A Marca do Dragão

Well, Jackie Chans best films are from 1978 and after , and this film was made in 1977. This film is just ok. It has a grainy picture , like some low budget wannabee bruce lee movies have. Although this picture is directed by Lo Wei (fists of fury, the chinese connection).

This film has Jackie chan as a man who tries to get his girlfriend back from the governer.

In america this film, would probably be rated PG-13 for ,mild violence.

I had hoped, and thought, that this movie would be somewhat better than the earlier movies of Jackie Chan's impressive career. However, I was sadly disappointed to find out that it was not to be.

The story in "To Kill with Intrigue" ("Jian Hua Yan Yu Jiang Nan") was sort of trying to be everything at once, trying to accomplish a lot, but just ending up in a sort of strange confusion and semi-coherent story. Which made it not overly enjoyable, and quickly had my attention drifting elsewhere, and only pay attention to the movie with half an eye.

And part of the lack of interest in it, on my part, is that the DVD I acquired from Amazon only had a horrible English dubbed language track. I could not even if my life depended on it understand why English dubbing is appealing or acceptable to anyone? It is poorly done, it totally destroyed the feeling (or mood) of the movie, and it just makes it come off as a very low budget production.

Now for the good parts about "To Kill with Intrigue", well you have Jackie Chan in a very unusual role (if you compare it to his other roles throughout his career), as he is not really the goody two-shoes that he usually plays. Plus this movie doesn't have the usual slapstick comedy either. It is a serious movie, and the martial arts in it was actually quite nicely choreographed and executed, whereas many of his movies before this one, the martial arts was horrible staged and rigid.

This movie sort of has a weird mutated mixture of traditional, old Chinese warrior movies mixed with Chinese Opera-like characters. Not really sure what director Wei Lo was aiming for here.

"To Kill with Intrigue" is the type of movie that you watch if you are a hardcore fan of Jackie Chan or old Chinese cinema. For me, this was not one of Jackie Chan's better movie, despite it being a venture away from the slapstick comedy. If the movie only had been with its original language track, it would at least have scored a 4/10 rating, but now has to settle for a 3/10 rating from me.

Jackie Chan actually said in an interview that he felt sorry for anyone that had to see this movie. I'm going to have to agree with him, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself after I saw this slapped-together sham of a kung-fu movie.

An amazingly horrible film, kung fu corniness at it's best. Everything from the names of the characters: "Chin Chin" which is Japanese for "penis", which is awesome because there are tons of variations in the movie. "All you care about is your chin-chin!" (Actual piece of dialog) The set designs are beautiful and the cinematography catches some great shots sporadically in the film. The fight scenes themselves are just thick with super human hijinks and cheap camera tricks. Altogether, a hilarious piece of kung fu dung.

Not for the serious kung-fu fan, more for the casual-bad-movie-fanatic.

Yeehaw, The Lazy Southerner

A young master named Cao Lei (Jackie Chan) drives away his pregnant girlfriend from the family castle because he knows it's about to be raided by a gang of deadly bandits determined to kill his family. He charges a new friend with her care and protection. Following the attack on his family by the gang lead by a mysterious veiled woman who possesses tremendous, perhaps even mystical, fighting skills, Cao Lei somehow finds himself spared as the veiled woman seems to take a peculiar interest in him following him around like a shadow. Meanwhile the man Cao Lei had entrusted to care for his girlfriend is not quite the honorable fellow Cao Lei had thought. We soon discover his plans do not mirror those of Cao Lei.

This 1970s Martial Arts film is a lot of fun to watch unfold. Filled with unexpected surprises and unusual plot twists, it really keeps the viewer guessing when he or she's not shaking their head in confusion. The most confusion stems from the relationship with the veiled woman who all reason suggests should be Cao Lei's sworn enemy yet...

Still I love the action sequences and although the wire stuff just never looks believable, there's the suggestion of something mystical at work in our story that helps make some of these scenes somehow a little more credible that they would be without it. Jackie Chan may be the star of this movie Feng Hsu steals the show.