''Little Tiger of Canton'' (), also known as ''Cub Tiger From Kwang Tung'', is a
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
Hong Kong martial arts
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Ko ...
action film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by Chu Mu and starring
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
. Chan was 17 when footage for the film was shot in 1971, and it is considered to be his first starring role. A re-edited version of the film, ''
Master with Cracked Fingers
''Master with Cracked Fingers'' (), also released as ''Snake Fist Fighter'', is a 1979 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Mu Chu and starring Jackie Chan. It is often cited as being produced in 1971, 1973, 1974 or 1981. The original footage ...
'', was later released in 1979.
Background
''Cub Tiger From Kwang Tung'' was filmed in Hong Kong in 1971, but only saw a limited cinema release two years later. The small independent release was shelved after its brief run and never received an international release. In the late 1979, in the wake of Chan's success in ''
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints ...
'' and ''
Drunken Master
''Drunken Master'' () is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, and Hwang Jang-lee. It was a success at the Hong Kong box office, earning two and a half times the amount o ...
'' (both 1978), the film re-emerged at Hong Kong cinemas, in a poorly re-edited version with some newer footage of Dean Shek and
Yuen Siu Tien spliced in, along with a rather obvious Jackie Chan double.
The amalgamated footage was sold to US
film producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...
Dick Randall, who dubbed and repackaged it, and gave it an alternative title, ''
Master with Cracked Fingers
''Master with Cracked Fingers'' (), also released as ''Snake Fist Fighter'', is a 1979 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Mu Chu and starring Jackie Chan. It is often cited as being produced in 1971, 1973, 1974 or 1981. The original footage ...
''. The rights were subsequently sold to
21st Century Distribution who gave this version of the film a brief run in US cinemas in 1981, under the title ''Snake Fist Fighter''.
Since Chan became more popular in the West, particularly after the US release of ''
Rumble in the Bronx
''Rumble in the Bronx'' (Chinese title: 紅番區, ''Hong Faan Kui'' (transl. ''Red Turn District'') is a 1995 American-Hong Kong martial arts film starring Jackie Chan, Anita Mui and Françoise Yip. It was directed by Stanley Tong, with action ...
'' (1996), the repackaged film has seen numerous VHS and DVD releases from a wide variety of
film distributor
A film distributor is responsible for the Film promotion, marketing of a film. The distribution company may be the same with, or different from, the production company. Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film.
The distributo ...
s in the US and UK.
The original film, ''Cub Tiger From Kwang Tung'' was finally given an international DVD release for the first time in 2007. It was released in the UK (DVD is 0 region) on Showbox Home Entertainment's Rarescope label. This is the complete original 85 minute film, as it was released in Hong Kong in 1973, without edits and additions. It contains the original Mandarin soundtrack and imbedded English/Chinese subtitles. Due to the poor quality of the print, some of the subtitles are chopped from the foot of the screen, so the DVD contains an additional set of subtitles which appear whenever the originals are cropped or missing.
Plot
Hsiao Hu (
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
) has been secretly training in martial arts, as his father (
Tien Feng
Tien Feng (born Tien Yu-kun, 4 June 1928 – 22 October 2015) was a Chinese actor, who appeared in hundreds of films in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
He has acted with Bruce Lee in '' Fist of Fury'' (1972) and with Jackie Chan in '' Little Tiger of Can ...
) has forbidden him. Later, some local store owners ask Ah to help protect them from a greedy Chinese extortion ring. Ah discovers that the crime lord behind the extortion had killed his father years before and is determined for revenge.
Cast
See also
*
Master with Cracked Fingers
''Master with Cracked Fingers'' (), also released as ''Snake Fist Fighter'', is a 1979 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Mu Chu and starring Jackie Chan. It is often cited as being produced in 1971, 1973, 1974 or 1981. The original footage ...
*
Jackie Chan filmography
Jackie Chan began his film career as an extra child actor in the 1962 film ''Big and Little Wong Tin Bar''. Ten years later, he was a stuntman opposite Bruce Lee in 1972's ''Fist of Fury'' and 1973's ''Enter the Dragon''. He then had starring r ...
*
List of Hong Kong films
This is a list of films produced in Hong Kong ordered by decade and year of release in separate pages. For film set in Hong Kong and produced elsewhere see ''List of films set in Hong Kong''.
1909–1949
*List of Hong Kong films before 1950
1 ...
*
List of martial arts films
Following is an incomplete list of films, ordered by year of release, featuring depictions of martial arts.
See also
*Combat in film
*List of mixed martial arts films
*List of Kalarippayattu films
*List of ninja films
*Martial arts film
* List ...
References
External links
*
* {{Amg movie, 45320, Little Tiger of Canton
1973 films
1970s action films
1970s martial arts films
Hong Kong action films
1970s Mandarin-language films
Hong Kong martial arts films
Kung fu films
Wushu films
1970s Hong Kong films