now the movie shifted to a tale of revenge. But, like most kung fu movies, Shing Lung was not ready for revenge. First he had to be trained by The Unicorn to prepare him to fight the silver-haired main boss.

Every kung fu movie needs some secret for defeating the main boss. Shing Lung was taught a style of kung fu in which he used various emotions that manifested in different styles. It was gimmicky and not visually the best for a showdown, but Jackie Chan makes it work with his athleticism.

This film from 1979 marked Jackie's first venture behind the camera as director. FEARLESS HYENA is a traditional, period-set kung fu flick that closely resembles other Jackie Chan films made around the same time: the focus is on comedy followed by revenge, and these elements, in combination with the sheer screen presence of the young star, make it well worth watching. It begins with a chase scene in which the ruthless Yen (who half resembles Christopher Lee) murders a number of rivals using his kung fu skills. The story then cuts to more familiar territory as we are introduced to Lung, Jackie's character. Lung is learning kung fu skills from his grandfather (played by the familiar and reliable James Tien).

The first hour of the film follows the comedy-kung-fu mould as we watch Lung train his kung fu as well as interact with various characters in the village. These range from a crazy undertaker (a cameo from Dean Shek) to three gamblers, who eventually persuade Lung to come and work at their kung fu school. Jackie proves his worth by beating a number of rivals. The final half hour of the film concentrates on revenge as Lung discovers a new mentor (a crippled beggar nicknamed 'the Unicorn') and undergoes some gruelling training before taking on the bad guys in a violent showdown.

Essentially FEARLESS HYENA is a film made up of two separate parts, with the first hour concentrating on comedy, and the latter part building up to a vengeance-fuelled showdown. The comedy is of the slapstick variety that Jackie loves, and there are some obvious nods to the likes of THE THREE STOOGES as our hero joins up with a trio of gamblers and engages in some cartoonish battles with them. Love it or hate it, this type of slapstick comedy was beloved by Chinese audiences and always pops up in these types of films.

Better still are the 'comedy fights' in which Jackie battles his opponents in various amusing ways. These fights are centred at the kung fu school, as Jackie dons a variety of disguises to battle a series of hardened kung fu masters. It's easy to dismiss these scenes as childish or time-fillers but in fact they display some highly impressive acrobatic skills from the star, whose split-second timing is impeccable. The scene where he dresses as a cross-eyed janitor and fights an opponent using benches and a table, for instance, is wonderful, expertly choreographed and full of fluid action that only seasoned performers could have pulled off.

This wouldn't be a traditional kung fu film without any training sequences, and these are also some of the best put on camera. Jackie proves himself to be at his physical peak as he performs upside-down sit-ups over and over again and drags weights across a field, every muscle and tendon on his body straining. The opening and closing fight scenes get pretty violent – the blood runs freely – and the finale in particular is edge-of-the-seat stuff. A new type of kung fu is introduced into the film; it focuses on the emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc.) and with it Jackie is able to take down his opponents in various painful ways.

Watching Jackie fight in new, unique ways is always a pleasure and the fights here are no exception; trust Jackie, he's even able to inject some humour into these moments, with his 'sadness' kung fu resembling drunken boxing as he falls over and against his opponent. As the villain, Yen, Yam Sai-kun may not be as skilled as Hwang Jang Lee, but his kung fu skills are pretty spectacular, especially his deadly 'eagle claw' strike. The film ends on a real high with Jackie excelling both in front of, and behind the camera. His fellow cast members all put in good performances and the martial arts is tremendous as usual.