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Simply Perfect

best movie i've ever seen.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If my martial arts teacher died because he was unable to defend himself in a fight I would reconsider my own abilities and find a new and much better teacher. That's why they never made one of these movies about me. There are two easy ways to make a bad movie worse. First is failing to get to the point. Chan could have had his revenge in the first scene yet the movie goes on and on introducing new reasons to delay the duel. Second is to take a poorly executed fight sequence and chop it up to make it jerky and missing frames. This happened as a result of the need to placate censorship for violence in different countries. Also two effects need to be avoided. If a sword through the chest needs to be shown then putting the sword in the actor's armpit doesn't fool anybody. And cutting a person in half, top down, always looks stupid. The only good thing I found was that the lead actor, David Tang Wei, though obviously not a martial artist seemed to do all of the action sequences without a stunt double. Some sequences were quite long without a cut but that was misleading because though long there were few actual moves. For me this was a watch it once, write a review, never watch it again experience.

I first watched Invincible Super Chan when I was roughly 14 years old, and it was one of the earlier wuxia films I bought. I've seen many, many more now, and yet years later I always go back to this one. Maybe its the fact that it was banned in 34 countries. Maybe its the fact that human beings are randomly brutalized in multiple forms of bloody dismemberment. I think what really keeps me interested are the special effects: for 1970 this one really is quite technically impressive. Chan seamlessly jumps off cliffs while throwing bombs at hordes of baddies, he teleports, and his arch nemesis even surfs across a river on a flag! It ultimately ends with him beheading him, and yet somehow his head keeps functioning while its on the sand! How'd they do it?!

The packaging says this was banned in Asia for its violence; however, what we have here in the American dubbed release appears to be a censoring re-edit, because I've seen worse violence in films, and the editing in action sequences here seem intended to pare away pro-longed blood-letting.Not that the uncensored edits are any much better; still, I continue to hope that one day I will be able to see this film in all its original pristine gore.How bad is this film, just as a film? well, the hero and his wife are standing at the grave of the hero's teacher at sunset - at least, the painted backdrop behind them appears to be that of the setting sun - how do we know it's a painted backdrop? because when the hero walks in front of it, the spotlight casts his shadow ON the sun! They just don't make suns like they used to, I guess.Actually, one has to get into a kind of weird "Mack Sennett meets Tsui Hark" kind of groove to enjoy this film. It's definitely a silent movie that somehow got made in the sound-film era; and it's definitely a wild wire-works ride through the realm of magical sword-fighting in ancient China - you can even see the wires attached to mannequins flying about pretending to be sword-fighters.Oh, well, I might as well admit that I just have a soft spot for cinematic moments when people are killed by having rocks shoved down their throats.Eight stars for entertainment value, but only for real connoisseurs.

Many will condemn this movie for its poor quality, bad editing and sporadic plot; however, those who do cannot understand the beauty of a truly bad movie. This is a truly bad movie. So bad that I have seen it a half dozen times.Somebody killed Chan's teacher. Chan wants revenge. The only thing that stands between himself and that noble goal is about five hundred people, variously armed. After he gets his revenge, he still has to defeat a man brandishing a slinky.Nothing is good about the movie: Chan is a non-dynamic character whose fighting ability is less Jackie Chan than it is Jackie Onasis. It looks as if, at a certain point in the movie, the editor simply gives up and goes home, leaving editing in the capable hands of pure random chance. The women are as ugly as mud fences that have been painstakingly sculpted to look like really ugly Chinese women. The villains are gay, frail or just plain stupid.But, like a cryptogram, you realize that there must be something hidden in this movie...something deep...the key to the meaning of life, perhaps.I let my twelve year old watch it for the first time this weekend. Between the two of us and several watchings, we should get it figured out...