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The Young Master
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List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $9.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Mui Sang Fan, Feng Feng, Hark-On Fung, Hoi San Lee, Li-Li Li
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543115632
Format: Color
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2004-05-25
Running Time: 106
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 1978
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Young Master (1980) marks the first film Jackie Chan starred in (and also directed) for Golden Harvest, the film company that made Chan classics like Drunken Master II and Police Story III (a.k.a. Supercop). Chan plays Dragon, a student whose martial arts school is in competition against a more affluent rival school. The two groups face off in an annual lion dance competition in which Chan finds himself up against his own schoolmate Tiger, who is secretly being paid to perform for the rival school. When Tiger is found out and ejected from the group, Dragon goes after him. Tiger gets deeper into trouble, taking part in a robbery and jailbreak of the rival school's crooked headmaster, Kam. Through a series of mixups, Dragon is mistaken for Tiger and he has to clear his name in a final showdown against Kam (Whang Inn-sik). The last 30 minutes of The Young Master consists of nonstop fighting scenes, the first with Chan donning a makeshift dress to employ skirt-style kung fu. The second fight sequence is a 20-minute showdown of Chan vs. Whang, which showcases Whang's talents as a master of hapkido (a Korean style of martial arts). The opening scene is equally stunning, with the two lion dance teams playing chicken on a six-inch-wide plank suspended in midair. The Young Master broke all box-office records in Hong Kong upon its release, solidifying Chan's position as a star and setting a high bar of action sequence and stunt standards for his many films to come. --Shannon Gee
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of the his Best.
Comment: Young Master
Cast: Jackie Chan, Hih Tien (aka Shek kin),Yuen Biao, Chiang Kam ,lily le ,Wang Inn-Sik
Director: Jackie Chan (also stunt coordinator)
Writer: Lau Tin Chee, Tung Lio, Edward Tang King-sang
Compared to a list of about 75 other films, this one holds up pretty well, surprisingly. This movie continues in the tradition of the movies he made with Yuen Woo Ping (Snake in the Eagles Shadow, and the masterpiece Drunken Master). This is one of my favorite kung fu comedy ,and one of the best Jackie Chan movies ever. Being one of nine movies he actually directs in the decades he`s been making movies, it really make you wonder. Why only 9? When he is really good at it. This is one of the first films after Golden Harvest bought out his contract with Lo Wei (The Police Commissioner in Chinese Connection).
The end fight is excellent. I know a lot about the martial arts and from a martial artist aspect this is one of the best. However this is a kung fu comedy as I stated, well, In that department it does not fail. It's actually quite hilarious. This is Jackie Chan at the top of his forum.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a nice effort, but too many pitfalls to recommend
Comment: Isn't it strange? I love old-school kung fu movies. I love Jackie Chan movies (at least before he started making films in America). Yet old-school Jackie Chan films can really be tough to take. Even some of his "classics". This movie is definitely a notch above "Drunken Master" in both fights and humor. It's just wildly inconsistent. Though it does have the Korean born Hapkido Grandmaster Ing-Sik Whang. He rocks. Everything else is a little off. Some of the humor is actually quite funny and there are some cool scenes. The lion dance, for example. It's not bad, and it is enjoyable to watch, but not on the level I was expecting for a kung fu movie. Though expectations will often turn a potentially good movie sour.
The film is digitally remastered and in widescreen, so the presentation is nothing to complain about, but... having Wei Pai and Yuen Biao in your movie and hardly having them do anything IS. What a waste. Usually in Jackie's films of this period the final fight helps make up for the lack of substance that preceded it, but here it doesn't work. The choreography is very good, and ahead of its time, but the premise of the fight is too absurd for them to be able to pull it off. This does have an option for English dubbing. I was taking a chance thinking that it was subtitled only. 2.5, if that helps.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must have for Jackie Chan fans!
