‘Spiderman’ joins ‘Big Brawl’

Press, 20 August 1981, Page 7 (Supplement)

‘Spiderman’ joins ‘Big Brawl’

•-The Big Brawl,” which starts at the Avon tomorrow, will be joined by Spiderman in "The Dragon's Challenge” on Monday. Although "Brawl" will be shown at the cinema at 2, 5 and 8 p.m. tomorrow and on Saturday. “Spiderman” will ■ move into the 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. sessions on Monday, while "The Big Brawl” continues at the later times. ... This latest exercise in the martial arts started shooting in January, 1980, in San Antonio as the first major film in this field to be made in the United States — and is as far removed in style from its predecessors as it is in geography.

The tone of the film is being set by a young star, Jackie Chan, a gentle, attractive gymnast and martial artist, whose sense of whimsey has replaced the usual grim, joyless manner of past kung fu stars. Jackie’s technique, which has made him the top box office star of Asia, is to play his light comedy against the action of kung fu, making the physical feats seem .effortless, constantly surprising, and very much integral to the story.

The film reunites those three key elements which led to the enormous success of “Enter the Dragon" 10 years ago: the producer, Fred

Weintraub, the directorwriter, Robert Clouse, and Raymond Chow, the head of Golden Harvest, which produced the first “Dragon,” and which introduced the world to Bruce Lee. That film, went on to gross SIOOM. The trio of Weintraub, Chow and Clouse is avoiding any temptation to clone its earlier effort, with a star strongly in contrast with the Lee style, and a story shot in the United States, but in period, set in the late ,19305. “The Big Brawl" is set in 1938 in Chicago, where Jackie plays a youngster named Jerry who has adjusted easily to the American way of life, much to the distress of his traditionalist father.

Adding to Jerry’s problems with his father are his American girlfriend, Nancy (Kristine De Bell), his disinterest in following in the footsteps of his doctor brother and Jerry’s affection for his uncle Herbert (Mako), who has been instructing Jerry in judo. Least of Jerry’s interests is joining his father in the family restaurant. . • The film is a physical test for Jackie Chan, who as Jerry Kwan, calls upon all of the training of his many years with the Chinese Opera to pull off the role. The Chinese Opera's emphasis is on mime, theatre, gymnastics and the martial arts, and the film demands all of that from Jackie, who not only does his own stunts, but choreographs the fights as well.

Jerry’s first major challenge in the film is a fight outside his father’s restaurant in which he takes on three gangsters in a mock defensive style, dispatching them almost apologetically as his father stands to a side, discouraging him from fighting.