Dragon Forever

In China, the Shaolin men are hunted down by a powerful warrior who wants to rid the Shaolin men from China and puts death threats on any shaolin men found. At a remote training camp the last few shaolin men train, their best student (flash legs tan) is given the task of taking down James Tien and his reign of terror. Along the way he befriends Jackie Chan who appears as a farmer however Jackie disappears (reappearing later on).

He arrives at the main arena (Where James Tien is) and tries to take on Tien, but fails dismally - his shaolin techniques are useless against Tien's extended iron claw. When Tien beats him, he leaves the rest to his eight bodyguards, each mastering different weapons such as swords, shields, staffs, etc.

Half-beaten, Flash Legs Tan goes to a village and discovers Tien's men are taking apart the village and pillaging anything they can to scare the villagers into submission.

Tan befriends two people along the way, including a brilliant swordsman who has never drawn his sword after he failed to protect his wife.

The two men meet up with Jackie again and they convince themselves to stop Tien now or not at all and start training (which I found the best part of the film).

The film as a whole is a good one, though pretty slow in places, the fight sequences are on a par with later movies - though expect overly long fight sequences.

The Hand of Death aka Countdown in Kung Fu (1976) is a vastly underrated early work by director John Woo. The film stars Dorian Tan (Tan Tao-liang) and features Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and James Tien in significant supporting roles. Many people believe, or have been lead to believe by deceptive advertising, that this is a Jackie Chan film. This is not a Jackie Chan film, Dorian Tan is the star but Jackie gives one of his best (most serious) early performances.

The Hand of Death is about a Shaolin disciple named Yunfei (Tan) who is sent on a mission to assassinate a Shaolin traitor named Shih Xiaofeng (Tien) and protect a revolutionary named Zhang Yi (Woo). Along his journey Yunfei meets up with a young woodcutter named Tan (Chan) and a disgraced sword fighter (Chang Chung) known as "the wanderer." Both men have suffered at the hands of Shih and want to take revenge. The three team up to defeat Shih and his eight bodyguards and escort the revolutionary to safety.

The martial arts action is above average under the direction of Sammo Hung. Dorian Tan uses his trademark high kicks very effectively as the "Northern eighteen styles kicks" along with some "Southern five styles boxing." Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan provide excellent martial arts performances as well. James Tien is not the greatest martial artist on the Jade screen but does an acceptable job. Some of the early fights are a bit slow and seem over choreographed but the final showdowns featuring Chan, Tan and Hung are very good.

Director John Woo provides plenty of interesting character development in the film, which is refreshing. The cinematography by Leung Wing Kat is very stylish, unique and beautiful for a kung fu film of this era. Joseph Koo's music: a combination of soft flutes and 70's "Shaft" style orchestral pieces is kung fu cinema at its best. Hand of Death is not Jackie and Sammo's usual kung fu comedy. Hand of Death is a serious, straightforward revenge driven story.

Hand of Death aka Countdown in Kung Fu is an underrated classic in the old school kung fu genre. The film is one of the best artistically of its time and a preview of the great things to come from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Hung's great choreography is put on display here before his directorial debut and Chan's early charisma and talent can be clearly seen.

Hand of Death is a solid, stylish old school kung fu film and a brilliant early work of the legendary John Woo.

Kung Fu Genre Rating 7.5/10

Wanderer to Tan (referring to his new weapon): "The Little Eagle Wing God Lance."

Tan: "Just a knickknack."

Funny how most of the DVD covers for "Hand of Death" has Jackie Chan all over it, despite him only having a supporting role in the movie. But his face sells.

Regardless, then "Hand of Death" is one of the more interesting movies to Jackie Chan's impressive movie list, prior to making it on an international scale.

The story in "Hand of Death" is fairly simple, yet straight to the point. It is a story of revenge and for the downtrodden to stand up against their oppressors. The story doesn't really leave much to the imagination and requires absolutely nothing from your intellect. This is straight from point A to point B; and beating up everyone in between these two points.

The fight sequences were good, although some of them were painfully choreographed, where you saw the opponents, just waiting for the kick or punch to be thrown. And, of course, the sound effects here are hilarious - as they tended to be in many of these old action movies.

Tao-liang Tan was doing quite a good job in this movie, and it wasn't Jackie Chan who was in focus in this movie. As much as Sammo Hung Kam-Bo used to make great movies back in the day, then the buck-teeth he had to wear in this movie was just a bit too over the top. It was also good to see Wah Yuen in the movie, despite a very small and brief appearance only, not to forget about Biao Yuen as well.

"Hand of Death" is well worthy of a place in the movie collection of anyone who is fan of martial arts movies (or Jackie Chan's movies). This is simple, yet entertaining entertainment.

I don't know about other people, but I don't imagine I would've come across this had it not been an early John Woo film that also happened to include Jackie Chan in small roles.

It's interesting to see three action movie icons honing their skills, and the film as a whole is watchable, if a little dull and by the numbers in parts (the opening half or so is particularly slow).

It gets better by the second half, and as you'd expect from a classic martial arts film, there's some pretty good action right near the end that's worth sticking around for. I'd say that as long as you go in with moderate expectations, there's enough here to make it worthwhile.

Made during the martial arts period of his career, John Woo came up with one of his best films from this early Woo era. The story is about the Shaolin Temple who sents a young warrior who murder a traitor who has killed many of his compatriots. Shao Lin Men/Hand of Death(1975) features one of the early and most impressible performances from future Hong Kong action hero, Jackie Chan. Sammo Hung also appears as one of the main villains. The main actor Tao-Liang Tan has faded out of the Hong Kong film scene after appearing in this movie while Chan and Hung would go on to become big stars.

Bruce Lee co star, James Tien makes a memorable turn as the main villain. The last twenty minutes is the film's golden moments. The fight scene in the beach would be repeated by John Woo in both Heroes Shed No Tears(1985) and Mission:Impossible 2(2000). Uses many themes that would become popular in the director's heroic bloodshed pictures. The story of Shao Lin Men(1975) interestingly enough is reused in Mission:Impossible 2(2000).