Master with Cracked Fingers

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Guang dong xiao lao hu/ Master With Cracked Fingers

Directed by	Chu Mu Jackie Chan as Yuen Lung Chan (martial arts director) Fu Yai Se (martial arts director)
Produced by	Lee Long Koan
Starring	Jackie Chan Siu Tien Yuen Dean Shek
Release date(s)	1971
Running time	80 mins
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
IMDb profile

Master with Cracked Fingers (Guang dong xiao lao hu) aka Snake Fist Fighter martial arts film directed by Mu Chu and starring Jackie Chan. It is often cited as being produced in 1971 or 1973. Whilst much of the footage was from 1973, the film was not actually released until 1979.

1 Background
2 Plot synopsis
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Background

The film was concocted using footage from other films, primarily from a little-seen independent 1973 film entitled The Cub Tiger From Kwang Tung (aka Little Tiger of Canton) which featured a teenage Chan in one of his earliest roles. After Chan had become famous through films like Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master in the late 1970s, the footage was re-edited. Additional material from the Drunken Master era and new footage of Dean Shek and Yuen Siu Tien in another appearance of his beggar character, was tacked on. Even a rather obvious Chan double was hired and fought with a blind-fold so the viewer couldn't tell. In 1981, the poorly edited and assembled footage was acquired by Dick Randall, who named it Master with Cracked Fingers and dubbed it into English. It was then sold to 21st Century Distribution, and released in the US under the title Snake Fist Fighter.

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film has a similar theme to The Young Master (1980). The young and undisciplined Jackie (Jackie Chan) undergoes the tutelage of a nomadic master who has a rigorous training style focusing upon the hardening of the fist.

Jackie has been intrigued by kung fu since he was a boy, but he cannot afford to pay for lessons. He later meets an old beggar, "The Man Who Isn't There", who offers to teach him the secrets of fighting. After years of training funder his sifu, his skills advance, but his father forbids him to practice. After a series of fights with a local gang of extorionists, and progressively more severe punishments from his father, he fends off the gang once more. In retribution, the gang burn down his house, killing Jackie's father. To avenge his father's death, Jackie agrees to a blindfolded fight against the gang leader, (Kwan Yung-moon).