THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
Jackie Chan may be a comic and kung fu genius but not all of his films are masterpieces. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is a 1985 slapstick comedy about a young fool (Chan) who drifts around looking for work. He applies for a job as a housekeeper but is soon incorrectly blamed for a murder. He then assumes the identity of a famed master in order to collect a reward and finally finds himself training in kung fu with a crotchety old beggar. A very standard plot for 70's-80's kung fu comedy, but played with Chan's developing mastery of the form.

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (which I've always called "Pinch a Loaf of Kung Fu") is a perfect example of the comedy-kung fu genre. Chan is, as always, brilliant at both the physical humor and the daffy facial expressions. He and the rest of the cast are walking cartoons, contorting their mugs and bodies in silly and impressive ways. As always, the fighting is good fun, although the way it's shot here is distractingly amateurish. The picture also looks terrible, although this is no surprise for this ultra-low budget film. Still, Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is about the personality of its cast and, for that, it's definitely worth a look. Chan was doing great work in films like this during the 80's but really hit his stride for Drunken Master II, a masterpiece that gets everything right. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is more raw but still tremendously entertaining.

VIDEO:
The print used is pretty awful. The opening credits are non-anamprphic widescreen and relatively sharp but the film itself it badly cropped and looks as beat up as one of the film's weaker fighters.

AUDIO:
The film is available in Cantonese and English Dolby Digital 2.0. They both sound pretty bad, although the bizarre comic music score is distractingly amusing. It's worth noting that Chan does not dub his own voice for the English tracks here, unlike his more recent efforts. English, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles are available. It's fun to note how the English dub track and subtitle track are almost unrelated and change the dialog is a large extent.

EXTRAS:
Trailers for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The One.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Jackie Chan's recent films like The Tuxedo are garbage. Half a Loaf of Kung Fu is a reminder of a more innocent era in martial arts films. There is almost nothing here except for the fun personalities and the impressive skills of the cast. Watching the young Jackie throw his body around is so much fun that you almost don't notice how bad the DVD looks.