Fearless Hyena (1984)

This film from 1979 marked Jackie's first venture behind the camera as director. FEARLESS HYENA is a traditional, period-set kung fu flick that closely resembles other Jackie Chan films made around the same time: the focus is on comedy followed by revenge, and these elements, in combination with the sheer screen presence of the young star, make it well worth watching. It begins with a chase scene in which the ruthless Yen (who half resembles Christopher Lee) murders a number of rivals using his kung fu skills. The story then cuts to more familiar territory as we are introduced to Lung, Jackie's character. Lung is learning kung fu skills from his grandfather (played by the familiar and reliable James Tien).The first hour of the film follows the comedy-kung-fu mould as we watch Lung train his kung fu as well as interact with various characters in the village. These range from a crazy undertaker (a cameo from Dean Shek) to three gamblers, who eventually persuade Lung to come and work at their kung fu school. Jackie proves his worth by beating a number of rivals. The final half hour of the film concentrates on revenge as Lung discovers a new mentor (a crippled beggar nicknamed 'the Unicorn') and undergoes some gruelling training before taking on the bad guys in a violent showdown.Essentially FEARLESS HYENA is a film made up of two separate parts, with the first hour concentrating on comedy, and the latter part building up to a vengeance-fuelled showdown. The comedy is of the slapstick variety that Jackie loves, and there are some obvious nods to the likes of THE THREE STOOGES as our hero joins up with a trio of gamblers and engages in some cartoonish battles with them. Love it or hate it, this type of slapstick comedy was beloved by Chinese audiences and always pops up in these types of films.Better still are the 'comedy fights' in which Jackie battles his opponents in various amusing ways. These fights are centred at the kung fu school, as Jackie dons a variety of disguises to battle a series of hardened kung fu masters. It's easy to dismiss these scenes as childish or time-fillers but in fact they display some highly impressive acrobatic skills from the star, whose split-second timing is impeccable. The scene where he dresses as a cross-eyed janitor and fights an opponent using benches and a table, for instance, is wonderful, expertly choreographed and full of fluid action that only seasoned performers could have pulled off.This wouldn't be a traditional kung fu film without any training sequences, and these are also some of the best put on camera. Jackie proves himself to be at his physical peak as he performs upside-down sit-ups over and over again and drags weights across a field, every muscle and tendon on his body straining. The opening and closing fight scenes get pretty violent – the blood runs freely – and the finale in particular is edge-of-the-seat stuff. A new type of kung fu is introduced into the film; it focuses on the emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc.) and with it Jackie is able to take down his opponents in various painful ways.Watching Jackie fight in new, unique ways is always a pleasure and the fights here are no exception; trust Jackie, he's even able to inject some humour into these moments, with his 'sadness' kung fu resembling drunken boxing as he falls over and against his opponent. As the villain, Yen, Yam Sai-kun may not be as skilled as Hwang Jang Lee, but his kung fu skills are pretty spectacular, especially his deadly 'eagle claw' strike. The film ends on a real high with Jackie excelling both in front of, and behind the camera. His fellow cast members all put in good performances and the martial arts is tremendous as usual.

This is one of Chan's best, because as opposed to his recent bloated-budget adventures, he isn't being written buy rich fat white guys who think, "hey let's make that Asian dude sing a funny song with (fill-in-the-blank) American sidekick!" I'm sorry, but as silly and awkward as Fearless Hyena is, it isn't tainted by the Hollywood "fish out of water" premise.The fighting scenes, while exhausting at moments, are clever and fitting the themes of the film. This is one of Chan's more expressive styles, and his mere body language alone makes up for the horrible overdubbing and juvinile dialouge. Besides, the song at the end when the credits roll is AMAZING. I get chills when I hear it, it's so eerie and atmospheric. I always look forward to it after that final epic fight.

This film is a ´must´ for all fans of high quality kung fu fightings. It represents the variety of of kung fu more than all other films with Jackie Chan. The story comes fairly simple and is mainly focused on the best fighting action scenes in addition to the legendary scenes with bruce lee.

I thought "Drunken Master" and "Young Master" had it all. But this film is great like always. What can I say this movie has more comedy but still some good action. And the end battle was really good showing Jackie fight without fear. This film doesn't show Jackie really series till the end that's were they got the name from. This film is a lot funnier that "Drunken Master" but doesn't reach out to the level of "Young Master" in action. Also the story of this film is quite good. And this is a great film so go see it.