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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
After
a failed bid for Hollywood success, martial arts megastar
Jackie Chan returned to Hong Kong for 1980's The
Young Master, a film that marked the beginning of
a long and successful relationship with Golden Harvest.
After a great deal of backstage wrangling thanks to
Golden Harvest head honcho Raymond Chow and Jimmy Wang
Yu, the young Chan was finally released from all contractual
obligations to director/producer Lo Wei, and consequently
became free to do his movies the "Jackie Chan way."
And while The Young Master certainly hearkens
back to the old school charms of his previous work in
terms of plot and setting, the film possesses more than
enough of Chan's trademark slapstick humor and high-energy
stunts to make it a noteworthy transitional film in
the Jackie Chan filmography.
Chan falls back into the
familiar role (in name, at least) of lovable scamp Lung,
who along with his brother Lo (Wei Pak), lives in a
martial arts school run by the venerable Master Tien
(Tin Fung). Things are going just swell until Lo, Master
Tien's star pupil, fakes an injury and secretly lion
dances for the rival school. After Lo's treachery is
revealed (along with a prostitute he bought with his
ill-gotten gains), Master Tien banishes the elder brother
from the school. Grief-stricken, Lung vows to track
his brother down and get him to make amends, but as
Lo ventures out alone, he falls in with the wrong crowd,
participating in a jailbreak that frees uber-baddie
Kam (Whang In-Sik).
Unfortunately, Lung finds himself
mistaken for Lo, and consequently has to battle the
local authorities during his quest. Also, in a series
of comic interludes, Lung meets up with Marshal Sam
Kung (Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien), his fleet-footed
son (Yuen Biao), and his beautiful, but deadly daughter
(Lily Li). Lung eventually convinces the famous lawman
to allow him to bring in the evil convict to nullify
his brother's crime. What ensues is undoubtedly one
of the most brutal fights in the young Jackie Chan's
career, quite unlike anything Chan had done before.
When viewed within the
context of Jackie Chan's pre-Police Story work, The Young Master is a veritable masterpiece.
With the possible exception of the two movies Chan made
for Ng See-Yuen's Seasonal Films, The Young Master is perhaps one of Chan's liveliest, most creative films
of that early era. Though the humor and stuntwork might
seem quaint for those more familiar with his later works,
I have to admit that after personally wading through
such early duds like New Fist of Fury, this movie
is a definite breath of fresh air.
As director, Chan
deftly weaves kung fu and humor in a far more extensive
way than prior works, as evidenced in such scenes as
Chan's fan-battle with the corpulent Bull (Fan Mei-Sheng),
the acrobatic bench duel with an equally-talented Yuen
Biao, and his quick fight with Lily Li, in which she
uses her billowing dress to disorient our hero. Add
to that the numerous comic setups between Chan and Shih
Kien, and the definite chemistry between Chan and all
the major players, and you're left with a film that
could—but doesn't—coast solely on charm.
But still, even at this
early stage of his career, Chan was savvy enough to
know when to jettison humor in order to up the dramatic
ante. A example of this is the opening lion dance that
comes across as a surprisingly tense and riveting sequence,
despite the fact that it's been done and seen many times
since. Those weaned on the gravity-defying lion dances
of Once Upon a Time in China series may be bored
by the real-world constraints enforced on the performers
here. But to my mind, the focus on realism is a definite
plus.
Also benefiting from the
upped realism is one of the most memorable parts of
the film, Chan's final fight with Whang In-Sik. This
duel is a first for Chan in that it actually feels real
thanks to the hard-edged, street-fighting vibe of the
action choreography. Unlike the fight-filled endings
of Chan's previous films, this particular sequence doesn't
come across as looking like just another rehearsed routine.
This film marks the first time in a long time that I
genuinely thought Chan might actually lose—contrary
to my natural instincts, of course! The fight scene
goes on seemingly forever as Chan's character constantly
gets his ass handed to him by his superior combatant,
but at each loss, he bravely and comically continues
to rise to the occasion. And as a kicker to this stunning
action sequence, the film concludes with a shot that
is a laugh out-loud funny observation on the perils
of kung fu fighting.
But despite all these
compliments, I wouldn't say that The Young Master is a definite crowd-pleaser. Some viewers will find
the fights to be a tad overlong and the plot to be meandering
at best, and both are suitable criticisms. But then
again, martial arts aficionados will probably appreciate
the fact that the fight scenes actually make sense within
the story and naturally evolve as each action scene
progresses. And really, all that comic meandering in
the story makes for quality entertainment as Chan dispenses
with the clichéd plot and instead decides to
just have a little fun. Though Chan would follow up
the success of this film with the similarly-themed Dragon
Lord, I like to think of The Young Master as Jackie Chan's temporary swansong to the kung fu period
film and a fitting prelude to his later forays into
the realm of modern action. (Calvin McMillin 2003) |
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