Jackie Chan made his first go at being the writer, director, producer and star in his own movie. It is not bad, and serves as a good preview of things to come in his amazing career.

##The story goes…

Dragon (Jackie Chan) goes in search of his best friend Tiger
who runs away from school after being exposed as a traitor to the Kung-Fu
school they both attend. Tiger gets mixed up with the wrong kind of people.
Dragon helps to get him back on the right track.

##Early signs of genius

I knew going into this movie that it was an early effort by
Jackie to break away from the mold of Hong Kong movies of the time. The
basic you-killed-my-master-so-I-kill-you movie had long since become stale.
So around 1979 Jackie decided that what was needed was a bit more humor,
more interestingly choreographed fight scenes, and a different story line
that would hold an audiences interest for the entire movie.

He was right.

About this time he filmed his last two (Hong Kong) movies in which he
didn’t have complete control over what was going on during the production:
Drunken Master and Fearless Hyena. These two movies brought the comedy into
the genre, but not much else. With The Young Master, the transformation is
complete, and the Kung-Fu movie will never be the same again.

Sure, in many of his subsequent movies he’s not the director, writer, or
producer, but because of who he is he’s able to maintain control even if
not credited for it.

##All in all

All in all this movie is quite entertaining, but there’s quite a few slow
spots that make it hard for a non Jackie Chan fan to stick through it to
the end. The fight choreography looks choreographed (something that Jackie
is able to avoid in later movies), but is stunning nonetheless.