Le Protecteur

Frustrated by the weak box office returns of New Fist of Fury and Shaolin Wooden Men, Lo Wei gave Jackie Chan creative control over the slapstick comedy Half a Loaf of Kung Fu. With Chan's friend Chen Chi-hwa as director (Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin), Jackie wanted to make a film that was the antithesis of the current martial art dramas that were being shown. Jackie called this movie a "ninety-minute-long practical joke," but Lo failed to find the humor and decided to vault this film and created his own comedy for Jackie the insipid Spiritual Kung Fu. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu would remain unwatched until 1980.

One of the most interesting segments of the film is the beginning which parodies the normal use (at that time) of the main actors showcasing their martial-art ability. He spoofs the Zatochi series, he tries to catch arrows but fails and there is a great scene that has him using a fighting dummy for practice only the have the camera pan away to reveal a mini dummy. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is not as inventive as the starting sequence, though there are many good scenes. The problem is that the plot is not that different from many other films that Lo Wei has done.

Jackie plays Gon Tou, a wandering hungry man in search of a job. He eventually gets a housekeeper position for Mr. Man who houses the witch Lady Mui. He spies on her while she was doing a poison experiment, inadvertently gets his new friend San killed and narrowly flees. After his escape he came across a fight between Se Tai Chung and Lao Yung Lung – the man with the whip. This battle resulted in the death of both and Gon assumed the identity of Master Lao to collect the bounty on Chung. Now Gon is mistaken for a man with fighting skills even though his combatant acumen is very small. He gets beat up quite a bit.

He stumbles across a flatulent beggar (Dean Shek) who teaches Jackie such moves as "Lady Draws Arrow" and the ever impressive "One Finger Stops Mountain" (guess which finger.) Dean is funny in this Cantonese comedic role. Gon is then helped by another beggar (Lee Man Tai) who prevents Lady Mui from killing him. At first the beggar does not want to help Gon anymore, but he acquiesces and will help him if he takes something to Fong Wan. He later meets him at Fung Yu's Stone House with his daughter (Doris Lung) and friend (James Tien.) Together they are protecting the "Thousand Year Jake", which cures any poison, and "Potion of new Life" which is the fountain of youth. Since these are so powerful and priceless many criminals such as Lady Mui, Iron Hand Lui and The Man of a Thousand Faces (Kam Kong) want these. Gon helps Fong while learning more and more Kung Fu.

The plot is a bit chaotic and it ultimately fails as a spoof because so many martial art films have had plots much more ridiculous then this movie. But, it is an important film in Jackie's career because it is a turn from the grim-faced stoic hero that Lo wanted him to be. It is also a funny film with many inventive, though sometimes broad, scenes such as a dream sequence with Jackie becoming Popeye or Jackie reading a manual while fighting. It is also hilarious when Jackie knows that the flatulent beggar is approaching before we even see him. There is also a great reference to Bruce Lee when Jackie uses a wig as nunchucks while making Bruce-like sounds.

The fighting of the film is much more traditional, with the exception of the nunchuck wig, than Jackie's later films. But there are some good shots, especially the ten-minute ending fight scene. There is also a nice teaming of Dean and Jackie towards the end that was fun to watch. Overall, I like the film. It was better than the early Jackie Chan movies, though not as good as his later films. If you are a Jackie Chan film and have not seen it, then there is a good chance you will like it -- as long as you like flatulent beggars and goofy plots.

Jackie had moved from the Peking opera to the film industry as a teen, but had done mostly bit parts, eventually gaining respect behind the scenes for his commitment to stuntwork and willingness to do anything in any film. However, Hong Kong directors were still trying to figure out what Bruce Lee had done, and he was suddenly gone... they tried to find a replacement for him and copy his films, but the magnetism and quality wasn't there, leaving the HK film industry churning out a lot of mostly forgettable schlock in the 70s.

Jackie was coming up in this time, and a lot of his earlier roles attempt to cast him in the part of the upstart hero. Audiences at the time didn't go for him however (he was well-known then for NOT being handsome) and directors tried casting him as a stock villain, which didn't really work either.

Finally, uber-director/producer Lo Wei let Jackie start having more creative control, finally resulting in Jackie acting as the 'action director' or 'martial arts director'. You see a bit of this in the film "Shaolin Wooden Men", but it starts really blooming here with "Half a Loaf of Kung Fu". In this film, you see a huge emphasis on comedy over action, and very avante' garde choreography for the fights. This is also a departure in tone from many of Jackie's previous films which centered on oppression and hardship and featured quite graphic violence, death, and rape. Here, the comedy is almost nonstop, with Chan continuing to fight a man even as he's just hanging impaled on a spear....which everyone soon realizes and all have a good laugh about.

