User reviews

Jackie Chan had already established himself in Hong Kong as a box office champion with 1978's Drunken Master and 1979's Fearless Hyena, but he was not getting his fiscal due from Lo Wei Productions. So he opted out of his contract with Lo Wei and was hired by Golden Harvest. The Young Master was his first picture under that studio. The film was interrupted several times because of the contract dispute with Lo and a Triad that wanted a stake in Jackie's fortune. This was eventually settled with help by Jimmy Wang Yu whom Jackie would owe (along many other actors) several favors. Even with all this chaos, Jackie was still able to create a memorable and must-have film, though the movie is marked by continuity problems.

Jackie stars as Ah Lung a mediocre student (funny he doesn't seem so in the film and that point is soon forgotten) who loses in a beautifully choreographed lion dance competition because his fellow adopted brother Jing Keung (Wei Pei), faked an injury and competed incognito for the Wei Yee school. Lung and Keung's sifu Master Tien soon finds out of this deception and this betrayal leads to Keung leaving the school. After an impassioned plea from Lung, Tien gives Lung his blessing to find his brother. Jackie takes his big white fan (important plot point.) Jing looks for work at the Wei Yee school, but is turned down when he is found to have helped the Wei Yee school win the Lion Dance competition. He is then recruited with two others, including Fung Hark-On (aka Fung Ke-An who was the martial arts consultant with Jackie) who has a large mole on his face – reminiscent of Jackie's mole in Police Woman, to free Master Kim (Hapkido expert Whang In Shik.) Jing uses his big white fan to help Kim escape. So Ah would later be mistaken for his brother and sought after by the local police inspector and his son (played by Hong Kong regulars Shih Kien and Yuen Biao.) This would lead up to an awesome fight scene between two of the Seven Little Fortunes, Yuen and Jackie. Yuen would expertly use a bench and you get to see Jackie use a pole again.

Even with the continuity problems (even admitted by Jackie, including one scene where Jackie is fettered and the next he is not) and the overuse of sped-up footage and zoom shots (including one that is parodied in Kung Pow), this is a fun film to watch.. The high points of this movie are the Cantonese comedy and the sublime martial art scenes. In those fight scenes you get to see him use many props such as sword, pole, bench and even a skirt, a skill he learns from his encounter with the Police Chief's daughter played by Lily Li. The high point of the film is a showdown that involves an 18-minute plus scene between Jackie and Whang (Jackie in his autobiography "I Am Jackie Chan" considers this his ninth best fight scene.) I do not want to describe this sagacious scene too much, because it has to be seen. I will say that I have never seen Jackie get beat up so much in any other movie and most of it is shot with wide-angle lenses with few cuts. Even his solution to winning is unique.

This movie is a must buy for Jackie Chan or Hong Kong film fans. The most important decision in buying this film on DVD is what label/version you purchase. There are many shorter versions out there, even several that are widescreen, but the scenes that are taken out are mostly from the action scenes! But, Fortune Star puts out a 106 minute version that is digitally remastered and has the Cantonese (along with dubbed version) audio. Though there is one caveat, many of the cheaper versions have a huge benefit that the Fortune Star DVD does not – Jackie Chan singing in English at the end of the film. Even without that benefit the Fortune Star release is by far the best version of an excellent Jackie Chan film.

He really is a master in this film. I really don't know what else to say. The whole movie is beautifully choreographed and the fighting is unbelievable. He does things with chairs and tables that no one can copy. As for the story it is as usual not very deep, but who cares about that when you see Jackie Chan kicking ass with a fan?

Young Master is a very early Jackie Chan film that shows a huge sign of things to come. Mixing in great kung fu action with physical comedy, Young Master is well worth viewing for any Hong Kong action film fan. Sure, the plot isn't worth talking about and all the jokes aren't funny (the set-ups are very obvious most of the time) but you watch Jackie Chan films for the action, which this film has in spades.

Some of the fighting sequences do have very noticeable choreography when compared with the more polished flow of more recent films, but this is a small gripe for a film over two decades old. For a kung fu film you can do much worse than Young Master. It is always great to see Jackie Chan in full f(l)ight!

