La Hyène intrépide

I'm a huge fan of Jackie Chan, and I've seen over 25 of his movies, and The Fearless Hyena is definently one of the best. Though the humour is pretty dumb, and lots of the characters are un-necessary(Like Stoney Egg, the Great Bear, and Iron Head)the fights are staged beautifully. Especially the ending fight scene!The story isn't so bad either.Even though it's your usual: guy's family memeber gets killed, guy trains, guy gets revenge type of movie, it's still good.Please don't get Fearless Hyena 1 and 2 mixed up. I've heard Two is really bad. So, I definitely suggest that you buy The Fearless Hyena part 1!

This is one of Chan's best, because as opposed to his recent bloated-budget adventures, he isn't being written buy rich fat white guys who think, "hey let's make that Asian dude sing a funny song with (fill-in-the-blank) American sidekick!" I'm sorry, but as silly and awkward as Fearless Hyena is, it isn't tainted by the Hollywood "fish out of water" premise.

The fighting scenes, while exhausting at moments, are clever and fitting the themes of the film. This is one of Chan's more expressive styles, and his mere body language alone makes up for the horrible overdubbing and juvinile dialouge. Besides, the song at the end when the credits roll is AMAZING. I get chills when I hear it, it's so eerie and atmospheric. I always look forward to it after that final epic fight.

One of Jackie's earliest films, this already shows the remarkable talent he has for choreography and comic timing. All the more remarkable for the fact that he also wrote and directed this at the age of 25 (Spielberg was 28 when he directed his first film). All the hallmarks of a Jackie Chan are there, though understandably not quite as polished as he later managed to achieve. The humour stands up well too, for its age. I did laugh out loud in a couple of places.

Though 'The Fearless Hyena (1979)' has many similarities to 'The Drunken Master (1978)' and, indeed, many other martial arts movies from the era, the piece sets itself apart with some absolutely phenomenal choreography and a flashy focal style that really comes through in an explosive one-on-one finale. The story centres on a revenge plot that doesn't really begin until well over half way into the runtime, yet the plot never feels poorly paced because it's peppered with set-pieces and establishes that its lead character's choices have tangible consequences. It starts to lag ever-so-slightly in its mid-section but it is entertaining throughout, a funny and exciting adventure that constantly surprises with just how good its fight scenes truly are. Seriously, there are a couple in here that easily sit among the best of all time - including a sphincter-tightening, three-on-one sword fight - and they deserve to be recognised as such. It's a testament to the thing's quality that its downright awful dub (subs aren't available on Amazon Prime) doesn't really dampen its effect. The dub is certainly its worst aspect, though, with voice work that sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch and one character in particular who sounds like Richard Ayoade. Despite this, the film is really fun throughout. It's easy to recommend to any fan of martial arts cinema. 7/10

Not only are the martial arts techniques executed with skill. The humor is also top notch. Iron Head, The Great Bear and Stoney Egg are classic! If you like martial arts flicks at all or are a fan of the 3 Stooges. This is a must see for you. I'm already on my 3rd copy:-)