The story bears a lot of similarities to several of Jackie's partnerships with Chi-Hwa Chen, like "Shaolin Wooden Men", and "36 Crazy Fists". The 'hero' is actually a bumbling fool, who nevertheless manages to improve his kung-fu to heroic levels in a very short period of time. Of course, the traditional kung-fu masters are actually not the best, the fool learns all the best techniques from old drunken hermits who taunt him as they berate and steal from him, much as Yoda later would to Luke. These same off-the-wall techniques are, of course, the secret to finally defeating the evil gangsters who are rampaging in the town/village/countryside. These films also all have a great number of random story elements and lightning-quick plot twists. Characters are introduced out of nowhere, form alliances, double-cross each other, patch things up, or ultimately die suddenly, all before you can figure out why they were in the film in the first place! If you're looking for Shakespeare, you won't find it here, but the story of this movie actually took me back to being 6 years old and just being amazed at the freshness and unpredictability of these films compared to your cookie-cutter Hollywood movie. There's a definite charm here.

The comedy, on the other hand, fell pretty flat for me. It doesn't quite work as a satire of the films at the time, and it's not as fine-tuned as the comedy in his later films.I chuckled a couple times, but mostly it was a lot of over-the-top cheesy slapstick that I don't think would appeal to most people that aren't an Asian audience in the 70s.

The martial arts is a bit of a mixed bag. The regular performers aren't doing anything very special here, and this is definitely an ensemble film. Even Jackie takes quite a while to warm up, as the whole point in the beginning is that his skills suck. The sequences toward the end of the film start becoming more and more inventive, though, and it's a kick to see Jackie 'learning' wacky techniques and then trying to apply them at every chance in future fights. The final fight is a worthy addition to the Chan 'notable fights' reel, with him attempting to study scrolls of techniques littering the ground WHILE fighting, so that he can then use those techniques IN the fight! It's good stuff, and exemplary of why this movie is the first real step into the Jackie Chan films we all later came to know and love.

Jackie is finally given creative control under the constraints of Lo Wei and here's the result: an early key to the new direction which sees Chan clowning about in his own distinct fashion, less Bruce Lee and more Charlie Chaplin, ridiculing the stifling pictures that were forced onto him at the same time as sending up the genre as a whole. Straight from the slapstick titles we know what we're in for; Chan perfecting his underdog happy-go-lucky character that would later make him such a huge star. Yet like all beginnings, HALOKF isn't a polished piece, certainly dragging in places with the Lo Wei influence still clearly evident (namely in the souped-up story concerning the transportation of sacred treasures the Evergreen Jade and the Soul Pill, much in demand by nasty bandits). Lo Wei's reaction was open detest resulting in the picture being shelved, only to be given a successful theatrical release after Chan had finally re-defined the kung fu movie.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I think Jackie Chan's pre-Drunken Master movies are pure gold. Not for the same reasons that make'Drunken Master' and following movies gold, but gold nonetheless. 'Half a Loaf of Kung Fu' is rather gold. I swear, the more the 70s kung-fu movies I watch, the easier it becomes to watch them, and the more I like them and wish to seek out more. Now there's a scary thought...

I missed the name of Chan's character here. In fact, I missed most, if not all, of the character's names in this movie. Actually, I missed most of the plot too. Actually... Plot? What plot? I still can't figure out what this was actually about, and there no identifiable threads running in the plot other than the evil-witch and the treasure she wants to steal.

'Half a Loaf of Kung Fu' is very funny movie, and I'm sure Chan was trying to spoof kung-fu films. It probably would have worked had other kung-fu movies of the time not been sillier that 'Half a Loaf...' in the first place. The fight scenes are credible enough to maintain interest when the plot-apparent lags. 'Half a Loaf...' does drag on a bit at times, especially when it just gets to ridiculous. It probably could have been shorter, and much more entertaining for it.

It isn't the best of 70s kung-fu movies, but it is by no means the worst. Jackie Chan fans might get a kick out of this, as would others looking for something to laugh at - 6/10

Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu really is an early glimpse at the kung fu comedies that would make JC famous. You can really see that Jackie had influence over this production in both fight choreography and overall tone of the film. The opening sequences is really a highlight of this film and the choreography is solid in the fight scenes. Overall a very enjoyable film and a must for JC fans.

7 Tiny Wooden Dummies out of 10