Snake Fist Fighter

Rated R for Violence and Brief Sexual Content. Quebec Rating:13+(should be G) Canadian Home Video Rating:PG

I got Master With Cracked Fingers along with Fantasy Mission Force on VHS about five years ago.This is Jacie Chan's first starring role in a film.It was originally an incomplete film but after Chan got famous it used footage from the film Drunken Master and they filmed some more footage for the final scenes.I was not really impressed by this film.Its just like the millions of other cheap kung fu films from 1970's Hong Kong.The only thing stopping it from being your average Kung Fu film that plays on Drive In Classics occasionally is that Jackie CHan who is very famous in America now stars in the film.The film is about a young boy who learns Kung Fu from an old man(Jackie Chan and the old man who teaches him were both in Drunken Master together).The young boy grows up and completes his kung fu training.He works in a restaurant but a couple of thugs start wrecking havoc so Chan stops them.However his father punishes him for fighting and when he doesn't fight his master punishes him for fighting.MAster With Cracked Fingers isn't excellent but its a good cheap kung fu film and you will like it if you like these types of movies.

Runtime:80min

7/10

This movie is not very good. Jackie Chan fights the same few thugs over and over again. Also if you watch the last fight scene closely, it is not Jackie Chan fighting, it is a double. In the rest of the movie you can clearly see Jackie's face in the fight scences, but in the last one the camera zooms out and avoids angles where you would see that characters face.

This movie came with another one, New Fist of Fury, which was a poor pseudo-sequel to Bruce Lee's original masterpiece. You'll sometimes see Snake Fist Fighter sold in mall stores as "Master With Cracked Fingers", complete with deceiving, fancy cover. Got mine from Wal-Mart, actually. Anyway, this movie features the always-watchable combination of Simon Yuen (you know.. he's ALWAYS the drunken homeless guy who whups everyone's ass with a bamboo stick) and Jackie Chan. These two you'll find in Drunken Master, Snake in Eagle's Shadow, many many others. Obligatory evil warlord kills Jackie Chan's dad in a duel, and he (his dad) leaves Jackie (that's what he's called in the movie, no original name given) with his friend and fellow warrior, who adopts him as his uncle. Young Jackie trains with Simon Yuen (known in this movie as "The Man Who Isn't There") to be a great kung fu guy. He has to use his skills when thugs reak havoc in his family's restaurant. Turns out these bullies are the obligatory evil warlord's henchmen. His uncle punishes him several times for fighting ("carry 50 buckets of water back & forth from the well, oh, uh.. catch these heavy flower pots.. and, uh.. oh yeah, stick your hand in this broken glass.") throughout the film, and it kinda gets annoying after a little while. There seems to be a slight incestuous undercurrent between Jackie and his adoptive sister, too..

Very weird. (similar to Fists of Fury in that the hero is tempted by a female member of his immediate family.. in Fists it was Bruce's cousin who wanted to hit it off. is this a recurring theme in kung fu flicks? I haven't watched enough of 'em to really tell.. if I see one more with that sorta stuff, something's wrong.) Okay, so Yuen fights Casanova Wong (a great veteran actor, usually in the comedy-type kung fu films), who plays an effeminate landlord who extorts money from Jackie's uncle. Not only does he defeat him, he adds insult to injury by farting in his face. Pretty typical kung fu humor. (Wong, inexplicably, eats spinach and uses his "Popeye Special.") After some disjointed flashback scenes and stock footage from Drunken Master, Jackie fights the obligatory evil warlord, and (suprise suprise) beats him. Breaks his neck, too. That's almost always how it works in these sort of films. It's an okay movie, actually.. Jackie's voice actor isn't too overbearing, and there are some familiar faces in the film too. It's one to pop in the old VCR now and then.

Fans need to know there are three edits of this movie. Another possible title is "Cub Tiger from Kwantung." Other than that there is no way of knowing which one you have by looking at the box or titles. You have one chance in three of getting the one that is not that bad and two chances in three of getting the stinkers. If I could do video editing I could put together a fourth version that would be as good as any Jackie Chan movie (without needing any additional scenes). If there's a guy with a moustache at the beginning of your DVD then go out and buy another one. Both of the stinkers begin with the guy in the moustache. Any time you see Jackie Chan fighting this guy in the moustache (Kwang Yung-Moon) it is NOT Jackie Chan. The better version begins with Tien Feng and brother fighting Chen Hung-Lieh. The scene ends with Tien Feng escaping to raise his dead brother's child, who is the grown up Jackie Chan in the next scene. Though this is the better version it skips the scenes of the child growing up and tutored by Simon Yuen. Further problem is that in one version Simon Yuen is a borderline pedophile who puts the boy bare ass into a bag of snakes. The other version is far more "family oriented." My idea of the best (my fourth version) would be to begin the movie with the child watching the kung fu school practice. This version unfortunately seques into the snakes in a bag scene. Instead replace that segment with the scene from the other version with Simon Yuen holding a chicken leg out for the child to grab. The master/student scenes in this edit are not creepy at all. There is also a rape scene that comes and goes and even comes again after it was cut (if that makes any sense... really it was like that). Also in one version with Simon Yuen there are some totally unnecessary scenes where he is teaching Jackie's body double. Most important of all in this genre is the final fight. Both versions with moustache guy end with a fight with Jackie's body double. The good version ends with an eight minute long fight on a dock. This is Chen Hung-Lieh (and occasionally his body double) versus the one and only totally real Jackie Chan. This is a darn good fight. Fans of Jackie or old school martial arts movies need to see this fight. So get the right version and just rest assured despite some things being dumb by the time the beer buzz hits you will be watching some real good action at the final 8-9 minutes.

This was Jackie's first lead role filmed (partly) in 1971 and originally called The Little Tiger of Canton. Jackie's father is killed in a feud between triad gangs leaving his young orphaned son to grow up, learn kung foo and avenge the death of his father. The problem is half way through the filming the director and producer did a runner leaving the actors unpaid and the movie unfinished. In 1978, after Jackie had become famous with Snake in the Eagles Shadow and Drunken master the film was finished using a dodgy Jackie look-alike. They even go to the extent of fighting blindfolded in order to hide his face. It's a shame because to spite the obvious low budget and poor script I found it fairly entertaining up to that point. So be warned unless your happy with half a Jackie Chan film (and not his best by any means)I wouldn't recommend paying the price of DVD to see it.