This is one of those all-out classics that must be viewed at any opportunity, a HK box office smash that not only revolutionised the dated traditions of chopsocky cinema, but also assured Jackie Chan's presence as the most prominent kung fu movie maker around: his use of slapstick humour and unconventional fighting hinting at what the ‘new wave' future was to hold. One of two orphans, Jackie plays the underdog hero, disgraced at losing his school the annual lion dance, due to his better brother Wei Pei secretly enrolling and leading the criminal rival class. The s**t hits the fan when Wei Pei's treachery is uncovered, quitting his former school to work for the baddies full time, and Jackie is made to bring him back home. Of the many delights Chan runs into, the stand outs are an infiltration on police inspector Sheck Kin's family, some nifty skirt-foot fighting and one of the best final punch-ups ever recorded – a lengthy one-on-one with criminal mastermind and super bootmaster Whang Ing Sik. As writer, director, choreographer and star, this is a landmark in Jackie Chan history - and even today stands as one of his best pictures.

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.

Recently me and my friends didn't know what to do and decided to watch an old video cassette of mine. The pretty much random choice was Shi di chu ma. A good choice! - Because, my god, we had fun. It's great comedy and great entertainment. Especially the action scenes are so much fun to watch. Impressive, creative choreography – something that is never missing in Jackie Chan movies.

If I could rate the comedy and choreography separately, I'd rate this way higher than the movie itself. The movie itself has a lot of flaws. The story isn't great at all. Characters act weird and not convincing. And the worst are the cuts. I kept feeling that something was missing. - I just hope that I did watch a cut German version. If the cuts would have been better, I probably would have given this movie 1 more point. The version I have seen can't be rated higher than 6 points – despite all my love and respect for Jackie.

There are a few nice set pieces, including a Chinese lion dance near the start and a fight using a wooden bench of all things, but overall I was a bit underwhelmed to be honest.

The story drags a bit in the middle and there isn't the usual quota of physical comedy and crazy stunts you'd expect from a Jackie Chan film to tide things over in the meantime. Also, the cameraman seems to have been on a caffeine rush during the filming of several scenes, as Young Master has the highest number of crash zooms per minute I've ever seen in a movie. There are a couple of scenes where the camera is rapidly zooming in and out almost constantly and seemingly at random, which is kinda distracting.

Not a great place to start if you're new to Jackie Chan then, but it's an enjoyable enough way to pass the time if (like me) you're a Chan fan.

I only saw this movie two weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Its starts out a little slow but picks up as soon as Jackie's character leaves home to find his big brother. I found myself laughing out loud at various parts of the film, in particular when Yuen Biao or his father were on the screen. Jackie's character is pretty cocky and it was hilarious to see him winding the old man up. The icing on the cake is when Jackie is being attacked by him with a sword and he somehow manages to get hold of the old guy's prized pipe.

I thought the humour was quite fresh and unforced unlike it sometimes tends to be in his later films. Furthermore, his making funny faces actually works here and isn't overused.

Humour aside, the action sequences are good. Excluding the final fight, they may appear slow by today's standard but are still highly watchable.

The final fight itself is a sight to behold. It seemed to progress by chapters and so you could say developed a story of it's own. Watch it and you'll know what I mean.

Now one of my all time favourite JC movies. Highly entertaining I give it 10/10.

This was based on the Cantonese version unsubtitled.

This film made me into a proper fan of Chan. What a wonderfully choreographed film.

The fights took months and months to perfect, and you can tell. Some of the action literally took my breath away.

The film's comedy borders on the Shakespearean, with mistaken identity, circumstance, and chance encounters blending to form the backbone of a superbly conceived storyline.

The sole criticism I have of the movie, is that you don't realise it is a comedy until about half an hour into it. Up to that point, it takes itself a tad too seriously, and even tries to strum the heart strings with a weepy scene where Chan thanks his Master for looking after him since he was found as a street orphan in childhood. When you get past all that, however, you're looking at possibly the greatest action film of all time.

The classical fighting style in Chan's movies took a back seat after this, with the advent of movies like Project A and Police Story. Chan returned to this style with Young Master in Love (Dragon Lord) a couple of years later, but that was more of a sports movie than a kung-fu fest.

In 1994, Jackie released Legend of Drunken Master, which followed in the same vain as Drunken Master (1979), and in many ways was superior. It's just such a shame that, "Jackie don't make 'em like he used to....."

