Shao Lin men

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.

I Bought the Hong Kong Legends DVD and this movie is pure classic. The choreography is excellent, the acting is brilliant and the storyline is also great. This early John Woo movie stars Dorian Tan as the good guy and has an supporting appearance from Jackie Chan as a blacksmith who was a Shaolin disciple. The structure of the fight scenes in the last half-hour showdown were later used in films such as Mission:Impossibe Part II.

The two flaws this movie has is the fight scenes are shot at awkward angles, making them look fake. The other flaw is that a real Shaolin disciple would not want revenge. In Buddhism, suffering is caused only by want and any real Shaolin disciple should already know this, therefore I rate this movie 8\10 stars.

From the 'Golden (Harvest) age of kung fu comes this old school period style film from a bunch of young guns lead by director Wu Yu Shang (later to become famous as John Woo) featuring Tao Liang Tan (Dorian Tan) James Tien, Chan Yuan Lung (Jackie Chan), Hung Kam Bo (Sammo Hung) and Biao Yuen (Yuen Biao). Good solid stuff with Woo adding some touches of class with some nice scenic shots wrapped around the usual broad brush story and frequent action. Being 'old school' means the action is generally rather contrived and stiff, two guys going through a set series of moves and counters in a kind of rythmic dance, but it seems to improve as the movie progresses (either that or this viewer became less discriminating). A taekwondo champion in Korea, Tan was renowned for his outstanding high kicking technique, which is impressive, however he's not much of an actor and nothing special to look at. James Tien is far more charismatic in the lead villains role, with Hung providing trademark support as a semi comedic henchman. Jackie Chan fills one of the two main friend of the hero roles and gets a couple of spots to show his wares, including what may be the best fight sequences in the film, as one of his adversaries has the most interesting weapon in the movie, a sort of sword blade on the end of a chain. Yuen Biao has a minor role, but was mainly on hand to act as stunt double for the two leads apparently If pre Bruce Lee 70s kung fu is your bag, then this won't let you down.

Before the era of heroic bloodshed John Woo the master of gun-fu make some martial arts movies and the one i particular interest in is The hand of Death starring Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.The movie is quite genetic with a plot has been done many time before and even when it featuring a young Jackie Chan he not even the main character.Fan of old school martial arts will enjoy this movie

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.