Jackie is a mischievous orphan who is raised and schooled in the Shaolin Temple.  When his teacher catches him playing around instead of practicing, he is punished by being made to guard the sacred books but when he falls asleep at his post, a masked man breaks in and steals the book containing one of the strongest styles of kung fu.   Soon after, a mysterious stranger emerges and begins demonstrating the style from the lost book and utilising it to take over all the local kung fu schools.  Now it's up to the monks of the Shaolin temple to confront him but the only known style that can defeat him is the lost art of the 'Five Fists'.  Unbeknownst to Jackie, he has stumbled across the lost book which also contains five ghosts who begin schooling him in the invincible style.  Being the only master of the technique, it's now up to Jackie to take on the stranger and rescue the monastery before everything he loves is taken from him.

'Spiritual Kung Fu' is one of the films from the period of Jackie's career that was jokingly nicknamed the "Low Wei" era due to his involvement with hard fisted director Lo Wei.  However, as we've seen with his other serious kung fu films from this time (such as 'Dragon Fist' and 'Shaolin Wooden Men'), there were still a lot of positives that emerged from these movies.  With this particular outing, Chan takes the opportunity to demonstrate an early eye for fight choreography combined with his light hearted slapstick humour that made him into the huge star he is today.  It also contains a fun story with some good performances from the supporting cast, particularly James Tien who helps to create an enjoyable final duel.  Obviously the film shows signs of age thanks to the laughable special effects and distinctly 70s sound effects but these all add to the charm of one of my personal favourite early outings for Chan.