Review: It was weird watching this film again because it brought back old childhood memories. I remember the epic ending completely amazed me and I thought that the whole thing was real. The movie came out on VHS when I was 7 so I didn't get to see it until I was around 9 years old so I really thought that Jackie Chan was in pain towards the end. Anyway, this is definitely what I was looking forward to when I started this Jackie Chan season because it's extremely authentic and full of epic action. In some of the scenes it did seem like they were fighting for no reason and the plot did get a bit confusing in the middle but the epic showdown near the end was excellent. Watching Chan take some formidable punches whilst gearing up to kick butt near the end, still gave me goosebumps but like most of his movies, he just has to add a comedy element to the intense situation. For that time, the stunts were amazing and the choreography was spot on. I just hope that the rest of his earlier movies are just as good. Great Film!

Round-Up: This movie was also directed by Jackie Chan, who gives you an in depth insight into his methods behind the camera, on the bonus features of the DVD, which are definitely worth a watch. I must admit, I did miss all that "You Killed My Master" type of concept but it's still worth a watch if your into you vintage Kung Fu movies.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedy, Kung Fu movies, which came out on VHS during the 80's. 7/10

This is actually one of the better of the earlier Jackie Chan movies that I have had the fortune to watch. "The Young Master" is a nice and refreshing step in evolution in Jackie Chan's early movie career.

The storyline in "The Young Master" is easy to follow, and it has just the right amount of action and comedy to make it enjoyable without being downright silly, as some of the earlier movie suffered under.

However, there is a formula to the Hong Kong and Chinese movies that came out in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and "The Young Master" follows it straight to the point. An underdog has to fight against overwhelming odds, and his path is filled with perils, but also funny moments and situations. And at the very end, of course, there is a very long fight scene between the main character and the villain. Pretty straightforward and textbook step-by-step cinematography here.

What really works in this movie is that compared to the older movies, then the martial arts seems more fluid here and better choreographed, coming of as series of proper fighting, whereas the older movies were often painstakingly step-by-step choreographed and it was showing that the martial artists were following a strict schedule of what to do and where to throw punches or kicks.

As usual, then Jackie Chan manages to balance the scale between comedy and martial arts quite well, keeping the movie enjoyable and with just the right amount of slapstick comedy to make it funny.

For me, then this is the movie that marks the evolution of the Jackie Chan that we see on the screen today, and "The Young Master" is a definite must have in any collection of fans of Jackie Chan or fans of martial arts in general.

In my opinion, whether Young Master is good or not is very difficult to tell. It cannot be compared to Drunken Master, which I'd say is Jackie's finest hour but how well does it stand off then? The negative sides of the film are:

1. The plot - We all know that the plot is far from essential in Kung Fu-movies, but there is something about this movie that really bothers me.. I can't really tell what, but the production was haltered several times and it really shows in the finished print. There is just a dull feeling throughout the movie that has nothing to do with the comedy or anything.. I wonder if anyone else feels the same way. Besides, letting Jackie be a top-notch fighter in the beginning just to become the underdog fighter who basically wins by pure luck or by using the surrounding is not very clever.. of course, this has to do with Jackie wanting to change the tone of the action halfway through the production..

2. - The misuse of the actors - Honestly, they have Wei Pei and especially my all-time favorite Yun Biu in the movie.. and what do they do? They really waste their talent.. Wei Pei doesn't get a chance to shine, and to be honest, this is probably Yun Biu's worst appearance in a movie ever. Sure he handles the bench really well.. and no, he doesn't have to do the tumbling and flipping all the time to be impressive.. but the fight with Jackie leaves me so unsatisfied

3. The camera work - it really lame.. no one can say anything else.. I sometimes believe that I could have done a better job myself..

4. The end fight - I've read other peoples' comments about this movie.. and everyone seems to appreciate the end battle with Ing-Sik Whang. I beg to differ.. It's not good.. sure Ing-Sik shows some good kicking.. but Jackie gets to show nothing.. nothing.. not even in the end, when the fight basically looks like a common boxing match.. really.. did Jackie write this was his 9th favorite fight??

And the good parts:

1. The lion dancing - really good scene.. very beautifully performed

2. Some of the humour - yes, sometimes it really works.. and it's intentional :)

3. Yun Biu - He is just too cool to ignore

4. Yun Biu making a move with the bench - This is one of my favorite "kata" ever performed.. it's right after Jackie also grabs a bench at Yun Biu's home.

