Hand of Death is notable for being one of the first handful of movies directed by the legendary John Woo, and you can definitely see a different cinematography and action direction than you would in the typical Shaw era film.
Candidly speaking, the only copy of this movie I could find was dubbed in German, so I’m a little lost on what’s going on.
However, this is why Jesus made Wikipedia. Jackie plays a supporting role as a blacksmith in this, and we also have Sammo Hung in a role(Hung also directed the fight scenes). This revolves around a warrior in the Qing Dynasty trying to kill all of the Shaolin in China. Pretty standard stuff for the era. This movie marks one of the first major injuries Jackie Chan sustained during a film.
This one is put together pretty well, with Woo and Hung directing the action. How can that possibly be bad? It is a bit weird seeing John Woo direct action that doesn’t involve being shot with a shotgun.
Fight 1 – Extremely brief affair that sets up a bigger fight with the main characters. Jackie’s character, Tan Feng, is injured, fighting with one arm. Our main villain easily dispatches him with a few blows. Notable for some early Jackie Chan comedic facials. (No rating)
Fight 2 – Tan Fang delivers the first blows in the Shaolin offensive against the main villain. Jackie does some really good work with a spear, and everything is really crisp and fluid. We see something that was pretty common at the time, but that Jackie would later get away from, and that is Jackie’s character killing his foes. He often stated that he he didn’t like for his heroes to be seen as killers. This is fun, but brief and serves to set up the bigger climax. My favorite thing about this scene, is that it is shot in such a different way than what you would be used to from this era(as are many of the scenes in this). Woo’s direction is a breath of fresh air in the genre. (Rating 4/10)
Fight 3 – Tan Fang battles two of the main villain’s elite guards(one of whom severely hurt Fang earlier on). Really fun scene, as you can see everything coming together for Jackie and how he would later do things. Lots of creative spots here, even if there were no props or environments to use. Cool camera shots as well. If it had a little more variety and a few more minutes, I would rate it higher. (Rating 5/10)
Tan Fang unfortunately suffers a fatal wound when helping his friends even the odds in the next scene, and that wraps up his time in this film.
My final verdict is to SEE IT. Pretty significant to see John Woo working with Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, and even though I had to watch it in a foreign language with no subs, the acting felt very good, and the action was extremely well shot. This is also something of a “forgotten” Jackie Chan movie, as it doesn’t often get included in his collections or mentioned. Possibly because he uses his Hong Kong screen name, but it’s available online so check it out!
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