Long quan she shou

Early 80's low budget kungfu flick from South Korea. It's what it's expected to be. Cheese encrusted karate with wonky sound effects. Good mindless fun.

THE DRAGON'S INFERNAL SHOWDOWN is another earlier effort from prolific director Godfrey Ho before he went crazy making ninja cut and paste movies. This one's a Taiwanese/South Korean co-production featuring Bruce Lee imitator Dragon Lee going up against a super-villain who was responsible for the death of his parents. It's a rather undistinguished and sloppy-looking film notable for only a few weird elements to enjoy.

Dragon Lee gives a sub-par performance that leaves something of a void in the centre of the movie, and the guy playing the chief villain is little better (read: wooden). There's some fun from a drunken master in a supporting role, and a handful of bizarre moments that fans are sure to enjoy: the Batman-style buzzer belt is a weird prop, and the bit where Lee oils himself down to fight is oddly homoerotic.

A femme fatale also makes an appearance, and there's a pretty cool nunchuck scene included too. But the fight choreography is very routine and just consists of guys grunting, kicking and punching, repeated endlessly. It's also one of those films where you often see that feet aren't connecting with flesh which ruins the believability somewhat.

Dragon Lee, a vital cog in the Bruceploitation machine, fights a LOT in one of the goofiest, yet fun kung fu films ever made. This doesn't even pretend to be dark or serious, but there are lots of fight scenes which does keep your attention.

You've got your revenge motif which isn't anything new, but later there's a twist and I yelled in confusion, "So the son wasn't Dragon Lee, but this other guy instead?" It threw me for a curve, but Godfrey Ho says to hell with the story! There's a farmer attacked by 3 unarmed guys and he can't manage to defend himself with a sword. Sad really. This movie starts off with comedy and midway just destroys the goofy meter gauge. As a first in kung fu history, there is a nifty magnetic sword which I really don't see as an advantage since you are trying to slice the guy! Also, Batman inspires a utility belt that glows bright red. Magnetic palm repellers give a nice PWANG sound effect that had me cracking up every time.

Let's not forget star Dragon Lee. He takes advantage of every chance to do Bruce Lee fight mannerisms, pumps his fists a lot, and spends a good amount of time begging for handouts. Cheryl Meng does a good job a fighting femme who can't get Dragon to notice her! Dragon shines throughout including losing his pants during battle and doing a running jump up a tree followed by a turnaround kick taking out 2 guys at once. So GOOFY!

As soon as I saw the words "Directed by Godfrey Ho" flash on screen in the first few minutes of THE DRAGON'S INFERNAL SHOWDOWN, I audibly groaned. Despite being a bad film connoisseur of sorts, I've never been able to get much entertainment out of Ho's output, which usually consists of two or three different ninja flicks sloppily edited together with incompetent direction and ho-hum fight scenes. But, miraculously, INFERNAL SHOWDOWN is relatively well-done (by C-grade Taiwanese ninja flick standards), with plenty of laughs and solid fighting.

The plot exists solely to introduce fights every 90 seconds, but I'll introduce it nonetheless. A brother/sister duo whose family was killed by a gang of ruthless land owners ("I'd die to make more money!", says one) come back when they're older to exact revenge. There's also a mysterious man in a blue hat who looks to be doing the same thing. Who is he? Will they find their revenge? Will the awkward, incestuous sexual tension between the brother and sister ever be resolved?

As should be the case with a film starring a man double-billed as Dragon Lee AND Bruce Lei, INFERNAL SHOWDOWN never takes itself that seriously. The main baddies wield a "magnetic sword" which is exactly like a normal sword except it brings out different cheesy sound effects. Dragon Lee has a habit of running his hands up and down his enemies and randomly douses himself in oil during the climactic fight scene. And, as is to be expected, the British voice-over cast sound like they received their lines 5 minutes before recording started.

Outside of a really fun final 20 minutes, most of INFERNAL SHOWDOWN is business as usual if you've seen a few of these '70s/'80s kung-fu flicks, but it's damn near a masterpiece by Godfrey Ho standards and should inevitably bring some entertainment to anyone looking at reviews for martial arts flicks with 100 votes on IMDb. 5 light-up utility belts out of 10.