The Cub Tiger from Kwangtung [廣東小老虎] (1973)
AKA Little Tiger from Kwantung, Little Tiger of Canton, Master with Cracked Fingers, Snake Fist Fighter, Ten Fingers of Death, Marvellous Fists
Starring Jackie Chan, Chen Hung Lieh, Shu Pei-Pei, Tien Feng, Hon Gwok-Choi, Ma Chien-Tang, Kwan Chung, Tai San, Hui Gam
Directed by Ngai Hoi-Fung
Expectations: Low.
So it begins. The long-awaited and exciting chronological review series of the films of Jackie Chan. Words cannot express how excited I am to finally do this, as Jackie Chan is simply one of the most important film figures to me as an audience member. He is single-handedly responsible for my Hong Kong movie obsession, stemming directly from the US release of Rumble in the Bronx, and his love and homage to Buster Keaton through his own crazy stunts led me to discover silent films and delve deep into classic cinema during my teenage years. I simply wouldn’t be the same person without Jackie Chan films (and Uncle Jasper’s friendship and well-established HK movie collection), so the series is loaded with a lot of emotion for me.
But much of that emotion will have to be held back until later films, as it took this Jacky a while to develop into the Jackie we know and love today. The Cub Tiger from Kwangtung was his first starring role, but it had something of a strange release. Filmed in 1971 when Jackie was a tender, stubble-faced 17-year-old, but held for release until 1973, The Cub Tiger from Kwangtung did not light the world on fire. In fact, its release in 1973 was supposedly so small and limited that many never saw it and it is regarded as one of the rarer Jackie Chan films. After he became a sensation in the late ’70s, the film was re-cut with brand new, non-Jackie footage to create the “new” film, Master with Cracked Fingers, and that’s the version most Chan fans have likely seen of the film. God knows it’s been on too many budget-priced Jackie collections to count. But this review is for the original release version, unearthed and released to DVD a few years back in absolutely horrific print quality. Good thing I cut my teeth on equally dodgy HK bootlegs!
December is always a big month for the movies. The studios in their last-ditch efforts to win Oscars are pumping out some of their best offerings of the year. While there are a whole host of likely candidates for good films, there are only three that I really care much about. The first of these is probably the most obvious to those that know me well: Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth filmmaking, The Hobbit. I’m unsure that The Hobbit contains enough story or is worthy of an entire trilogy all to itself, but I have faith in Peter Jackson to deliver something compelling and wholly engrossing. I’m quite interested in checking this one out in 3D too, as it will be the first major film to be released in 48 frames per second, and according to Jackson, this will change the game for filmmaking quite a bit. 24 frames per second has suited everyone just fine for over a hundred years, though, so perhaps this is just Jackson at his most Lucas-like. We’ll see, but I’m very excited regardless.
The second film is Tarantino’s latest: Django Unchained. This one I know far less about than The Hobbit, but as soon as it was announced I was on-board. While Tarantino doesn’t hold the same place in my heart that he did when I was 16 or so, I can’t deny that I still greatly enjoy his work. Inglourious Basterds was my favorite film of 2009, and I think it’s easily Tarantino’s best film as well. So that, coupled with the fact that this looks to be another great tale of revenge, leads me to be pretty sure that Django Unchained will be fucking awesome. And honestly, Tarantino had me with the title. As soon as I heard it, I knew he was making a “character name only” Django clone, just as countless Italian filmmakers had done in the wake of 
Little Big Soldier [大兵小將] (2010)
Shaolin [新少林寺] (2011)
The Karate Kid (2010)
Wheels on Meals [快餐車] (1984)