36 Golpes Mortais

I recently watched The 36 Crazy Fists (1977) on Prime. The storyline follows a persistent young man seeking revenge after his father is killed by local gangsters for not paying them protection money. Despite being turned down by every martial arts school, he receives help from some students and a new friend he meets at a restaurant. Together, they teach him what they know so he can track down the gangsters one by one and give them what they deserve.

This film was directed by Chi-Hwa Chen (Police Story) and stars Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), Hark-On Fung (Police Story), Siu-Hung Leung (Ip Man), Lau Kar Yung (The Grandmaster), and Michelle Yim (Seven Swords).

This is a classic 1970s martial arts film with a low budget, grainy footage, and a straightforward storyline. However, young Jackie Chan films are always fun. I love the infusion of comedy in every segment. The training scenes are enjoyable, as are the character interactions. The villains are easy to root against, and the choreography is outstanding. All of the action scenes are entertaining, with a great final showdown.

In conclusion, The 36 Crazy Fists is a solid addition to the martial arts genre. I'd give it a 7/10 and recommend it to fans of Jackie Chan films.

I usually come on this site before I rent / buy a movie, but this time I actually rented "Jackie Chan and the 36 Crazy Fists" without reading anything about it, only to discover that Jackie is nowhere to be seen; he just choreographed the fight scenes! Anyway, when you get past this initial shock, the film is pretty close to most people's idea of a typical mid-70's martial arts flick: minimal plot, no production values, bad dubbing, poor picture quality, cartoonish sound effects, acting that mostly consists of twitching and eyeball-rolling, and lots and lots of action (one thing that's not so typical is the brief female toplessness). The action itself is a bit too choreographed, too "coordinated" for my tastes (the fighters seem to want to demonstrate their kung fu techniques more than to actually fight), but for old-school kung fu fans it will be a treat; others beware. (**)

36 CRAZY FISTS is one of those cheap and cheerful kung fu efforts that were all the rage in the '70s. This one is a lot poorer than most, with an absolutely bottom dollar budget that means we only get a handful of different sets and actors throughout the movie. Most of it takes place in a field someplace where guys fight for what seems like an age. As well as the bad production values, this one suffers from an absolutely appalling dubbing job (one of those jobs by the 'Cockney boys'), rubbish editing, even worse acting and a director whose idea of comedy is to speed the film up and have his characters speaking gobbledegook.

In fact I reckon this film would be totally forgotten about today (and with good reason), if it wasn't for the participation of Jackie Chan. There are dubious claims that he helped out with the direction and fight choreography here, although he's uncredited for both; personally I can believe the latter but am not so sure about the former! To be fair, the fights aren't too bad, and in particular the extended final bout is a good one – lengthy, hard-hitting, against one of those white-haired supervillains so beloved of the genre.

Although some of the cast are familiar – including the master guy and Fung Hark-On as a typical thug – for the most part they're undistinguished. Kuang Hsiung is just another Chan or Lee imitator. The plot is the worst part of the film, a simple, boring amalgamation of all the themes that were popular in '70s period kung fu flicks, from drunken beggars who turn out to be kung fu masters, to the evil clans, the Buddha-praising monks and the pretty girls (one of whom strips off for a cheesy/sleazy topless bedroom moment).

Sadly it all feels false and by-the-by and you never really understand the main character's motivations. Worse still, there's little excitement to be had from the seen-it-all-before feel of the film, and there's nothing here which hasn't been done better elsewhere. 36 CRAZY FISTS is one to avoid, unless you're a real completionist.

I liked it well it was a dollar-DVD so this is kinda what you would expect. It actually was more than I thought it was it was funny in places were it wasn't supposed to be and my favorite character was the Drunken Master. I'd give give it a 6-8 but there were 3 things that bothered me. 1.The were'd dubbing-it sounded like every one was talking at once and It sounded like it was ad-libbed. 2.The quality-The first time I watched it, on there are certain spots were it turned all rainbow colored and a line showed up like someone recorded off of a bad tape on to a DVD. 3.Were's Jackie-I didn't see him at all and thats all it said on the cover Jackie Chan In, Jackie Chan Starring, but he did some directing and that was it.

Well that's it.

My gosh, you can't go anywhere without hearing about how great this movie is. Everyone feels that they need to point out the greatness of this movie, 36 Crazy Fists, but I just don't get it. The climaxic battle scene between the hero and the "gray monkey man" seemed flat and lifeless, (not to mention long) and the training scenes were neither "genius" or "inspired." Some people have told me that this movie had changed their lives, but I really have trouble believing that after finally watching the film.

Overall, the film is good, but not all that I thought that it would be. You probably should see it if you want to, but don't do it solely out of peer pressure. Thank You.