6. The fan fight - reason alone to watch this movie.. it's probably my favorite Jackie Chan fight ever.. be sure to watch the uncut version though! This is one of the few times that the bad camera work actually boosts the fight scene.. I just love the rhythmic dancing and the beautifully performed movements with the fan.. and the way it ends.. there is just a certain touch to it that is hard to describe.. but I guess this is the kind of fight you either love or hate..

So in all.. the movie itself is pretty bad.. but some scenes really raise the entire film and make it a superb way of spending 106 minutes.. (the uncut version where the final fight is even looonger)

Chan's directorial debut is a surprisingly assured piece of work, easily confirming why Chan is the most talented superstar in the world today. As you'd expect, the fight sequences are breathtaking to watch, amazingly inventive and beautifully choreographed. Similarly, the joky historical story is typical Chan: he plays a blundering fool out to find his brother who has turned to the dark side. Mistaken identity mishaps ensue. The film concludes with a gobsmacking TWELVE MINUTE one-on-one fight sequence: totally unheard of in Hollywood, yet in Chan's hands it it totally watchable and works very well. Yet another hit from the Jackie Chan fun factory.

Jackie Chan is his usual goofy, exuberant self in a film that had its moments, especially at the beginning and end, but which was too uneven in its middle for me to truly like. It opens with a fantastic 7 minute lion dance competition and closes with an entertaining 17 minute epic fight scene between Chan and Hwang In-shik; for those scenes alone, it's probably worth seeing. Another bit I enjoyed was Lily Li fighting with her swirling skirt, a scene I wished had gone on longer, then Chan later using the idea himself while fighting others. Chan also shows off his athleticism by climbing up a chute by walking up the left wall with his hands, and the right with his feet.

As an actor Chan gives an emotional speech early on that comes across pretty hammy; as a co-screenwriter he peppers the script liberally with adolescent jokes; as a director he's oddly in love with rapidly zooming in and out on characters during dramatic scenes. However, as he's rocking some serious 80's hair here (resembling Eddie Van Halen to me) and is so lovable, it's hard to ever really get mad at him, even as the plot meanders. I guess I prefer his later movies with more jaw dropping stunt work and less of the silly comedy, especially when the latter gets in the way of movements flowing naturally in fight scenes. If you like his style of comedy though, you may like this one more than I did.

A very good movie for Kung Fu lovers. Classic Hong Kong Cinema.

Exiled from his martial arts school, a young man tries to track down his brother, but being mistaken by many for a notorious outlaw along the way derails his quest in this Hong Kong action film written by, directed by and starring Jackie Chan. The movie is incredibly slow to warm up with almost half an hour elapsing before he leaves the martial arts school, but once the film gets going, it rarely lets up. The fight sequences throughout are wildly inventive with Chan incorporating everything from benches to folding fans to ancient pipes into the fights and the choreography is just as impressive. There is a particularly memorable scene in which Chan goes from sitting at a desk to under the desk and back again while try to evade a policeman he is fighting against. The film has several genuinely funny moments too once the mistaken identity theme gets going, with a wash room scene especially standing out. The comedy edge is a little uneven though; most of the initial humour comes from characters being whacked in cartoon-like manners. The jerky camera-work - full of rapid fire zooms in and out - is a little off-putting too; same goes for the melodramatic music score. Chan holds his own as both a comedian and kung fu master throughout though and even as the plot starts to turn episodic towards the end, Chan's presence renders the experience endlessly enticing. This is certainly not an action film for all tastes, but watched in the right frame of mind, it is far more entertaining than one might expect from the first half hour alone.

One of Jackie's most memorable movies ever made since it brought the early prototypes of Jackie's now trademark choreography. It is not Jackie's best movie since he had to rush making it (and I'm pretty sure it would be one of his best if they had given him more time) but you sure can't miss this movie since this is the movie that set the cornerstones of his later trademark choreography.

In this movie you see Jackie's good slap-stick-humor and a mix of his "old" and "new" fight choreography. Yes it is visible it was a rushed affair and part of it ain't that great, but this is a must for Kung Fu films and Jackie Chan fans.

