Dragon Fist 4K 1979 Ultra HD 2160p

A rival killed a martial arts teacher for having an affair with his wife. The wife committed suicide. And a jealous husband cut off his own leg after his wife's death. A young warrior - the teacher's apprentice wants revenge on the murderer. Soon they unite to find those who poisoned the woman and passed it off as suicide.

User Review

By the time 'Dragon Fist' was filmed, Jackie Chan had already become the No. 1 star in Hong Kong and surrounding Asian countries. Under his belt was not only a lot of occasional roles and work with many of the outstanding masters of Chinese cinema, including Bruce Lee, but also a series of major roles in Lo Wei and three masterpieces that brought him great fame, big money and, most importantly, a fair share of independence - “Snake in the shadow of the eagle”, “Drunken Master” and the first directorial work of Jackie Chan “Fearless Hyena”, which became by then the most box-office film in China in history.

These three pictures largely determined the themes and style of Chan's future films. But we should not forget that for the filming of these timeless masterpieces Chan 'borrowed' other studios, and they borrowed it from Lo Wei, whose contract still kept Jackie Chan on a string. Yes, the relationship between Jackie and Lo by then were strained and was about to burst into a real scandal, yes, Jackie was looking for any opportunity to leave the annoying 'dictator', he was angry at the fact that his ideas are realized only 'on the way out', and his stellar fame gives him only relative autonomy. Completely disillusioned with Luo Wei's films and his work with this director, he was nevertheless forced to star in every subsequent Luo Wei work. 'Dragon Fist' was their last full-fledged movie together.

Despite the fact that 'Fearless Hyena' was a phenomenal success and many Hong Kong filmmakers had already realized and appreciated the importance of the changes needed in Hong Kong's stagnant cinema, Lo Wei continued to make films on what was probably the only subject he knew. Despite the fact that almost all of his recent films have been marginally profitable, the man's shortsightedness knew no bounds. 'Dragon Fist' returns again and again to the theme of clan warfare and tribal revenge, boring literally everyone - from the audience to the actors.

And Jackie Chan once again returns to the role of the fearless and ruthless vigilante, whose villains this time killed a teacher and the teacher's widow, whom he had sworn to protect. Indeed, it's a theme that's been trodden on and on. Jackie was skeptical about his role in the film, but it is worth noting that he is clearly too hard on himself, because the role, despite all its ordinariness, turned out to be very good. At the beginning of the movie Jackie appears as a great-aged baby, then he is already in the image of a man of iron will and unshakable word. In the cheekbone, hard face is almost impossible to recognize the cute features of Lung, the boy hero from 'Fearless Hyena '.

So no matter how angry Jackie was, angry at Lo and his work with him, I can say unequivocally that the skill can not be forgotten, and not even 'hate ', because in the hatred and thirst for revenge Jackie in this movie believe unconditionally.

As I said, by 1979 Jackie had claimed relative autonomy from Lo Wei and the result of this 'special position' in this case were the fights, all of which were directed by Jackie Chan himself and all of which are above reproach. Of course, in many ways they do not go beyond tradition, but the ability to catch the camera movement, the quality of the fight and shooting it, the variety of styles, the number, duration, beauty of fights are characteristic of Jackie Chan's films, rather than Lo Wei. Especially good is the final fight, which uses a large number of artistic, that is uncharacteristic of real kung fu, invented by Jackie himself fighting techniques.

Despite Luo Wei's intolerance, the fights here are quite 'Jackichan'. Another characteristic of this is the almost complete disappearance of the theatricality, 'operaticity' of the fights inherent in the old film school; despite the artistry, the fights here are quite realistic and do not allow you to doubt their suitability in practice.

The movie starred the old Lodeyevskaya team of actors, including Nora Miao, who played in 'Fist of Fury' with Bruce Lee, well, and the obligatory James Tien, without whom no action movie Lo Wei, also in the frame, and this time not in the role of the villain.

The movie turned out to be quite good. Of course, this does not apply to the frayed plot and dialog level: 'Oh, you're so! Well, let's fight! ' But the Chinese are a patient people, they've been watching movies based on the same plot for 30 years and haven't complained. By the way, 'Dragon Fist' was received by the public, though better than Wei's other works, but still with a chill. This is understandable, because just a few months before the movie came out extravaganza “Fearless Hyena” and people have not yet had time to get used to the updates and without much enthusiasm perceived the return to the old.

Ended a whole era in the life and work of Jackie Chan, 'decade with Lo Wei ', which gave the world, on the one hand, a dozen often not too high quality and very monotonous films, but on the other hand, opened Jackie Chan and paved the way for his own findings, developed in him an understanding of his own path.

For that, Lo Wei and Jackie Chan, and we the audience, should still be grateful. Jackie the Avenger is certainly not as great as Jackie the Funny Guy, but perhaps this theme holds a special place in the soul of the Chinese - after all, after a quarter of a century, the aging Jackie Chan makes 'A New Police Story', where he returns to the motives of revenge, albeit in a different way....

'Dragon Fist' is a decent movie, and if to speak in local meaning (using only other Lo Wei's movies for comparison), then perhaps even very good, it makes sense to watch it, if, of course, you are not sick of movies about how a lonely hero takes terrible revenge on bandits who killed his teacher, brother, father, grandmother, aunt, cat, raped his sister and broke the meat grinder. Jackie is good in this movie, and what more do you need, after all?

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (94.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Info Audio

#Mandarin: FLAC 2.0
#Cantonese: FLAC 2.0
#English: LPCM Audio 2.0

Info Subtitles