Rijndri
Load of rubbish!!
GarnettTeenage
The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Shawn McKenna
Jackie Chan had just established his Hong Kong popularity with Seasonal Pictures Snake in Eagles Shadow and the sublime Drunken Master. With the success of those films Lo Wei, who lent him out to Seasonal, let Jackie have complete control over his next picture. Fearless Hyena would be Jackie's directorial debut though he would be working with a much smaller budget than his Seasonal experience. He would also stunt coordinate and write this film too. This movie would out gross the stellar receipts of Drunken Master and help earn Jackie 6000 HK dollars (his pay was 3000 per film; though he made over 50000 on Drunken Master). This measly pay helped exacerbate the rift between him and Lo Wei which led to his departure and the infamous sequel. Jackie reprises his goofy student role that he played in Drunken Master. This time he is Shing Lung, a talented but capricious student and grandson of Chen Ping Fe (the ubiquitous James Tien). Lung would rather gamble or goof off then study his forms. Little does he know that his Grandfather is marked for death by Yen Ting Hua (the underrated Yam Sai-kwoon aka Yen Shi Kwan) who is trying to destroy the Sien Yi clan founded by Hiu Fei (I just love keeping track of these names, I do not know why). Though Shing is forbidden to teach (or show) the Kung Fu his grandfather teaches him he (of course) does it anyways.Shing tries to make his grandfather proud by getting a job selling coffins. The coffin dealer played by Dean Shek is an unscrupulous merchant who even sells secondhand coffins. This cameo plays to the strengths of Dean and is quite an interesting and hilarious scene. Hapless Shing blows this opportunity by trapping Dean in one of his favorite coffins. He runs away and while walking the public he is confronted by three ruffians (Great Bear, Stony Egg and Ironhead) he beat up earlier. They want him to teach them Kung Fu.Shing meets their Master Ti Cha who is in charge of the Everything Clan who has no actual skills except for scheming. Ti offers Lung a position and lots of money to help there school learn effective fighting techniques. Ti uses him in the old ploy as a lowly laborer to fight heads of other schools (so if the lowly laborer is that good, just imagine how good Master Ti is.) This leads to several excellent fight scenes that are incredibly fun to watch. I especially like when Shing fights the Lu Ying and the Willow Sword (using the Pink Panther theme as background music) as a cross-eyed beggar. He then fights a large albeit slow man as a woman (yes, Jackie in Drag and no he is not cute).Shing then makes a huge mistake by naming the facility under the Sien Yi name. Now the rest of the film is very predictable with the ultimate showdown between Shing Lung and Yen Ting Hua. The way it is handled though is quite sagacious. The training scenes are Jackie at his masochistic best. With him pulling huge sacks, doing amazing upside-down sit-ups with his new trainer the Unicorn having a sadistic gleam in his eyes. Shing is even taught Emotional Kung Fu (which Jackie made up for this film) using Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Happiness to focus on one's enemy "emotional" weak spot.One of my favorite scenes is the Dueling Chopsticks scene in which the Unicorn prevents Shing from eating by using his chopsticks (of course.) Unfortunately it has influenced me to be quite annoying and apply this whenever applicable.I would not rate this film as highly as Drunken Master. There are problems with the plot that takes too much from Drunken Master. However, I feel that this is an unheralded martial arts piece that is funny and exciting with excellent ideas and stunt choreography by Jackie Chan. This is also a must see if you want to watch Jackie in drag.
Russ-72
I really recommend this movie. If you like Jackie Chan, and you liked Drunken Master, you will like this one too. The fighting scenes are greatly choreographed and the story combines the fights in an easy to watch movie that entertains from the beginning to the very end.If you like martial arts movies: Watch it.
smakawhat
Well what can I say about Jackie.. he is a total clown in this film. The movie that i saw was dubbed get this... by ENGLISHMEN! So everyone had a British accent and it was a scream it was like watching Monty Python. The film quality however is pretty poor, and the fight scenes even though well choreographed, don't come out spectacular. However, there is the classic humor of Jackie, which even involves himself dressing up as a woman and beating a guy up with his breasts, and an unbelievable chopstick battle for a piece of meat between Jackie and his teacher (THIS WAS AMAZING HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THAT you'd HAVE TO SEE IT TO BE BELIEVED!!)Martial Rating 6.5 out of 10Overall rating 5 out of 10
Colin-30
Jackie Chan in "Hsiao chuan yi chao" is Kung Fu's answer to Charlie Chaplan. Yes I admit that some critics may accuse the film of having a flimsy plot line or cheesy dialogue, but my God, the humor and action scenes more than make up for all of the movie's shortcomings! I have two words for anyone who has seen this movie and is on the fence as to whether or not it was the best movie that they have ever seen: Tea Cha. The scamming teacher of the S.S.S. school of kung fu is all that the movie needs. Throw in Jackie Chan's acrobatics and high flying martial arts, and wow! Fans in search of a "good" movie such as Citizen Cane or Driving Miss Daisy should probably stay away, but anyone looking to laugh and be amazed must see The Fearless Hyena starring Jackie Chan.