Nu zi tai quan qun ying hui

It would be easy to poke fun at some of the more ridiculous aspects of "The Dragon Tamers": the awkward all-girl mud wrestling scene that opens the film, for example, or the fact that Carter Wong would not have found it necessary even in 1975 to travel all the way from Hong Kong to Seoul to learn tae kwon do, since the Korean fighting art was world-famous and widely taught by that time. The point is that the film is packed with well-choreographed scenes of combat. Realistically, that's the only expectation the viewer is going to have, and that expectation is generously met. We're talking *lots* of fights here: Wong and fellow male lead James Tien go up against veritable armies of black-cloaked villains (led by Kim Ji-Joo and Yeung Wai) to prevent one especially disreputable tae kwon do school from bullying all the other schools. (Or something. The motivation of the villains is never really made clear, and the obligatory Z-grade English dubbing doesn't help.) And they're visceral, exciting fights, with opponents getting taken down by flying kicks to the head or painful-looking knifehand strikes to the throat.

There's not much reason for the presence of all the peripheral female characters (not even the final opponent whom Wong and Tien must confront after they've beaten all the male villains), and fans of John Woo will find little evidence of his signature directorial style in this early effort. If you crave hard-hitting fights by the dozen, however, you'll find them in "The Dragon Tamers." It's a fun viewing experience for fans of the genre.