Dragon Fist

Dragon Fist (simplified Chinese: 龙拳; traditional Chinese: 龍拳), also known as Dangsang Martial Arts or The Wild Big Boss,[3] is a 1979 Hong Kong martial arts film directed and produced by Lo Wei, starring Jackie Chan, Nora Miao and James Tien. The film was released in Hong Kong on 21 April 1979.

This article is about the film starring Jackie Chan. For other uses, see Dragon Fist (disambiguation).

Dragon Fist
Theatrical poster
Directed byLo Wei
Produced byHsu Li-hwa
Lo Wei
Written byWang Chung-pin
StarringJackie Chan
Nora Miao
James Tien
Yen Shi Kwan
Eagle Han-ying
Wu Wen-sau
Music byFrankie Chan
CinematographyChen Yung-hsu
Edited byLeung Wing-chan
Distributed byLo Wei Motion Picture Company
Release date
  • 21 April 1979 (1979-04-21)
[1]
Running time
93 minutes[2]
CountryHong Kong
LanguageMandarin
Box officeHK$1 million (Hong Kong)
103,261 tickets (Seoul City)

Plot

Tang How-yuen (Jackie Chan) is a disciple of kung fu master San-thye. San-thye wins a martial arts tournament, only to be killed by evil kung fu master, Master Li (Yen Shi-kwan). Tang tries unsuccessfully to fight Chung, and leaves the evil master unharmed. Tang, along with San-thye's wife and daughter head after the killer to seek revenge. When they find him, Chung has repented and has cut off his own leg as penance. The master's widow becomes ill, so Tang goes to work for a gang in order to get her medicine. However, whilst in their employ, he is blamed for the death of a young boy, and San-Thye's widow is poisoned. Tang and the one-legged master join forces to defeat the evil lord who poisoned San-thye's widow.

Cast
  • Jackie Chan as Tang How-yuen
  • Hsu Hsia as Master King
  • Ouyang Sha-fei as Master King's wife
  • Nora Miao as Zhuang Meng-lan
  • Yen Shi-kwan as Master Li
  • Pearl Lin - Zhong Qiu-ping
  • James Tien as Fang Gang
  • Eagle Han-ying as Nan Qing
  • Ko Keung as Master Wing
  • Chui Yuen as Wing's student
  • Wong Kwong-yue as Wing's assistant
  • Chui Fat as Wing's assistant
  • Peng Kang as Wing's student
  • Wang Yao as Wing's student

Production

Like Chan's Spiritual Kung Fu, Dragon Fist was filmed in South Korea in early 1978 but was unable to be released or produced because the studio went bankrupt and was running out of money. As a result, both Lo Wei productions only had cost-cutting measures after Chan returned from his loan deal with Seasonal Films, where he made Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master alongside director Yuen Woo-ping. During the production, Chan reportedly had his nose broken repeatedly, joking "Do you think I was born with this nose?"[4] Unlike most of Jackie Chan's early films, Dragon Fist had a more serious tone, with little in the way of comedic moments.[5]

Like many other Hong Kong kung fu films, the film was scored with various musical cues from American films, mainly Jerry Goldsmith's 1966 score for The Sand Pebbles.[6]

Box office

The film grossed HK$1,004,000 at the Hong Kong box office in 1979.[3] In South Korea, the film sold 103,261 tickets in Seoul City.[7][8]

Home media
  • On 15 February 2001, Seven 7 released the French language theatrical version DVD entitled Le Poing De La Vengeance, with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It contains no other language options.
  • On 22 October 2001, Eastern Heroes released the film in the UK on DVD, uncut (except for many frame-cuts). However, it's poorly cropped from 2.35:1 into 1.78:1 and only contains an English dub.
  • On 4 June 2002, Columbia Tri-Star released the film in the US on DVD, in Full Frame with English and Cantonese language options. However, it contains a heavily edited version produced by Aquarius Releasing (roughly 15 minutes missing) and is dubtitled.
  • On 24 February 2006, Universal Japan released the film in Japan on DVD, in 2.35:1 and with a Cantonese soundtrack. This version was the first completely uncut release on DVD, however, it does not feature any English subtitles.
  • On 11 June 2007, Hong Kong Legends released the film in the UK on DVD, in 2.35:1 and uncut in Cantonese language with newly translated English subtitles.
  • In 2018, UK company 88 Films released the film on Blu-ray. It contains the original Mandarin, Cantonese, and English language tracks in mono and in a newly remastered 5.1 DTS-HD MA format. The blu-ray also contains subtitles for each track option. It is uncut and remastered in genuine HD.

See also

References
  1. Corcoran, John (2003). The Unauthorized Jackie Chan Encyclopedia: From Project A to Shanghai Noon and Beyond. Contemporary Books. p. 2002. ISBN 978-0-07-138899-3.
  2. Staff writer (23 May 2007). "Dragon Fist". British Board of Film Classification.
  3. "Dragon Fist (1979)". Hong Kong Movie Database. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  4. Witterstaetter, Renée (October 1997). Dying for Action: The Life and Films of Jackie Chan. Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-67296-3 – via Internet Archive.
  5. Gentry, Clyde (1997). Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-87833-970-9.
  6. Charles, John (16 April 2009). The Hong Kong Filmography, 1977–1997. McFarland & Company. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-4766-0262-2.
  7. "영화정보" [Movie Information]. KOFIC (in Korean). Korean Film Council. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  8. "The Wild Big Boss (Dangsanbigwon)". Korean Movie Database. Korean Film Archive. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
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