The Young Master

Two brothers, Dragon and Tiger, grew up at the same school. Tiger sabotages a lion dance competition by faking an injury and Dragon takes his place. When the betrayal comes out Tiger is expelled. Dragon sets off to find him, is mistaken for a criminal along the way, and finally faces an escaped convict named Kam. Jackie Chan directed and starred, writing the script with Edward Tang, Lau Tin-chi and Tung Lu. It was his second time directing and his first film for Golden Harvest, the first result of leaving his old studio for a new company. The first cut ran three hours; the Hong Kong version was brought down to 106 minutes and a 90-minute international cut also exists. During production Chan injured his throat and nearly suffocated. It opened on 9 February 1980, became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of the year and broke the all-time domestic box office record at the time. It also topped the charts in South Korea and Japan, taking roughly 6.2 million dollars across Asia and Europe. Who it is for: anyone interested in the period when Jackie Chan built his own style, and in long choreographed fights. Who it is not for: viewers who want a story. The plot exists to link the fight scenes and does nothing more.