Tie san jiao

Taiwanese actor Wen Chiang Lung was launched by local director Joseph Kuo in a string of trashy but funny Kung-Fu actioners like this, Iron Man, Rikisha Kuri and others. They were made on the same sets, played by the same cast, all of them well sold on worldwide market. Triangular duel is about a ricksaw guy revenging the death of his master (actor Chiang Nan) killed by a triangular punchfire by a korean fighter (actor Tsai Hung), a japanese (Wu Tong Chiao) and a chinese (Miao Tian). Story is simple like that but tons of old style fights and a parade of vets from the genre (including Lu Ping as the lame master, Nancy Yen as the beauty, Nam Wan as a pupil of the late master, and real life Judo and TaeKwando expert Shut Chung Tien) makes this effort a worthy one if you're a kung-fu cinema fan of the 70's. Blink and you miss Bruce Li/Ho Chung Tao as an extra. By the way the italian version has the leading star dubbed by Roberto Chevalier, now famous for being the italian voice of Tom Cruise. Music score by Ritz Ortolani is stolen from spaghetti western Days of anger, 1968, at least in the european version. A perfect example of what a Kung-Fu movie made by indies was in the 70's, simple, fast, furious and childish as an extravaganza.

This movie seems to be available in digital form from an old laser disk release so the resolution is widescreen and it has subtitles. The plot is one of the favorite four plots of all martial arts movies 1) revenge, 2) the karate kid, 3) the big tournament, and 4) not allowed to fight. Our hero, rickshaw driver, is not allowed to fight on orders from his master. All sorts of situations come up where it would be reasonable to break that rule. It quickly gets to the point where it is total stupidity not to fight. But rickshaw guy obeys his master until his master says now it is the time to fight. If you can put up with all that nonsense going on with the story you will surely enjoy the fights. This movie is noteworthy because it has a title that makes sense, unlike 99% of all martial arts movies. The triangle duel is the final fight when rickshaw guy takes on another Chinese who is skilled in iron body and a Korean known for kicks. I rate it just above average for the fights alone.

A fairly standard revenge plot is augmented with interesting characters, solid kung fu and a Riz Ortolani soundtrack shamelessly lifted from Day of Anger.

The titular "Triangular Duel" (more properly referred to as the "Iron Triangle" in the subtitled Mei-Ah dvd version) is a "strategy" pitting three men against one. One of these three men - from Japan - punches with fists as hard as iron, another - from Korea - kicks with feet as hard as iron, and the third - from China - has a body that can withstand any beating thanks to skin as hard as iron. And, of course, the only man who has a chance of defeating them has vowed not to fight for a full year, and he's intent on keeping that vow, even after the Master to whom he made it, has moved on to that pile of breakable kung-fu bricks in the sky.