The Jade Fox (1979)

"You didn't capture me, I came looking for you!"

Directed by Kao Pao Shu and written by prolific writer Ni Kuang, The Jade Fox had non-stop action and all sorts of crisscross double cross action. There was also a female villain with a tricked-out war chair. And it wouldn’t be an old school kung fu flick without a secret map!

(I’m just going to use the actors’ names for most characters as there are different names floating around). Kao Pao Shu is plotting to take over the kingdom with the help of a secret map. Her main bodyguard is Lo Lieh. Tien “Roc” Peng/The Jade Fox steals the map from her courier. Kao has Lo Lieh deliver an “invitation” at the end of a sword for Nick Cheung Lik to come to Fairy Land. Doris Lung is Lik’s fiancée and she tears up the Jade Fox’s House of Pleasure looking for his pal Lik. In the process of cleaning out the place with her kung fu, she meets the Jade Fox’s other friend, Iron Hand/Eddy Ko and a young prostitute’s son called “Come Again” who was trained in martial arts by a monkey! Whew! Oh, and the Jade Fox’s ex-lover who works for Kao is ordered to bring him to the villainess.

The story bounces around and bodies begin dropping by the dozens as the Jade Fox attempts to track down the head villainess with the aid of Come Again, Doris Lung, and Eddy Ko. Jacky Chen who played an ill-fated hero who unfortunately discovered the deadly traps hidden in Kao Pao Shu’s chair and livery was one of the martial arts directors. He and Chen Mu Chuan had their hands full designing fight choreography for several actors who were not accomplished martial artists. For the most part they succeeded, keeping in mind this was before all the CGI, slow-mo wizardry done now. One of the best and most brutal fights was at the end between two “good” characters. I enjoyed Doris Lung and Eddy Ko’s performances and fight scenes more than I thought I would. Roc Tien wasn’t too wooden and the child character wasn’t overly annoying. Solid wins in this genre.

The story bordered on convoluted but the cast mostly pulled it off when compared to other low budget Taiwanese kung fu films from the time. The biggest detriment to this film was that it needs to be restored. It was quite blurry and zoomed in too much. The only copies I could find were dubbed and the sound wasn’t always great. There were also advertisements showing it was for sale in South Africa during two different scenes in the movie. These later issues were not the fault of the filmmaker so I had to strain all of the distracting later problems out as best I could. My score is probably a little high, even when grading on a curve, but I really enjoyed the bonkers fights at the end as all of the hidden identities and schemes were revealed. As usual, this is only for people who enjoy old kung fu movies, they are definitely a niche genre.

20 August 2024

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