Crystal Fist (1979)

Written by rumblylwc on August 28, 2012

Jade Claw is basically a clone of Snake in the eagle's shadow by Jackie Chan. I watched both of these and Jade Claw is the better movie in a landslide. The movies starts off as usual. Boy witnesses his father being killed by a villain who is a master of the double phoenix eye fist(the 3rd best villain of all time in my opinion). He is left only with a jade in rememberance of him.

This movie has some good comedy in it as well. Not too much and just enough. The kid impersonates a kung fu master to get a job in a kung fu school. He's caught easily but asks to work for the school. He gets the job and at the same time gets to learn kung fu from some half behind teachers while being picked on and bullied.

He befriends an old cook at the school who so happens to be enemies of the man that murdered his father and also a kung fu master. They have some funny battles of tricks and so forth that should make you laugh. After getting fed up with being beat down by half behind fighters the young kid decides to run away.

The old cook feels sorry for the young boy and displays his kung fu skills. After a few tricks and begging, the old man decides to teach the kid a little kung fu. After learning a little the kid goes to put his skills to the test. The double phoenix eye master has sent out two masters, one blind and one death. He wants them to search every school to find anyone who knows the eagle claw style which is the style of the old cook.

So while flaunting his newfound skills, the double phoenix eye master notices the kid knows some eagle claw. The kid tries to fight off the master but he is no match. He is tortured and the goons try to get him to tell who his master is but he would not talk. They leave him in one piece so they can find who his master is.

After returning back to the old man beat half dead, the young kid hands the cook the jade his father gave him. Then the cook recognizes that he is the son of an old pupil of his that was killed. So he decides to teach the kid the eagle claw style to avenge his father. In the end the kid even learns another special technique from the old guy.

The kid squares off against the death and blind master and the double phoenix eye fist. He also gets a little revenge for the cowards that bullied him in the corny school. It makes for a classic that Im suprised no one has reviewed yet. Get this movie and keep it in your collection. Its an excellent kung fu movie that you could watch over and over.