The Young Master [1980]

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant Kung Fu Classic.......2007-11-25

If you're a big kung fu film fan, then this HKL dvd is easily worth the money. Young Master is definately in my top ten list of films by Jackie Chan. It has Jackie's unique blend of homour, great fight sequences, and a fantastic lion dance to get things rolling. It is enjoyable from beginning to end, but for me the best part is the final battle between Jackie, and real-life kung fu grand master Wong In-Sik, who has unbelievable kicking skills. Now Jackie tends to take a beating in a lot of his films, but here, holy cow he takes a hell of a beating, and eventually manages to give one too (after about 15 minutes of punishment). In my opinion, the brilliant mix of comedy, classic kung fu elements, great fight choreography, and a very long unique final battle with Wong In-Sik make Young Master an absolute must-own for Chan fans. And Hong Kong Legends have done themselves proud once again with another brilliant dvd release.

Overrated and silly.......2007-11-13

Was looking forward to this one after seeing good reveiws,and have to say was very disapointed.If you like silly unrealistic kung fu then you will not be disappointed as this marked the start of jackies desent into stupid charlie chaplin style fighting.Apart from 1 decent scene featuring the 'bad guy, Wong In Sik which showcases his talents,thankfully Jackie wasnt in this scene,The rest of the action is farcical in particully the final fight with Jackie and Wong where Jackie takes a unreal beating {even by his usual standards} b4 pulling off a ridiculous come back.All in all one to avoid for real kung fu fans,and a bit of a laugh for casual observers,with familliar plot and dozy laughs,good production quality.Apart from Jackies early classics Snake in the Eagles shadow and Drunken master, most of his following movies were of the slapstick comedy variety which he does well if you like that sort of thing,until he made the classic Legend of Drunken Master in the mid 90's,if you want to see Jackie at his best,seek out that 1.

Shame on you if you havent seen this one!.......2007-08-02

One of Jackies best movies. As you can expect from a Jackie Chan movie, this movie shows a brilliant blend of humor and 'creative' martial arts.
There is a fight sceen involving a pipe, that was a gift from the emporer, (cant say more, dont want to spoil the fun) almost causing me to piss in my pants. Great action throughout the movie and lots of hilarious moments. Excellent movie... Come to think of it im going to stop this review and im goning to watch it again for the 49th time. Have with this one.

Often heavy going, but worth it for the finale.......2007-02-07

The Young Master was Jackie Chan's directorial debut, and a quarter of a century on it looks a lot less groundbreaking than it once did. In fact, much of the first hour is terrible, feeling like one of those old Shaw Brothers films filled with crash zooms and elaborately choreographed "a-one-and-a-two" fight scenes where the stunt men are more interested in striking stances and hitting their marks than looking like they're actually trying to hit each other. In many ways, it's almost a transitional picture between the old formal, theatrical and wildly unconvincing style and the more believable let's-try-to-make-it-look-like-we're-actually-trying-to-hurt-each-other style of more modern Hong Kong action movies. What that means is that a lot of it is unfortunately both unconvincing and dull. Just when you're ready to throw in the towel and are desperately trying to think of who you can fob the DVD onto as a Christmas present, it suddenly comes alive in the last half hour with two great fight sequences - one in which Chan takes on group of crooks, the other a 17-minute dust-up with Whong In Sik that really works incredibly well despite offering no more than the two fighters on Tiger Mountain with a comic relief sidekick acting as referee/second. There's also some fun to be had working out where the film's score comes from. As with most Hong Kong movies of the period, it's mostly a `name that tune' pick-and-mix lifted from the studio's record collection, with Bernard Herrmann's Obsession and Holst's The Planets topping the most played list at Golden Harvest that month. Heavy going, but definitely worth it for that last half hour.

EPIC JACKIE CHAN!!!!!!.......2006-03-31

Of all the Jackie Chan films I have had the pleasure of sitting through (with the exception of ISLAND OF FIRE - avoid like the plague!), this film has to be my favourite.

Playing out in the same vein as SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW and DRUNKEN MASTER, YOUNG MASTER takes everything that was good in those two movies and revamps it all into a masterpiece.

You can take a look at the Amazon summary for the storyline to this film. I'm just writing this to say that YOUNG MASTER is perfectly balanced with equal proportions of comedy and martial arts action, and the last fight scene, taking up an entire twenty minutes of film, is truly spectacular in its grace and brutality. Indeed, it has to be one of the most superbly choregraphed fight sequences I have ever seen committed to celluloid.

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