Synopsis:  Set in the early days of WWII during the Japanese occupation of China, this melodrama tells the story of a courageous Chinese Opera troupe who become freedom fighters. That’s basically all you need to know. 

Review: Another non-starring role for a very young Jackie, this may leave you wondering how he ever got another acting job. He plays the overeager side-kick to the real star, whose name I can’t be bothered to remember. You might have a hard time recognizing him, since he is sporting not only a crew cut, but also his very own original front teeth, before he had the good sense to knock them all out making Project A and get a nice new set. After a brief glimpse of Jackie’s derrière wiggling in time to the opera music, any trace of humor is abandoned in favor of heavy, and I mean heavy, melodrama. The Japanese are portrayed as relentlessly, inhumanly, evil (sort of forgivable, I guess, in view of the actual history of the time). The Kung Fu is badly staged and unnecessarily gory…in fact the whole film is just grim and depressing and gory. 

*SPOILER ALERT* 

It also includes scenes of torture, and Jackie gets to perform one of the more gruesome death scenes I’ve ever witnessed, but I hear it's pretty tame by Hong Kong standards. 

*SPOILER ALERT*

This was originally released as Not Scared to Die, but with Jackie’s huge success in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, it was renamed with the express intention of confusing people into buying it. Bad sport, if you ask me! 

Rating: 1/10

Reader Reviews

Bugsmer's Review: One sees very few movies in which children are murdered before your eyes. 'Twas one of the less believeable scenes in the movie, but it was there nonetheless. There was lots of fighting, and some amazing fighting sequences, but they never stopped, and began to get monotonous. Nevertheless, it's a lot better than "The Protector" and "Rush Hour" and "The Prisoner" and "The Little Tiger of Canton". Very needlessly bloody, so don't watch this with your kids, but not too bad a movie overall. This is not really a Jackie Chan movie, yet Jackie is in it for a few scenes. Watch it if you like Kung-Fu. Don't watch it if you want to see a good Jackie comedy.

Score: 5/10

Cristopher's Review: this maybe one of those films I want do blow up in the sky. I watch JC film for two reasons. Comedy/stunt. this has neither. maby some small thing but nothing that can make me want to turn back 2-3 time like I do f.ex in rumble in the bronx.
I can only say thing. Booring.

P.S the picture is realy taken when Jc did Armour of god but like Rumble in hong Kong the changes alot when Jc got famous. [Debbie's note: The picture above is a screen shot I took from Not Scared to Die.]

Score: -1000/10

JF's Review: This movie was a great disappointment to me when I first saw it. I suppose I should see it again, now that I'm a seasoned Jackie Fan. But it doesn't attract me except for the Jackie wiggle at the beginning, so it'll probably be a while. Even being a new fan that I was, I still recognized Jackie's wiggle. But that was the end of the fun. The first two seconds of Jackie.

Spoilers! Jackie doesn't win a single fight. It's disheartening to watch fight after fight of Jackie (a good guy) losing. It was torturous to see the torture, even if it's only for a little while. And then to end it all, Jackie doesn't save the girl from being raped, and dies trying. Oh sadness of sadness. After seeing that, all hope and joy flees, and I zap my way to the end where I watched a typical and rather unmemorable fight between the main good guy and the bad guy on a mountain.