The Young Master (1980)
Reviewed by: Fhrx on 2000-04-01
Summary: A good early Jackie Chan effort...
Jackie Chan stars as a young student of a martial arts school in Canton during the Ching Dynasty time period. When his older brother leaves the school and hangs around with the wrong group of people and begins to pursue a life of crime, aiding in the escape of a infamous criminal, he attracts the attention of the locals law enforcers.

Jackie is somehow mistaken for being his brother in the fray and must clear his own name and his brothers by capturing the criminal and bringing him to justice. The young master is not a bad story and the action is quite good as well.

Jackie often displays his ability to move with extreme agility and my, can he take a beating too. He often gets thrown around and lands quite hard on the ground at times too.

The fight scenes are very good and while the last one is a great effort by all those taking part, I though it was a bit unrealistic that Jackie gets so beaten up before he fights back. Call me cynical, but as a fellow Wing Chun practitioner myself, I know that human body’s very rarely take that much punishment before they give in.

None the less, The young master contains some very fancy choreography and some very entertaining fight scenes. Yuen Biao makes an appearance as the son of the local law enforcer, having a couple of bouts with Jackie using the wooden horses.

Jackie also takes on a group of local law officers, using two swords with great skill and his Lion dance at the start is quite impressive too.

All up, not a bad effort at all.

I give The young master 7.5/10.