I especially want to praise the ending of the movie which is comparable to Legend of the Drunken Master, one of Jackie's more memorable and more famous Kung Fu film. In this movie (along with Legend of the Drunken Master) Jackie actually gets scary, right there in your face staring at you in the eyes in the final fight scene.

Good movie, not his best but still good. 8/10

This is another under the radar gem from Jackie Chan I really like. Yeah, it's not quite one of my favorites from him but I like it all the same. This was another one of the first films that really got his career going and at this point Jackie truly was on the right track.

There really isn't much to say for the plot line it's kinda a typical martial arts plot which really just by it's nature a byline for the action and comedy which this film delivers plenty of and well.

The action in this film is great but it's the comedic tone and energy along with it that just turn the action up and make in all the more enjoyable which I'm moving with the punches but laughing my head off at the same time.

I like that ceremonial dragon battle which was solid as we see both different Dragon teams are playing a game of "American Gladiators" Joust as their trying to knock each other off the platform.

But the two battles that stand out the most to me are the fight with the police inspector which was a lot of fun and cracks me up. The police inspector is swinging with the sword but during the fight Jackie picks up some sort of valuable relic which looks like some sort of marijuana pipe or something. And then the inspector is still swing the sword in places but never making contact with Jackie and the pipe as it seems to as the inspector can't bear to have it destroyed.

And the final battle which is hilarious as Jackie continues to fight he of course is getting his butt kicked and constantly in need of water. Yeah one on one fights can be thirst work. It's not until what happens near the end when Jackie drinks something that isn't water, and in the words of an old commercial "That's Brisk baby!" So overall if your a Jackie Chan fan, this is a forgotten gem worth checking out.

Rating: 3 stars

Tiger has gone astray and has defected to a rival kung0fu school who are using his skills for evil means. They end up framing Tiger for a crime he didn't commit. The younger of the two orphans, Dragon, messes up in a competition and is expelled until he can clear his brother's name. On the journey much martial arts action, mistaken identity comedy and general adventure is had on the way to a final show down.

Jackie Chans first crack at directing shows he is man of many talents. This film broke every record at the Hong Kong box office and it still stands up today in the world of OTT fight scenes in every Hollywood movie you'd care to mention! The reason this film stands up so well is that it has all the basics of any Chan film.

First off the fight scenes are all very good. They may not look as up to date, but they compare favourably with anything coming out of Hollywood today. The final fight is amazing and is only let down by a really bad dummy stand in at the end! Secondly, and just as importantly, the film is funny! Chan's comedy is bang on target – even 20 years later this is funny. This comedy is mixed nicely with everything else and sits well even within the final 15 minute fight scene at the end.

It does have flaws in that at times the plot is confusing or lost in all the comedy and action – but the plot holds on just enough to get by. But lets be honest, we didn't come here for plot – we came for action and comedy, and it delivers both.

Overall this is no classic but it has been one of my favourite Chan flicks for years, and even after 22 odd years this still stands up as a very enjoyable film with good action and comedy.

This has to be one of Jacky Chan's better films. The stunts are spectacular, and it works by the old JC adage of, "If you can't act, overact."

Of course if you're watching a JC film for the acting, you really need to get help.

The main recomendation I would have for this film is the last fight scene, which lasts in between 15 - 20 mins. Any fight that goes for that long is worth watching.

Jackie Chan is such a joy to watch, especially in his early raw Hong Kong martial arts features and his first solo directorial effort "The Young Master" goes on to show the talent he bestowed in front of the camera. The upbeat tempo and dazzling stunt work is breathtakingly executed, as when they get hit they go flying across the screen and in no time after copping a lot of blows they're back on their feet to go again. This entry does feel like a riveting collection of journey set-pieces (which are sensationally staged with creativity) to simply make up a minor narrative consisting of mishaps that leads to redemption, as it mainly plays for laughs with its goofy comic flair… however it seems to suit Chan's charming persona and flamboyant energy. Never does it loose sight of its destination, as it keeps a fast and exhilarating rhythm throughout with its spectacularly rich and dramatic music score adding another dimension. All of the performances are quite enjoyable with the likes of Lily Li, Pai Wei, Kien Shih, Biao Yuen and Kang-Yeh Cheng. Amazingly fun, light-headed kung-fu antics.