Charming and brutal

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

First, if you like Comedy Kung Fu movies and Jackie Chan, then this is a must see for you. Second, if you expect very good acting or a serious plot (By serious I do not mean a Plot that is not a comedy, but a plot that...well is a real plot and makes sense, then this movie is not for you.Now that we said those things, I can start the review of the Young Master. The Young Master is a Kung Fy Comedy, Jackie Can style. It has lot of action and funny moments.The story has to do with Jackie taking part in a lion dance against an other school. The one who was supposed to be the lead, was Jackie's brother (Tiger), but he faked an injury so he could fight for the other school. This leads to Tiger's exile.Tiger meanwhile joins the other schools and helps them free a criminal who is a very good Kung Fu fighter. Tiger freed the criminal using his White Fan.Back in Jackie's school, after a dramatic scene where all students blame Jackie for all the trouble and he thanks his master, his master allows him to search for his brother. Jackie Chan also has a White Fan like his brother, which makes the police think that he is the one who freed the criminal and so Jackie must fight the police and at the same time to try to find his brother................While the first half an hour makes you think that this is a dramatic film and has a good plot, the rest of the movie is a comedy with almost no plot. The plot seems to serve the role of connecting the Action and Comedy scenes. The fights are very well done. The last fight lasts 15 minutes, the longest in any Kung Fu movie and Jackie is beaten again and again. The comedy scenes are awesome and make you laugh hard. The acting is very good (For Kung Fu standards, of course).Hwang In-Sik is awesome as the criminal while Shih Kien is very good at the role of the policeman.Now the rating: Plot: 2/5 Comedy: 5/5 Kung Fu scenes: 4/5 Scenery: 3/5 Acting: 4/5 So this is rated 8/10. It is an awesome movie and everyone should see it.

'Shi Di Chu Ma' is another awesome martial arts comedy from Chan's 'Master' series. It pretty much follows the traditional themes of honour, folklore and reputation as other movies of the series. Yet, the humour works very effectively and the fight sequences are engaging. Here Chan and his cast demonstrate some new kung fu techniques (such as fan-fighting and skirt-fighting). The execution has its flaws (such as problems with continuity). Yet, as mentioned earlier, the comedy and choreography make up for it. Chan also proves to be a competent director for this particular genre. He combines his flair for comedy and martial arts and that's almost always an entertaining treat. Most of the supporting cast have limited screen time but they provide enough support to keep things going. To sum things up, 'Shi Di Chu Ma' is another hilarious film from the Jackie Chan factory.

In THE YOUNG DRAGON, superstar Jackie Chan was essentially playing gung fu star Jackie Chan. His antics herein were nothing new (though he would go on to add- quite substantially- to his ouvre over the next two decades) and some of the alleged humor is merely alleged, but it's the fifteen or twenty minute pounding he takes from Master Sik at the end of the movie that makes it absolutely must-see film-making. Chan, it could be argued, is cinema's great martial arts masochist- and his protracted punishment, dished out with a sadist's delight, it seems, has to be seen to be believed. Chan has always been willing to go that extra yard, and his willingness to absorb punishment for the sake of his art is taxed to the limit here. It's brutal, no two ways about it, but it's also vintage Jackie Chan.

This is a really mixed bag of a movie. To begin with, it is very episodic, and the transitions between the episodes are confusing - even allowing for re-editing in different re-release prints. The opening episode appears to have been an attempt at homage to the Shaw Bros. style (sets, lighting, camera angles), and one suspects that Sammo Hung had a hand in it, since he had demonstrated a grasp on the Shaw style in a couple of his own early films. But once the opening is done, so too the Shaw style effects, and we're suddenly in Lo Wei territory at the Buddhist temple. Later, Chan borrows from Yuen Woo Ping quite heavily - the final fight is somewhat reminiscent of "Drunken Master", and apparently intentionally so. (It is probable that Yuen himself was on hand for consultation.) Sadly, these wildly different episodes never gel together to present us with one whole narrative; the grand finale feels like an artificial tack-on, it doesn't seem to resolve anything.There's quite a lot wrong here: There's no explanation of why Chan's character - still an adolescent student - suddenly transfigures himself into a 'kung fu genius' (to borrow a phrase from Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle"); the school, once left behind, is never seen nor heard from again until the final credits - any dramatic input it could make to the story is thereby lost. The fascinating (and brilliantly performed) episode with the Inspector and his family also gets left behind and unresolved. The use of bong-water from an opium pipe as an elixir granting increased strength is completely artificial and unbelievable - a college fraternity in-joke; the use of wine in "Drunken Master", by comparison, is derived from myth, and based on an real martial arts tradition.The one definitive term for this approach to movie making is: self-indulgence. Chan, at the time a recognized star in Asia, who felt he could do no wrong, is simply coming up with what must have appeared as good ideas and patching them together to give himself a star-vehicle and showcase for all his talents - he even sings the title track.All this noted, it must be admitted that, as an episodic showcase, the film is actually very entertaining. Once you allow that the story is really irrelevant to the comic bits and fight scenes, these can be enjoyed on their own terms - the fight scene with Chan dressed as a beggar is really quite remarkable, and the visit to the inspector's house is very funny.one more note on the release prints: I have seen a standard English-dub print and a Chinese print with subtitles; the weird thing is that the English print actually includes brief but important moments cut from the Chinese print, and would actually be preferable except that it re-arranges one important comic moment in such a way that all the humor is lost, and seems also to compress the violence so has to reduce its impact. Hopefully we'll one day get the definitive print of this; until then, best to see both prints so you know what you'd miss if you only saw one.