Exiled from his martial arts school, a young man tries to track down his brother, but being mistaken by many for a notorious outlaw along the way derails his quest in this Hong Kong action film written by, directed by and starring Jackie Chan. The movie is incredibly slow to warm up with almost half an hour elapsing before he leaves the martial arts school, but once the film gets going, it rarely lets up. The fight sequences throughout are wildly inventive with Chan incorporating everything from benches to folding fans to ancient pipes into the fights and the choreography is just as impressive. There is a particularly memorable scene in which Chan goes from sitting at a desk to under the desk and back again while try to evade a policeman he is fighting against. The film has several genuinely funny moments too once the mistaken identity theme gets going, with a wash room scene especially standing out. The comedy edge is a little uneven though; most of the initial humour comes from characters being whacked in cartoon-like manners. The jerky camera-work - full of rapid fire zooms in and out - is a little off-putting too; same goes for the melodramatic music score. Chan holds his own as both a comedian and kung fu master throughout though and even as the plot starts to turn episodic towards the end, Chan's presence renders the experience endlessly enticing. This is certainly not an action film for all tastes, but watched in the right frame of mind, it is far more entertaining than one might expect from the first half hour alone.

Young master 1980 I got the platinum edition which is remastered well for a old film. Jakie is in a story of fighting against people in a martial art school with a hard master the film is traditional with semi realistic elements in it , Jakie gets involved with a rivalry clan who step by step threat the school of his , the film is funny as its a comedy and the fighting is not present only now and again .the young master is a dull film and takes on too much humor and less arts this could have been better if it was a classic but its same in its boring formula but the trademark of Jakie takes on several funny characters like yuan Biro which adds fun as the film doesn't get better then and Somme hung would make these films better . The scene which makes this a film to view is a one on one fight with hang in Sui who does some nice hapkido , this is the only fight of Jakie's so far that's a different and fun fight to watch but it isn't really great as Jakie takes inhuman punishment .The young master is only worth viewing for its funny scenes and the rare surprise of hapkido after all its nothing that's worth paying loads a money out for like I did its a pain to get these films and a pain to get the best versions and even to get them at a reasonable price .

Golden Harvest has been working on fresh ideas that while done in classic kung fu movie format, had elements that made their movies more modern and entertaining. This is one of their greatest movie starring Jackie Chan.Two kung fu schools competes in a lion dance contest. It's a very unusual lion dance with lots of amazing acrobatics. School Jackie Chan's in loses, and his brother takes the blame, and is dismissed from the school. The opponent school bullies Jackie's school, and the teacher takes it out on the students. Jackie is an orphan with his brother who's been raised by the school's master. He apologizes, and decides to leave but asks the master to not to take it out on the other students. Jackie then goes on a journey to search for his brother, and meets other experts that helps him to grow into a new master.Mixtures of story and kung fu is superb in this movie. It's old school, but there's also Jackie Chan element in it. He's showing the type of techniques that became signature Jackie Chan fight sequences. The quality is definitely higher because of Jackie Chan's involvement. If anyone else did this, this movie would have been just another kung fu movie.Defining Jackie Chan movie along with the "Drunken Master" that established him as the super star.

Just to make a correction. "YOUNG MASTER" was not Jackie's first official directing debut. "FEARLESS HYENA was the first film he directed and was credited for. He had to direct "FEARLESS HYENA" for Lo Wei in 1979 before leaving for Golden Harvest. Apparently he directed his own film out of necessity right after his success with SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW and DRUNKEN MASTER. Jackie did not want to go back to the melodramatic boring stuff that Lo Wei has been doing with him already in the past, knowing he was no longer in tune with Chinese audiences.However, "YOUNG MASTER" IS the first film he directed when he worked for at Golden Harvest. This is all documented in Jackie's autobiography "I AM JACKIE CHAN."This is a fun film which I saw over 20 times in the Chinese theaters when it was first released. Whang In Sik is a great martial artist and an incredible villain who Jackie meets in the final fight scene that clocks in at an incredible 16 minutes. Master Whang also returns as the villain Jackie's next film "DRAGON LORD."