NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

dworldeater Lo Wei, director of Bruce Lee classics The Big Boss and Fist Of Fury saw potential in Jackie Chan and cast him in several kung fu flicks, including this great film, Dragon Fist. With Bruce Lee gone way too soon and martial arts movies being more popular than ever film makers from east and west scrambled to replace him. Jackie Chan is in rare form as an invincible Bruce Lee type of bad ass. He is on a mission of revenge once his teacher was killed and disgraced by a leader of a rival school. Things get complicated when Chan, his master's widow and daughter arrive at the rival school. I'm not going to give away too much of the plot, but things don't end up all that peachy and all of the violence contains consequences. During this period the market was flooded with similar kung fu films, so Chan found success later with Drunken Master and other lighthearted kung fu comedies. He did a great job here though I think. Jackie was awesome as indestructible, kung fu iron man that becomes fury incarnate at the film's conclusion. Lo Wei also made a well paced, solid chop sockey film with a good story serviced with the right amount of kung fu action. Great kung fu!

Shawn McKenna After production of Spiritual Kung Fu and subsequent shelving of that product, Lo Wei directed Jackie Chan in a somber revenge film named Dragon Fist. Distributors were also not interested in this film so it was shelved not to see the light of release until after the success of Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. It is an uneven yet interesting work that is devoid of the humor that is so prevalent in most of Jackie's movies, but has an interesting plot.Jackie's plays Tang How-Yuen (a Bruce Lee influenced character that did not fit well to Jackie's personality); an orphan that was adopted by Chang San-Thye leader of the Kang Kun school. He watched his master get killed by Chung Chien-Kuen (master of the Patience Clan played by Yam Sai-kwoon) who coveted a sign Chang won at a previous tournament. Chung actually had an ulterior motive his wife was the lover of Chang years before they were married. Because of this unholy revenge, Chung's wife hung herself so the gods would forgive Chung.On the eve of the third anniversary of his Master's death, Tang along with Su Ming (Nora Miao) and his Master's wife go in search of revenge of Chang's death. Meanwhile, there was several murders at a logging facility when the Patience Clan happened upon a smuggling facility of the Wei Clan. A member of the Patience Clan survived and pointed the finger at Fat Su who was currently employed for the Wei Clan. This pushes their leader, Wei Chang-Lung, to devise a plan to destroy the Patience Clan who are well respected in that region.Tang is welcomed to the Patience Clan, though watched under the eyes of Chung's daughter Chu Peng and right-hand man (James Tien who in an earlier scene unconvincingly beats Nan Sing, played by great kicker Eagle Han Yin.) He is told to come back in three days, on the eve of a special date for Chung. When How-Yuen comes back he shown a golden sign that was made to replace the one Chung destroyed and he showed him his leg-in-a-box. Tang's mother then prevents him from exacting revenge since Chung already has made his penance. Tang is ready to leave when he finds out that his mother has been poisoned and the Wei Clan have the antidote. This sets an uneasy alliance between Tang and the Wei Clan.I feel here is where the plot breaks down a bit after the nice turn of events. The James Tien character is a copy (semi-spoiler alert) of many of his previous characters (ala Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) and Jackie is not having fun with his grim character. Where this film does shine is the good score by Frankie Chan, the beautiful scenery and the excellent fight choreography by Jackie. This especially works when he is involved showing his acrobatic movements and more realistic fight movements. Though it does not work as well when the non-martial art actors are involved. But the ending is full of inventive fights including Jackie using a staff (again) and getting pummeled by a sharp-ton-fa wielding opponent.Dragon Fist is an above average Kung Fu flick that would be of interest to anyone who wants to watch the non-comedic roles that dominated Jackie's early career. However, those who are only familiar with his latter roles might be disappointed. Overall, I enjoyed this film, but if you have only seen a few Jackie Chan films there are plenty others to watch before viewing this one.

CitizenCaine This is another Chan period film with a "revenge for killing my master" plot. Chan has more of a central role in this film than in his previous films. There are several fights in the film involving Chan, but most of them are limited in scope until the final six or seven minutes in the showdown sequence. Then we see one of the better Chan fights amongst all his earlier films. The dubbing isn't the best and the plot is nothing new, nor is its execution. This is a good chance to see Chan in one of his earlier efforts where he has a central role, unlike many of the films where he has a smaller supporting role. There is no sense of humor here either, as Chan's later films have. Overall, typical of its kind, not up to later Chan efforts. *1/2 of 4 stars.

Nick_Vorobyov Jackie has done another good old movie. This film has alot of action and the end is action packed too. This film is fun. This film is great for a person that doesn't know which Jackie Chan's old film to see. This film has the revenge your master's death plot. But otherwise the film is action packed with one or two funny parts. "Wei Lo" was the director again. He always makes Jackie films look good on tv. And Jackie kicks but at the end of the movie. Thats classic. So go rent or buy today.