Sameir A
Jackie Chan's writing and directorial debut. It is obvious that he was heavily influenced by Bruce Lee films, but, some Jackie Chan signature added to it makes it unique. Nothing much about the story, but it was a show case of Jackie's physical abilities and how he can blend Kung Fu with comedy. Pretty good.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
11/18/21
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Audience Member
Aunque encomiable su primer trabajo como director, y teniendo alguna otro momento brillante (de acción y humor), Hiena Salvaje está muy lejos de ser de lo mejor de Jackie Chan
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/29/23
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Audience Member
The unobtrusive boilerplate plot about a student seeking revenge for his murdered teacher merely serves as a pretext for Jackie's utterly original brand of kung-fu comedy, which is here all the more impressive and outrageous on account of being the star's first directorial outing, filled with all the visionary, kinetic ingenuity of someone with something to prove.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
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Review:
I really enjoyed this authentic Kung Fu movie but a lot of time is wasted on silly jokes and unnecessary scenes. At the time of it's release, I was totally amazed with this unknown Kung Fu world, were a man trains to be an expert and he uses his skills to kill the baddies, so this film definitely brought back some memories. This film sees Chan play a young Shing Lung, who lives with his grandfather and makes money any which way he can. Whilst staying in his grandfather's house, he's taught different styles of Kung Fu and he uses his skills against the bullies in his remote village. His talents soon get recognised by a money making con artist, who opens Kung Fu school were Chan takes on everyone that comes to take-on there pupils. When his grandfather finds out how he's been making money, he gets very upset because he doesn't want there Kung Fu to become known to others. After a while, the schools name spreads across the village and his grandfather's enemy tracks him down kills him after a lengthy battle. Chan then seeks revenge for his grandfather but his Kung Fu isn't up to scratch to challenge him, so he learns new styles from his grandfather's friend, which lead to a showdown that is definitely worth watching. Its your usual, "You Killed My Master" type of concept which I have grown to love in this genre. The only problem is that it takes a long time to get going but it's worth the wait. The funny dubbing really made me laugh and some of the fighting scenes were a bit over the top but that was expected because of the age of the movie. Chan does give his all throughout the movie and the different costumes that he put on during his time at the school were amusing but the true action should have started a lot earlier in the movie. With that aside, I still enjoyed the film and I'm glad that I was able to get my hands on it. Enjoyable!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed and written by a young Jackie Chan, who done a great job at such a young age. The choreography throughout the movie was also done by Chan so he really put a lot of time and energy into his directional debut. At the time, Chan was only 25 so you have to give him recognition for his first attempt behind the camera. Anyway, if your into your Kung Fu movies then you definitely need this film in your collection.
I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/martial arts/comedies starring Jackie Chan, James Tien and Dean Shek. 7/10
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
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Audience Member
In the mood for some cheap Kung Fu thrills, The Fearless Hyena caught my eye as a film directed by and starring Jackie Chan.
As predicted, The Fearless Hyena is a film which is no stranger adhering to essentially every convention you would expect. This comes into play with technical aspects, narrative concepts and the general fact that the film is a Jackie Chan vehicle. In terms of its technical aspects, The Fearless Hyena is a film captured with a rather rough visual quality and cinematography which has a rather repetitive tendency to shoot things with shots which can be too close up or that may stretch on for a bit too long. The latter tends to be ok during most of the fight scenes, but in the ones which are choreographed particularly for comic effect this can prove to stretch the gags rather thin as the shots tend to drag on without much in the way of quick editing. This may have been more innovative back upon its original release, but it just doesn't seem as funny today, particularly in comparison to many of Jackie Chan's other films. In adhering to the tropes of being a Jackie Chan film, The Fearless Hyena is a feature which relies heavily on having comedy integrated into its Kung Fu scenes. Here, I find that it evokes a mixed response much of the time. In the scenes which involve fighting are very passionately crafted and the humour is unexpected as part of Jackie Chan's iconic style, but the rate of success with humour is rather inconsistent. While at some moments the choreography of comedy within the fighting is really well executed and even innovative, at other times the jokes can seem a little too cheesy for their own good. The strange humour of the film is encouraged further by the predictably terrible English language dubbing which gives the job of Jackie Chan's voice to the most wimpy English-speaking actor I've ever heard. This is one of the less intentional comic aspects of the film, and so it doesn't really encourage the humour all that properly. As well as that, the audio quality of the film is rough in general and so it isn't the finest treat on the ears. Essentially, most of the problems in The Fearless Hyena can be attributed to countless other low budget Kung Fu films of the era, and you cannot hold it against the filmmakers considering the limitations of the low budget and technology in general at the time. The real value in The Fearless Hyena comes from the dedicated work of Jackie Chan as director and star of the film.
There is no denying that there are some solid funny moments in The Fearless Hyena. Jackie Chan has shown off countless times just how passionate he is about integrating humour with Kung Fu, and in The Fearless Hyena he dedicates the entire film to doing just that. The story in The Fearless Hyena is a generic and overly familiar one, but I expected as much. What I did not expect was just how much Jackie Chan was willing to push the limits on how much humour he could find through his martial arts skills. What he achieves is a new level of performance art for the actor because his choreography skills prove to be thoroughly impressive. On a quest to find humourous martial arts in all kinds of forms, Jackie Chan brings laughter into the film through the most unpredictable and creative manners, including fighting in multiple ludicrous disguises and channelling a large array of emotions varying from sadness to happiness in the final fight scene. Yet none of these hold a candle to the chopstick duel scene of the film. The film shows Jackie Chan and Dean Shek getting into a fight with chopsticks which was clearly influential over the 2008 animated film Kung Fu Panda, and it still remains amazing to this day. While Kung Fu Panda used big budget animation to capture this, The Fearless Hyena relies purely on choreography which impressively captures everything down to the finest detail. While the extended length of many shots in The Fearless Hyena can prove ineffective at times, in this one scene it works to show off the extensively skilful choreography and talents of Jackie Chan and Dean Shek, and so it makes the film unforgettable. The fact is that along with this, the fight scenes in the film are generally impressive. As well as maintaining a lot of comedic value, the fight scenes in The Fearless Hyena are consistently engaging and swift, serving predominantly as a showcase for the abilities of Jackie Chan. As the director, he is able to bring the cast to vitroy by pushing them to give it their all against him, ensuring that the presence of Dean Shek and Lee Kwan end up being valuable. But nobody holds a candle to him. With his dedication to every small comedic detail of his character in The Fearless Hyena, Jackie Chan takes his role and runs with it. His over the top physical flamboyance is just wonderful, and even though it has some moments which feel rather awkward, he more than makes up for it with his commendable physical abilities. Jackie Chan is the entire reason that The Fearless Hyena succeeds because his charismatic fighting spirit and sense of humour manages to elevate The Fearless Hyena above the countless low budget Kung Fu features that surround it. Like I said, I wanted cheap Kung Fu thrills out of The Fearless Hyena, and even though it is not one of Jackie Chan's finest works, he really delivers on it.
So The Fearless Hyena has the same rough visual and audio quality as many other low budget Kung Fu films as well as the same predictable story, but with Jackie Chan injecting his flamboyant sense of humour into the film through his directorial work as well as his impressive fighting abilities, it still manages to entertain.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
I own this on DVD in a seven movie pack along with:
* Shaolin Wooden Men
* Battle Creek Brawl (1980)
* The Young Master (1980)
* Dragon Lord (1982)
* Project A (1983)
* Project A Part II (1987)
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
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