This film is notable as being the final movie of Director Robert Clouse. Clouse had previously directed Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, and a slew of other low budget martial arts films in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Only a few of these, such as China O' Brien, and The Big Brawl were really that good, so I was keen to see if this would be hos swansong.
Unfortunately, it isn't. It's a poorly cobbled together junkfest with little redeeming features.
The main problem is that this film was supposedly a kickstart vehicle for lead star Britton K. Lee, but the issue is that Lee was also the producer, so he basically made the film for himself.
Now there's nothing wrong with that in itself, but the problem is that Lee is neither a good actor, nor is he charismatic in any way. In previous films, Robert Clouse had Bruce Lee and Cynthia Rothrock in front of the camera - two very strong personalises who came across well on screen. Britton K. Lee has none of thee qualities, and come across as an out of place protagonist, and more like a sidekick who got his own film.
All of this could be forgiven if the martial arts action was good, but it's not. In fact - it's dire. Loads of tight shots with too much slow motion, and some clumsy choreography make this look like a TV episode.
With films like China O' Brien, fight choreographer Nijel Binns created some really cool action scenes with wide angle shots so that you could see the full glory of the fights and the actors skills, but here it just feels awkward and messy.
The film's one saving grace is that it features the legendary talents of Bolo Yeung and Richard Norton (both veterans of Hong Kong cinema,) and it's great to see them again.
They unfortunately can't save what is a dull and meandering movie with bad fight scenes and a boring plot.
Bob Clouse will always have Enter The Dragon, and no one can take that away from him, but his final word in film is not worth bothering with unless you are a super fan of Bolo Yeung.
