Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Man from Hong Kong (1975)


Directors: Brian Tranchard-Smith & Yu Wang

Starring: Yu Wang, George Lazenby, Sammo Hung

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Fast! Fierce! Fantastic! Nothing can stop . . . . The Man from Hong Kong

Plot: Fang (Wang) is an undercover detective from Hong Kong sent to Australia to crack open the operation of a Sydney mob boss named Wilton (Lazenby). Fang puts his skills as a hang glider pilot and martial arts master to work as he sets up Wilton for a literally explosive finale.



My Rating: 5.5/10

Would I watch it again? No way, Mate!

#41 on my on-going quest to watch every film from the amazing documentary, NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF OZPLOITATION! (2008)

This sounded like a "can't miss". It's chop socky down under with former badass bond, Lazenby, as the bad guy. It should have been better, damn it! There's only two reasons to see this film and they're both Aussies; George Lazenby and Hugh Keays-Byrne (pictured below on the right with the fro).


I've always loved Lazenby as Bond in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1968) and I would have loved him to have returned for more Bond adventures but it wasn't to be. He's got an impressive physical ability for an actor. He's fantastic in fight scenes and he doesn't disappoint here, either. He makes a great badass villain. The problem is, HE'S HARDLY IN THE MOVIE! I bet he's literally only in the film for a total of 15 or so minutes out of 100. And every scene he's in it's an ass kicker. The other cat I mentioned, Keays-Byrne, is hysterical and is very likable. He's hardly in this thing, too. You might recognize him as...

Toecutter in MAD MAX (1979)


How 'bout this classy dialogue:


Angelica: Mmmmm. This is nice.
Inspector Fang: What did you expect, acupuncture? [both laugh]

How 'bout that tongue action, btw?

That's some great cornball shit. You'd think that'd be enough but it's not. There's just too much fat in this that needs to be trimmed like the above love interest (Fang's second) subplot that's just not necessary. It does have some pretty good chase scenes that are almost worth the price of admission.


TMfHK is OK and it's not a terrible way to kill some time but you could easily find something more worth your while. You're better served by the crazy fun trailer than to have to sit through the tough spots waiting for the goods to arrive.

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