Spiritual Kung Fu

Spiritual Kung Fu (1978) is one of Jackie Chan's more unusual early films, mixing traditional martial-arts action with fantasy, slapstick comedy, and some delightfully low-budget special effects. It definitely isn't his most polished work, but it is an entertaining look at the evolution of his signature comedic style.

Jackie plays Yi-Lang, a clumsy Shaolin student who ends up being trained by five ghostly monks after a forbidden manual is stolen from the temple. The story is simple and often silly, but that's part of the film's charm. The glowing spirits, bright red wigs, and playful tone give it a quirky personality that sets it apart from other kung-fu films of its era.

Where the movie really shines is the martial-arts choreography. Even at this early stage, you can see Jackie's creativity and physical talent on display. The fight scenes are energetic, inventive, and fun to watch, especially the final showdown.

Yes, the humor can be corny, and the effects haven't aged well-but if you go in expecting a lighthearted kung-fu fantasy rather than a serious action film, Spiritual Kung Fu is a surprisingly enjoyable ride.

Bottom line: A fun, weird, and undeniably charming martial-arts movie that shows Jackie Chan on the road to becoming the star we know today. Perfect for fans of old-school kung fu and Jackie completists.

I picked this film up on DVD for a couple of bucks at Wal-Mart, so I wasn't really expecting a great film. Spiritual Kung Fu met these expectations. Bad dubbing, bad special effects, and the goofy clown/mime/rag doll/ghosts detracted from the film.

What made the film bearable was the good kung fu and the casting of James Tien as the bad guy. There's also a twist at the end that is only hinted at once during the film, so it comes as quite a surprise.

If you want a great film to make you think, watch something else. If you want a goofy chopsocky Jackie Chan movie to waste a couple of hours, (and have no deep-seated fear of clowns) check Spiritual Kung Fu out.

• Lex

Lo Wei, the director of this rubbishy kung-fu comedy, as usual never let Jackie Chan shine properly in this slow-paced story about some ghosts that teach

Chan ‘Five Fists' kung-fu, for he is in search of a stolen book containing the means of learning Seven Fists kung-fu.

Dreadful dubbing, awful special effects (mind you, this was Hong Kong with very limited budgets - something that HK fans are undoubtedly used to), not all that funny, and just plain dull. Not even the intricate fight scenes are worth looking at, and even these are a bit tiresome. Costumes - what were those ghosts

wearing?!

And of course there's the diabolical dubbing. Distributors should learn that the original language makes it a lot easier to appreciate even a bad movie, but it still wouldn't save this...

I watched this movie a few month back. It's plot is pretty forgettable, same for the fighting scenes. For the most part the movie is cliché-ridden and steadily mediocre, but there is one, big exception.Around the half of the first hour of the movie there is this scene that will stay with me forever. As you might have figured out from the synopsis, the ghosts that haunt Jackie are the big part of this movie. Before the said scene they appear a few times, later they teach him some moves and thank to that Jackie wins the final fight. But the first encounter between the ghost and Jackie is one of the funniest moments in all of Jackie Chan's films. The poor special effects, the ridiculous script (Jackie starts peeing at the ghost), the whole insanity of seeing a fake skeleton bounce on the screen because the guy used X-Ray Vision scroll and looked at his friend is more then enough reason to watch this movie. I haven't laughed much at the movie for a long time, and I'm happy that I saw this low-budget martial arts extravaganza.

In conclusion if you have the opportunity to watch this movie, please do. The first 1/3 is pretty boring, and for the rest of the movie you wish that the craziness that occurred around 30 minutes in repeats itself, but sadly that doesn't happen. But this 10 minute segment of Jackie playing around with ghost is more than enough for you to rent this movie.

This movie was shot back to back with Dragon Fist, and the similarities shows. They both take place at Shaolin temple, and Jackie is a student. This one has more comedic flavor to it. Lo Wei directs this movie as well.

Book of Seven Fist has been stolen from Shaolin temple. Only Five Star fist can win over the Seven Fist, but this technique has been lost. Conveniently, the spirits of the Five Star travels to earth and shows Yi-Lang (Jackie Chan) where the lost book is located. They also give private lessons to Yu-Lang. Killing starts to happen around the temple with Seven Fist technique. It turns out that a man kept in the dungeon Wei-Wu is the culprit who stole the book, and doing the killing. He feels that his Seven Fist style is invincible. Yu-Lang volunteers to leave the temple to settle the score with Wei-Wu. But the real culprit turns out to be a surprising person, and more unexpected things happen with the spirits during the battle.

1978 must have been a good year for Jackie Chan, as he made slew of good movies including his early master piece the "Drunken Master". While this movie is no masterpiece, Jackie Chan looks so good in his role as the Shaolin student. The movie came out after the Dragon Fist, and the Drunken Master, and this movie almost looks like a cross between the two. There's lots of comedy, but Jackie's kung fu looks so sharp and stylish.

To be perfectly honest, I couldn't enjoy some of the comedic parts of this movie. Problem with Lo Wei's directing style is that he always portrays supporting cast as low class or no class idiots. He might feel that this is a necessary comedic touch to entertain the audience, but this in my opinion has kept the status of Hong Kong movie low for years. This became obvious when younger directors like Jackie Chan came along and started to direct movies with quality comical touch. Now Hong Kong is considered to produce top notch movies, second perhaps only to Hollywood.

The movie is better than average kung fu movie from the same era. It's a charming movie with good kung fu action mixed in.