The 36 Crazy Fists

Reception

A presentation in More 100% Jackie Chan: the essential companion volume 2 noted that despite fans avoiding the film because it is not a Jackie Chan picture, the fights show some of the Chan-esque comedy seen in his later and earlier work. The cast of fighters, including Tony Leung Siu-hung and Yen Shi-kwan, were not strong in acting, but their fighting skills compensated. Ku Feng provided some comedy reminiscent of Chan in films like Young Master and Dragon Lord. The presentation clarified that Jackie did not direct the film, serving only as kung-fu director, and was not the star, yet the film remains enjoyable for those wanting to see early work from Chan, Tony Leung Siu-hung, and Jimmy Liu Chia-yung. The Washington Times commented that such ingenuity is typical of Chan's films, calling The 36 Crazy Fists his 1980 directorial debut and the first martial-arts film to effectively combine action and comedy, earning Chan the nickname 'the Buster Keaton of martial arts'. The Unauthorized Jackie Chan Encyclopedia stated that Chan only choreographed the action for this forgettable movie about an orphaned youth who learns kung-fu from monks to avenge his father's death, and that without Chan's permission, producers compiled a behind-the-scenes documentary and released it as a Jackie Chan film. Reviewer David Andrews of comicbookandmoviereviews.com gave the film a B− rating, calling it a so-so film with fine action, a silly story, and an innovative concept. The website hkfilm.net rated it 4.5, concluding that the fights are very solid, though not close to Jackie's best work, and almost make the intervening content interesting or funny, recommending it only for die-hard Jackie or old-school fans.