The Killer Meteors

Ho-hum swordplay drama distinguished only by the fact that it features Jackie Chan in a rare villainous role. Chan was just two years away from superstardom (though from this vantage point, it must have been difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel), while ill-used Wang Yu's career was winding down. His face had begun to look doughy, and his performance as the hero is tired and dispirited. The action is mostly watchable, but the finale relies on a cheap special effects gimmick where good, solid choreography would have served the film much better. Some of the static dialogue scenes could have been trimmed down, too; 104 minutes is a tad lengthy for a low-budget fight flick. Avoid "The Killer Meteors" unless you're intent on seeing every foot of celluloid from Chan's early career.

Sometimes if an actor has not had a successful run as a lead then it behooves him or her to take a supporting role. After the box office failings of New Fist of Fury and Shaolin Wooden Men, Lo Wei decided to cast Jackie Chan as a villain in a secondary position to the lead of Jimmy Wang Yu (who starred in many popular pictures as a one-arm martial artist and many not-so-popular films as a two-arm martial artist.) Wang Yu's stardom was slowly fading at the time of this picture, but he had a much more recognizable name than Jackie's. Useless tidbit: according to Jackie, he made 12,000 HK dollars to Wang Yu's 50,000. The Killer Meteors was based on a Gu Long novel and it was the first of two films to be shot in Korea (To Kill with Intrigue was the second.) Jimmy stars as Mi Wei the Killer Meteor, a sarcastic master of Kung Fu who know no equal. He is so feared and admired that criminals will cut off there fingers in repentance rather than to face his possible wrath and master martial artists serve underneath him. I like Wang Yu's performance with his cocky panache (he even keeps track of his enemies all 491 of them) and glib humor though his character is a bit too "strong" for there to be any real conflict in this film. Also, his weakness at martial arts is very noticeable because of the direction and his slowness (Master of the Flying Guillotine is a good example of where he is choreographed well.) But who needs adroitness of movement when you carry a cool weapon like the Killer Meteor. Only three people have seen this weapon and two of them are dead. Most of the time he uses it as a club on the criminals who are undeserving to die by it's true form.

Wei is approached by Qing, the famous Blue-Robed Swordsman who must bring him to the Celestial House of Hua the Hearty (Wa Wu Bin in some translations/dubbings) before July 15 (according to subtitles) or he will die. Mi is intrigued by this, for he is always looking for a challenge worthy of him, and goes with Qing. When he meets Hua (Jackie Chan) he finds a sick man who needs the Killer Meteor's help. Hua was poisoned by his wife in his Ginseng soup (otherwise a normally healthy soup) and she gives him a yearly dose of antidote. Hua does not like this arrangement and wants his wife dead and the antidote all for himself. Wei accepts this challenge though he learns of the four feared bodyguards of his wife: Blazing Star whose weapons are the Plum Blossom Needles (always a favorite of mine, though for weapons so small they always seem to be caught), Killer Hands with fierce suction grip (like GI Joe's Kung Fu grip with vacuum power), Black Lama whose good at black magic and Taoist Ghost (Lee Man Tai) who is good at tricks. Now these characters sound good, but there use in the film is less than desirable.

Unfortunately the plot is weak. There are too many twists and turns that negate previous plot points and characters who are not whom they seem to be. Or are they? My notes on this film is huge but explaining even half of them would be tedious. Generally if plots become overburdened then you can fall back on the martial arts in the film. With Jimmy being the lead character and unless he was being doubled for flips the martial arts are too slow and the action too pedantic. Also there is not a lot of fighting. There are two main fight scenes between Jackie and Jimmy. The first fight scene is the best while the finale is a bit disappointing. It takes place on wooden poles with stakes on the ground – resembling an action scene from Jimmy's earlier film Master of the Flying Guillotine and a bit like Yuen Woo Ping's Iron Monkey, though both are much more interesting. Luckily for the viewers Mi Wei shows off his killer weapon.

The Killer Meteors was a failure at the box office and did not help either Jimmy's or Jackie's career. Along with the confusing story and mediocre action scenes there are too many problems with this film ranging from the overuse of the "lifted" King Kong score to really cheap costumes. Yet, I cannot say I wholly disliked the film. I liked Jimmy's performance, Jackie's "bad guy" performance, some of the story, the beautiful scenery and the titular weapon. Since there is a plethora of better Jimmy Wang Yu and Jackie movies there is no reason to recommend this film unless you are into watching all of Jackie's or Wang Yu's films – like me.

DVD Notes: the two editions of this film I own are the Columbia version and the Simitar Platinum Series version. There is very little difference between the two. Both versions are full-screen (with the credits running letterboxed), both have Mandarin dialogue (though for some reason the Simitar version says Cantonese which is wrong), both have the same dubbed version and both have the same running time (104m). The Columbia version does have English subtitles though.

This is not an award-winning classic kung-fu movie. Yes, it takes itself somewhat seriously, but that's half the fun. It's a great movie to keep you entertained with ridiculous and pointless absurd plot twists that are not explained, scenes involving characters jumping out of nowhere, terrible cutting between scenes, and poor dialog.

But that's what is so great about it! Yeah, Jackie Chan plays the bad guy that only appears three times in the movie, and briefly at that, but that's okay. This movie is a great watch at 2am after a fun night of partying, or with a few friends to help make fun of it.

And some of the characters are so ridiculous and absolutely bad-ass, that you can't help but smile and admire the comic book nature of it all.

Picked it up for $3 at my local Blockbuster, and it was totally worth the purchase. I'll be watching this one quite a few times while inebriated. :0)

I actually found this movie a lot of fun, although if you go in expecting a Jackie Chan movie you'll be disapointed, as he's in only a few scenes and a couple of fights, though his role is important. At the time this film was made, Jackie was struggling to make any impact on the box-office, and was delegated to villian to make way for Jimmy Wang Yu who was a much bigger star at the time (Kimmy Wang who? you may ask) and it's he that is clearly the star of Killer Meteors. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's the story and characters are the reason to watch this, as in that respect it's a good watch. The sets/props/costumes are actually pretty good too for the Lo Wei Motion Picture Co. The fighting coreography is only average, however.

However, most people who see this movie will be expecting a Jackie-filled stunt spectacular, and they will be disapointed.

It's not the best movie ever made, but I recommend this one for martial arts fans who watch their kung-fu for the fighting, and the characters, as I like to sometimes. There is this incredible heirarchy of experts, which gets more compelling as the movie goes on. From the three fighters in the beginning who are good enough to break rocks, to the best fighters in the world, we get a look at the whole gamut. Half of them seem to be better than any fighter from most other movies, and the other half amaze you with how much better than the rest of the people they are!

Most kung-fu movies have one or two really great fighters, and they end up fighting in the end. But this one has a dozen or so, and I really get excited when I think about just how bad these guys are.