Director:
Wei Lo
Starring:
Jackie Chan
Released: 1978
One of Jackie Chan's earlier films, this one has him as a cocky young student at a
Shaolin temple, where he spends most of his time performing grueling tasks as
punishment for his neumerous hijinks. The story truly begins when the
temple is broken into by a mysterious figure and the book of Seven Fists is stolen. We then learn that it is delivered to the hands of an ambitious young clan
noble who is told to learn this "practically unbeatable" style in order to gain leadership of the clans. We also learn that the seven fist style can only be beaten by one other style, the "five fist" style, but it has been lost for generations (can one say
set-up?, I knew that you could). It is shortly after this that ghosts are discovered in the temple's library, and the students (and one of the monks) at the temple embark to
fight these wayward
spirits. Jackie, who is napping, comes under the torment of these spririts, but for some reason the spirits (after seeing a glowing emblem appear on his
chest) cower to him and eventual lead him to the
book of "five fists" which has been hidden in a crack in the
wall behind on of the bookshelves. Jackie is then instructed in the style by the spirits. Soon the leader of the
Wu Tang Clan visits the monastary with his
daughter, of course, Jackie is picked to show the daughter around the temple, and after snubbing his clumsy advances she gives Jackie a lesson in
Kung Fu. Jackie goes back to the spirits to figure out where he went wrong, he trains a bit more, and goes back to regain his pride. After defeating the Clan leader's daughter in a rather humiliating fashion she runs to her father only to find that he has been murdered, apparently by one of the temple's monks, Jackie must seek out the true killer and of course,
open up a can of whoop-ass on him.
The
special effects are bad, there's enough fighting and foolery to keep one
very entertained. If you're into kung fu movies this is a definite must-see. Also reccomended for any Jackie Chan afficiando. On the downside, it's a little hard to follow at times, and of course the dubbing is horrible, but I could not find a subtitled version.