Comment: Jackie Chan had already established himself in Hong Kong as a box office champion with 1978's Drunken Master and 1979's Fearless Hyena, but he was not getting his fiscal due from Lo Wei Productions. So he opted out of his contract with Lo Wei and was hired by Golden Harvest. The Young Master was his first picture under that studio. The film was interrupted several times because of the contract dispute with Lo and a Triad that wanted a stake in Jackie's fortune. This was eventually settled with help by Jimmy Wang Yu whom Jackie would owe (along many other actors) several favors. Even with all this chaos, Jackie was still able to create a memorable and must-have film, though the movie is marked by continuity problems.
Jackie stars as Ah Lung a mediocre student (funny he doesn't seem so in the film and that point is soon forgotten) who loses in a beautifully choreographed lion dance competition because his fellow adopted brother Jing Keung (Wei Pei), faked an injury and competed incognito for the Wei Yee school. Lung and Keung's sifu Master Tien soon finds out of this deception and this betrayal leads to Keung leaving the school. After an impassioned plea from Lung, Tien gives Lung his blessing to find his brother. Jackie takes his big white fan (important plot point.) Jing looks for work at the Wei Yee school, but is turned down when he is found to have helped the Wei Yee school win the Lion Dance competition. He is then recruited with two others, including Fung Hark-On (aka Fung Ke-An who was the martial arts consultant with Jackie) who has a large mole on his face - reminiscent of Jackie's mole in Police Woman, to free Master Kim (Hapkido expert Whang In Shik.) Jing uses his big white fan to help Kim escape. So Ah would later be mistaken for his brother and sought after by the local police inspector and his son (played by Hong Kong regulars Shih Kien and Yuen Biao.) This would lead up to an awesome fight scene between two of the Seven Little Fortunes, Yuen and Jackie. Yuen would expertly use a bench and you get to see Jackie use a pole again.
Even with the continuity problems (even admitted by Jackie, including one scene where Jackie is fettered and the next he is not) and the overuse of sped-up footage and zoom shots (including one that is parodied in Kung Pow), this is a fun film to watch.. The high points of this movie are the Cantonese comedy and the sublime martial art scenes. In those fight scenes you get to see him use many props such as sword, pole, bench and even a skirt, a skill he learns from his encounter with the Police Chief's daughter played by Lily Li. The high point of the film is a showdown that involves an 18-minute plus scene between Jackie and Whang (Jackie in his autobiography "I Am Jackie Chan" considers this his ninth best fight scene.) I do not want to describe this sagacious scene too much, because it has to be seen. I will say that I have never seen Jackie get beat up so much in any other movie and most of it is shot with wide-angle lenses with few cuts. Even his solution to winning is unique.
This movie is a must buy for Jackie Chan or Hong Kong film fans. The most important decision in buying this film on DVD is what label/version you purchase. There are many shorter versions out there, even several that are widescreen, but the scenes that are taken out are mostly from the action scenes! But, Fortune Star puts out a 106 minute version that is digitally remastered and has the Cantonese (along with dubbed version) audio. Though there is one caveat, many of the cheaper versions have a huge benefit that the Fortune Star DVD does not - Jackie Chan singing in English at the end of the film. Even without that benefit the Fortune Star release is by far the best version of an excellent Jackie Chan film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Jackie Chan and the big pile of mud
Comment: Early Jackie Chan, some good kung-fu, not much plot, and what there is, is kind of confusing. oh you can follow it, but why bother? the dragon fight at the begining is quite good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: old "skool" kung fu
Comment: I though this particular jackie Chan's flick was a little different from the rest, since his choreography/ comedy are usually the same. Simply, you see one Chan's flick, and you see them all. This one however was different, and interesting from the word "GO"!!
I though he performed beautifully,,and not the same old same old. The villain was equally impressive, with his amazing foot works. He captured the audience's attention from the moment he escapped incarceration, and was set free by his buddies,,definately a fight scene to be remembered!!!
If you're a true Chan's fan, rest assured,,,you will not be dissapointed. Truly one of chan's best earlier flicks,,,,would make a great addittion to the collection!!
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