Half a Loaf of Kung Fu

1985
5.6| 1h37m| R| en
Details

A young daydreamer assumes the identity of a dead martial arts hero and quickly finds himself caught up in a plot by several clans to steal famous martial arts artifacts being transported by an escort company.

Director

Producted By

Lo Wei Motion Picture Company

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Reviews

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Leofwine_draca The film starts off well enough with the spoofy opening titles, where Chan adopts a number of famous roles – such as Zatoichi – and mercilessly takes the mick with them. From there on, it's pretty much typical comedy kung-fu nonsense for an hour; most of it tests the patience, but some of it is funny. This is certainly a fast paced movie with numerous characters; Chan is a kid who ends up impersonating the Whip Hero, then there are lots of different groups of bad guys who end up getting involved with him. There's an odious beggar, an evil witch, and guys with moustaches and long hair which usually turns out to be fake. Add in some kick-ass femme fatales and an old DRUNKEN MASTER style teacher with some killer moves, and you have a generic but fun outing.The film definitely improves in the final half hour, in which a cargo of treasure is ambushed by all the bandits at once. Non-stop kung fu takes place until the very end of the film, with decent fighting and comedy in between to make it more entertaining – like Chan trying to learn new moves whilst being beaten pretty bad. The film has a weird sense of humour, no doubting that; there's a dream where Chan turns into Popeye (yep, the music is here again) and he does stuff like throw eggs at the bad guys to repel them. The ending is pretty violent with broken arms and necks. The varied characters and their mannerisms always entertain. The dubbing is the same as that in most of Chan's films from this era, annoying but sometimes funny with it. Nothing special, but pretty good for one of Jackie's '70s movies.
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) Jackie Chan is know for his fighting and his comedy. In "Half a Loaf of Kung Fu" who could ask for more? It was funny at the beginning when he had to practice on the mini fighting pole. And everything else is just the same as usual. That silly joke in the beginning where he had to learn some sort of fighting power is unbelievable. The "Steel Finger". I call it the oldest joke in the book. The fight scenes are not hard to forget. Just trying to be a better fighter is easy, you don't need some special gimmicks. The other casts of the movie are great as well. What more can I say about the movie? It's a keeper. It's a classic. And it's Jackie Chan at his best! The action and the comedy is non-stop from the beginning to the end. 4 out of 5 stars!
kefka_killer After viewing this movie, which was purchased for six bucks, I'm really not sure what to say. There were times where I felt like turning it off, but there must have been some subliminal messages telling me not to. I'm still shocked I watched the whole thing. The fight scenes are ok, they get better as the movie progresses, the plot/script on the other hand...oh man. I think they just made it as they went along and as they were filming random people were like "hey can I have a part?" and the director was like "sure, you are now Man with Scythe, and your motivation is that Jackie Chan killed your son and know you want to kill him, so you are just gonna be walking around and happen to meet Jackie who has just completed his training where he learned all but three of his techniques from reading a book." All in all I think everyone should see this movie...once.
abentenjo Jackie is finally given creative control under the constraints of Lo Wei and here's the result: an early key to the new direction which sees Chan clowning about in his own distinct fashion, less Bruce Lee and more Charlie Chaplin, ridiculing the stifling pictures that were forced onto him at the same time as sending up the genre as a whole. Straight from the slapstick titles we know what we're in for; Chan perfecting his underdog happy-go-lucky character that would later make him such a huge star. Yet like all beginnings, HALOKF isn't a polished piece, certainly dragging in places with the Lo Wei influence still clearly evident (namely in the souped-up story concerning the transportation of sacred treasures the Evergreen Jade and the Soul Pill, much in demand by nasty bandits). Lo Wei's reaction was open detest resulting in the picture being shelved, only to be given a successful theatrical release after Chan had finally re-defined the kung fu movie.

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