Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978) + Spiritual Kung Fu (1978) [The Criterion Collection]

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu / Yi zhao ban shi chuang jiang hu (1978) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080623/

Director: Chi-Hwa Chen
Writer: Jackie Chan, Ming-Chi Tang
Stars: Jackie Chan, Chun-Erh Lung, Cheng-Lan Chin

Like a live-action comic book, this antic farce lets Jackie Chan, choreographing his own fight sequences, cut loose with a wild parody of the martial-arts genre. He plays a bumbling wannabe kung-fu master who, when he assumes the identity of a dead hero, finds himself embroiled in a series of absurd misadventures and the search for a pair of mystical artifacts. Cartoon sound effects and send-ups of everything from Popeye to Jesus Christ Superstar are part of the lighthearted fun—not to mention Chan fighting a bald adversary with his own wig!


Spiritual Kung Fu / Quan jing (1978) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078128/

Director: Wei Lo
Writer: Lei Pan
Stars: Jackie Chan, Chih-Ping Chiang, Hsiu-yi Fang

Jackie Chan’s kung-fu clowning gets a supernatural twist in this off-the-wall action fantasy. He stars as a cheeky student at a Shaolin temple who must fight to protect his order, with help from some unexpected mentors: five pink-haired, silver-leotard-sporting extraterrestrial spirits who train him in arcane, animal-style martial arts with an otherworldly flair. The ghostly high jinks (realized with eye-poppingly outlandish special effects) give way to a last half hour that’s near-nonstop action, with Chan single-handedly taking on eighteen stick-wielding monks in a blistering battle royal.



Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar:
Originally tapped as a potential successor to Bruce Lee, Hong Kong martial-arts phenom Jackie Chan soon established his own unique screen persona, blending goofball slapstick and bone-crunching kung fu into intricate feats of supercharged athleticism. Tracing his rise from breakout star to full-fledged auteur, these six unabashedly silly, unstoppably entertaining early-career highlights find Chan refining the lovably mischievous image that would make him a global icon, while also assuming greater creative control over his projects—first as his own martial-arts choreographer, and later as a writer-director who set a thrilling new standard for daredevil action comedy.

Extras:
- Alternate stereo and 5.1 surround Cantonese soundtracks
- Classic English-dubbed tracks for Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, Spiritual Kung Fu, The Fearless Hyena, and Fearless Hyena II, plus an English-dubbed alternate track for Fearless Hyena II
- Contemporary English-dubbed tracks for The Young Master and My Lucky Stars

- THE ULTIMATE SHOWMAN
- TRAILER 1
- TRAILER 2

- LO WEI AND HIS ACTION FILMS
- FIGHTING STYLE
- TRAILER