Spiritual Kung Fu

Another early kung fu flick from Jackie Chan's Wei Lo period (Wei Lo, who also directed Fists of Fury with Bruce Lee, directed seven of Chan's early films), Spiritual Kung Fu (alternatively titled Karate Ghostbuster) has Chan playing a familiar character--the bumbling underdog. Chan is a Shaolin monastery student whose fighting style and wits aren't quite up to par. Dissension and panic arise in the temple when a thief steals the book of the Seven Fist Style, a form of kung fu that allegedly makes its masters invincible. While guarding the temple's library, Chan comes across a lost book that teaches the Five Style Fists, which can defeat the Seven Fist Style. What's more, the book comes with five mischievous spirits that teach the style to Chan. When the monastery is challenged by the man who stole the Seven Fist Style, the spirits help Chan defeat him. The DVD transfer and voice dubbing are more akin to a Saturday afternoon television matinee than a technical tour de force, but the story certainly lends itself to its presentation. A campy and uneven effort (what else can you say about a movie in which spirits don white body paint and bright red fright wigs?), Spiritual Kung Fu, like the Wei Lo-directed Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, was shelved for a couple of years before being released in 1978. --Shannon Gee