Magnificent Bodyguards (1978)

Martial arts icon Jackie Chan stars in this period piece as Lord Ting Chung, a Kung Fu expert who is hired by a young woman to protect her and her supposedly sickly brother as they make the journey to a distant city for medical attention. Chung decides to do the job free of charge, bringing along other companions played by James Tien and Bruce Liang. Naturally, the entourage will face all manner of human adversaries on their journey - and they will be in for some surprises, as well.Jackie may be top billed in order to help sell the movie, but in truth this is just as much Tiens' and Liangs' movie as it is his. It certainly does contain some comedy, but not to the extent that would characterize Jackies' best known vehicles from this period. Of course, it would probably play a fair bit better were it not for the cheesy dubbing and dialogue in the English language version, rendering it rather goofy much of the time. The fight scenes are fairly breathless and numerous - but the movie does focus on plot a substantial amount of the time. Viewers can take some amusement from the fact that this is pretty violent, with some priceless, tacky gore as faces actually get sliced off. The production does look to be on the cheap side, but the widescreen photography of some very nice scenery still works pretty well.Jackie shows off a natural, easygoing charm, although, as said, he doesn't get THAT many opportunities to strut his stuff. Other performances are similarly engaging.I'm guessing that the film was picked up by 20th Century Fox for distribution in America, which may account for the liberal use of John Williams' classic "Star Wars" soundtrack. Since this music is so intimately connected to that Hollywood blockbuster, it merely becomes distracting after a while.Overall, this is decent enough entertainment, but it gets kicked up another notch for the hilarious, twist-laden climax.Six out of 10.

I rented a DVD dubbed in Engish. After watching many brilliant Jackie Chan movies in Mandarin with English subtitles, this was a dreadful disappointment. I cannot believe the poor quality of the dubbing, makes the whole film appear wooden. If we must have dubbing, why is it not done with Chinese accents? American accents and a poor standard of dubbing is just dreadful.The acting is also disappointing, far short if the usual Jackie Chan standard.Maybe if release in the original language with English subtitles, it would be far more interesting and make up for the poor dubbing.

This movie was made during the pre-humour stage of Jackie Chan's career, and is one of the relatively few serious movies that Jackie did. I like his humorous films as well but I find they can slow down the pace a little. Not so with this movie as it's action from start to finish.This is one of the more interesting Jackie Chan movie that I've seen. Jackie plays a bodyguard who is hired to accompany a woman through a dangerous stretch of countryside. Jackie is hired yet agrees to do the job for free...this is just the start of a complicated story line.Unlike his more humorous movies this movie is out-and-out action from the very start. The fighting scenes are good and frequent. The story line has a few twists and isn't just the standard `I will revenge my father/brother' plot. Interesting things to note are the 3D effects, at one point they enter a monastery that has swastikas on the wall, then when the team are trying to pass through a valley they start to play the Star Wars theme!!!Overall this is quite different from most Jackie movies in that the story line is rich, the action is frequent, and the twists rival Fight Club.Not the best movie he's ever done, but well worth a look.

This is a typically bizarre early Chan film, made by Lo Wei. It concerns Chan escorting a woman across a dangerous valley to find a cure for her sick "brother". Although not a classic, this film does contain a number of impressive fight scenes,although the script is messy and often confusing. Still,it's nice to see Chan in his long-haired seventies days!