Not Scared to Die (1973)

Touches You

As Good As It Gets

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This movie is a typical low budget 70s Kung fu with the Chinese heroes against the Japanese occupying army and local bad guys.It is pretty mediocre compared to some of the great 70s Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba flicks that came out during that same time period.Jackie Chan is really young in his movie and doesn't get much screen time. You can tell that he is going to be big though. His personality shines through.This was recently broadcast under the name Eagle Shadow Fist. This version claimed to be the unedited /director's cut.It is decent if you need a kung fu cheese fix.

The main guy is Hao Li and Jackie Chan dies in this movie. Chan has quite few fight scenes and its not until very end at 1 hour mark, when he dies. The movie opens with opera performance, the guys has make-up and they're about to go to stage, but Japanese invades and cancels the show. Japanese and Chinese guys brawl a bit (Fight, that includes Chan and Hao Li). After that they show Chinese working men and they're forced to pay for Japanese. One guy doesn't pay, thus getting beat up. Then Hao Li and Chan arrives and Japanese open fire, but heroes manages to stay away of bullets. Hao Li and Chan are looking for a place to stay, they bump in old and sick man and his relative promises a place. Then they go there and Hao Li is rickshaw rider and he threatens 1 hooker and that hooker tells about bad rickshaw rider, thus getting Japanese to invade Hao Li's and Chan's hideout. Both guys arrive in nick of time and beat 4 Japanese guys, after that Hao Li goes to restaurant and Chan goes to wander around. Japanese return to hideout and this time both heroes are away. Japanese easily kill old man, then Chan returns, but is no match to Japanese and they take Chan as hostage. Daughter goes to seek Hao Li and finds him, but everyone is beaten up, when Hao Li arrives. Of course Hao Li goes after Japanese to save Chan and giving Japanese a lesson. 4 guys Hao Li beats easily, but the guy with black clothes is bigger threat to Hao Li. Black clothes guy climbs to roof, but Hao Li doesn't see it, when he saves Chan, Chan sees the guy and tells it to Hao Li. Then its Hao Li versus black clothes guy in roof. After that small group of Chinese (Contains Hao Li and Chan) goes to secret hideout and Chan and girl are going to pay to guy, who will help them out of there. When they return, they're ambushed and Chan gets blade to stomach, he makes it to hideout and tells, what to do, but dies. Then Hao Li goes to save girl and gets to know, that place, where his friends are going, is ambush. Then Chinese people (Hao Li's friends) gets killed by Japanese and Hao Li returns and kills the killers. Then main bad guy arrives and its end fight. Fighting in this movie was very well choreographed, its not best fighting in movies, but watchable. End fight impressed me.

Jackie made a few early duds in his career, with movies that didn't deserve a talent of his caliber. From what I saw, it's a boring historical drama set in Japan during WWII. Jackie isn't the star in this movie, and he's merely a supporting player. He has a hideous looking army cut with short hair. You have to remember that this was very early in his career. I just wish Jackie had a lot more to do. The fights from what I saw looked very routine and unexciting. There was one dubbed line that made me cringe with how bad it was. "Shut up you b*****ch. Better wipe your ass clean!" when a woman stumbles into some water. I get this was done in the early 70's, but so many of these early martial art films are crude. I realize this isn't a very good review, but its god awful, and I couldn't finish it. I'm a huge Jackie Chan fan myself, so I'm not even sure if die hard Jackie fans can finish thisDUD

I love this film as I do all early martial arts films.This film is typical of the 1970's style of early martial arts films, ie not much plot, same plot as other films, more choreographed fighting than dialogue, bad dubbing, etc etc, because of this it is what it is, and highly enjoyable too.Don't be fooled by the film cover Jackie Chan is not the lead actor and does not get much screen time nor do you see him fight up close much, but you can still see the development of his unique style.All in all its still a great movie. Try and get the US uncut version so the fight scenes don't feel too disjointed and enjoy it for what it is.Those who out and out disparage the film should appreciate that without these early films Chan would not have developed as he has.