Spiritual Kung Fu (1978)

Spiritual Kung Fu (1978)
aka: Karate Ghostbuster
Chinese Title: 拳精
Translation: Boxer

 

Starring: Jackie Chan, James Tien Chuen, Wu Wen-Siu, Li Tong-Chun, Lee Kwan, Dean Shek Tin, Kao Chiang, Lee Hae-Ryong, Wong Ching, Wu Te-Shan
Director: Lo Wei
Action Director: Jackie Chan, Man Lee-Pang, Peng Kang, Wang Yao

When Jackie Chan signed on to the Lo Wei Motion Picture Co. in 1976, it did not take long for him to start badgering his boss to let him make a kung fu comedy. Lo Wei balked at the very idea for the longest time. However, after the gamble to loan Chan out to Seasonal Films paid off with the success of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Lo Wei became a bit more open minded. He made two kung fu comedies in the ensuing months: Half a Loaf of Kung Fu and Spiritual Kung Fu. The former was deemed unwatchable by Lo Wei and shelved until 1980, when Jackie Chan had become a huge star. The latter was stuck in limbo for a few months when Lo Wei was unable to find a distributor; the success of Drunken Master in November allowed Lo Wei to put it into theaters the following month.

The fact that it was made before the success of Drunken Master suggests that Lo Wei had not fully understood what made Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow work as a kung fu comedy. In other words, the “Seasonal Formula” was still only half-formed at this point. While there is comedy in the film, much of it is derived from the low-budget silliness of the film’s ghosts and accompanying “special” effects than the sort of complex physical comedy that Chan is most known for.

Jackie Chan plays Yi Lang, a layman student at the Shaolin Temple who has practically been raised at the establishment since infancy. He is also the most troublesome and mischievous of the students, and that includes comedy toxic waste dump Dean Shek. One evening, Yi Lang is on guard duty at the temple library when a masked fighter shows up, knocks him out, beats up all the monks, and takes off with the Seven Fists Style manual. The Abbot (Lee Tong-Chun, father of Taiwanese actor Lee Yi-Min) assumes responsibility for the theft and retreats to a cave for 100 days to meditate and repent, leaving a blind monk (Lee Hae-Ryong, of Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) to assume the leadership. Meanwhile, the kung fu manual falls into the hands of Lu Qing (James Tien, of Magnificent Bodyguards and The Big Boss), who uses it to assert supremacy over all the local clans.

Some time later, a meteor strikes near the temple, awakening a quintet of ghosts, who wreak havoc on the Shaolin library. The only person who seems to take it in stride is Yi Lang, who discovers that the ghosts’ existence is tied to a “lost” kung fu manual for the Five Animals Style. Coincidentally, the Five Animals Style is the only one known to be able to counter the Seven Fists Style. Yi Lang convinces the ghosts, who represent each of the five animals, to teach him kung fu. A series of murders rocks the temple, causing Yi Lang to leave Shaolin in search of the culprit.

Interestingly enough, the story of Spiritual Kung Fu functions as much as a mystery as it does a kung fu film. That also means that while Lu Qing is running around killing the competition, Yi Lang and the monks are running around to discover whodunit. What this also means is that one of the more important aspects of the kung fu comedy—the training sequences—comes across as an afterthought. They mainly consist of Jackie Chan practicing animal forms with the ghosts, but without any sense of logical progression. But, as I suggested before, had the movie been produced after The Drunken Master, I’m sure that means that the mystery aspects of the story would have been played down in favor of more complex training sequences.

The comedy itself mainly stems from the ghosts themselves, portrayed by five stuntmen in white leotards and face paint sporting bright red wigs. Primitive special effects are used to make the ghosts look translucent in some scenes, so as we the viewer can seem them when the characters can’t. This actually comes into play during the final fight, and there’s amusing scene where one of the ghosts suggests that Chan uses one animal style against his adversary. A second ghost then tries to get Chan to use his style, only to be chastised by his cohorts for confusing their student. The plastic skeletons used when the monks are using fulu talismans—the yellow paper with Taoist incantations written in blood—to see the ghosts will also garner a chuckle, albeit not for the reason expected. Beyond that, the other jokes would have to age a few years to reach “puerile.”

While widely considered an interesting failure among Jackie Chan fans back in the 1990s, when mainstream Western audiences were discovering his modern hits, the film has enjoyed a re-evaluation over the past two decades. Most of its fans point to the strong action choreographed by Chan himself (with help from three additional choreographers) as reason for its current near-classic status. The showstopper is the sequence where Chan must face a contingent of pole-wielding monks in order to leave Shaolin. Chan arms himself with a pair of tonfa and a wonderful display of multi-fighter choreography ensues. Chan is known for his avoiding the one-at-a-time fighting during group melees, and here we can see that as early 1978, Chan was already working on that approach to group fights. The now-defunct site “Wasted Life” included this sequence as #68 on their 100 Best Fight Scenes project.

Complementing Jackie Chan is James Tien, another Peking Opera school graduate. Tien had gone to work for Golden Harvest in the early 1970s and spent the first half of the decade trying to become the next big thing. It never really came to pass and Tien was more or less an independent by the second half of the decade. While Tien was Opera trained, he was not the best screen fighter and by the time the technique-driven fighting became the thing, it was obvious that he was far behind the competition. That said, Tien delivers one of his best fighting performances in Chan’s hands and their fights are quite good. By the next decade, Tien had more or less given up screen fighting and became the go-to guy for filmmakers who wanted someone to play a crime boss.

Spiritual Kung Fu is recommended for those who want to see an early step in Chan’s progression as comic-minded martial arts actor. The last 30 minutes are choreography gold and open-minded viewers who don’t compare it to his later hits may very well be impressed by the physical prowess on display.