The Man from Hong Kong

After seeing The Man From Hong Kong, one can easily appreciate why Quentin Tarantino holds writer/director Brian Trenchard - Smith in such high regard. This is grind house cinema at it's gnarliest and released in the middle of that most influential grind house decades, the 1970's. But even today, it still has the power to thrill action junkies with the breadth, depth and variety of its stunts and set pieces. Forget the martial arts on show throughout just briefly. Consider also, the car chases and roll-overs (one occurring beneath the world famous Uluru), followed invariably by an almighty explosion, the hang-gliding, the skyscraper climbing and abseiling and (you guessed it) explosion, the foot chases and villains catching fire ... regularly. In its quieter moments we are graced with some wholly and unashamedly exploitative T &A accompanied by a funky 70's synthesizer soundtrack, just to give us pause before we launch into the next action chapter. This film has it all and does it all relatively convincingly on what was not much more than a half million Australian dollars budget at the time. What's most surprising perhaps, is that the film is an Australian/Hong Kong co-production, rather than American in origin. Besides the very obvious Bond references throughout, film buffs should clearly see the genesis of films such as The Mad Max franchise in TMFHK. Don't see it for the frankly hilarious dialogue, at times grating dubbing and quite honestly its overlong , exciting, but uneven martial arts choreography. See it and appreciate it it for its stunts. They are quite amazing.

This Australian/Hong Kong co-production stars martial arts greats Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Swordsman) and Sammo Hung (Eastern Condors), has a James Bond (George Lazenby) for a villain and Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) from Mad Max as a cop, boasts stunning locations (Ayers Rock and Sydney Harbour), is directed by Ozploitation legend Brian Trenchard-Smith, and features a catchy theme song to boot ('Sky High' by Jigsaw). With all that, one might reasonably expect something rather special, but this isn't the case: a run-of-the-mill plot, unexceptional fight scenes and mediocre car chases make for a frustratingly average movie, despite all the right ingredients.

Wang Yu plays Hong Kong police inspector Fang Sing Leng, who travels to Australia to extradite a drug dealer (Sammo Hung). When the criminal is assassinated, Fang Sing Leng investigates, suspecting the involvement of Sydney crime-lord Jack Wilton (Lazenby).

What follows is a succession of silly escapades for the fish-out-of-water renegade cop, including lots of punch ups (choreographed by Sammo Hung, but not his best work) and vehicular stunts (of the sort that always end up with a car crashing and immediately bursting into flames). The silly ending sees Fang Sing Leng hang-gliding onto the roof of Wilton's penthouse, abseiling down the side of the building and smashing his way in through the window, where he takes on the machine-gun toting villain. The HK cop gets a full confession and blows the penthouse (and its owner) sky high, to the amusement of his Aussie counterparts.

Best scene: Fang Sing Leng's bloody fight against numerous martial artists (after which our hero gets his wounds patched up by a country vet and thanks the helpful fellow by screwing his tasty daughter).

5.5/10, generously rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

I find it hard to believe that at a web-site which attracts more than 8 million people a month (that equates to 17 people a minute, one every three seconds!) that only TWO people in all these years have posted reviews of this mini-classic - "Z" grade rubbish that it is!

I LOVE this flick.

The acting is hysterical, the script at junior high-school level (I collapse on the lounge every time I hear Lazenby mouthing off to Wang Yu "I know your martial arts!") But man, this is high-voltage fun, a film that actually defies criticism. Wang Yu comes to Sydney to break up a drug smuggling ring headed up by the "and please leave your license to kill on my desk when you leave" former Bond non-event, George Lazenby. Following multiple impossible chop-socky set-to's with Lazenby's henchman, and George's own comical demise atop his penthouse, Wang Yu saves the day...and the girl! Great stuff!

If nothing else, this film earns a place in the hall of fame for delivering to the world British Jigsaw's SKY HIGH which I can never hear without remembering how young I was when this came out! Magic!

Trivia buffs might like to notice who that rather porky asian scumbag is trying to evade capture atop Ayer's Rock (now referred to as ULURU) during the early part of the flick and who later has his head unceremoniously pushed into the toilet by Wang Yu! None other than long-time Jackie Chan friend and Director - Sammo Hung! Martial arts choreographer without peer! Watch also for the exploding Toyota Crown scene at Ayer's Rock...that airborne door gave the on-set crew-members a few nervous moments!

It's quite a trip watching 'The Man From Hong Kong' almost thirty years after it was made. Writer/Director Brian Trenchard-Smith went on to make the Aussie trash classic 'Turkey Shoot' and the early Nicole Kidman vehicle 'The BMX Bandits' so you know it's gonna be class all the way. 1970s buffs will get a kick out of seeing the One Armed Boxer himself (Jimmy Wang Yu) battling it out with "the Aussie Bond" George Lazenby. Their scenes together are very cheesy but a lot of fun. I almost kept expecting Jim Kelly to appear on screen at any moment ('Black Samurai' anyone?) The rest of the cast includes legendary Aussie camp icon Frank Thring, martial arts veteran Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, and half the cast of the biker classic 'Stone' (Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Rebecca Gilling, Ros Spiers, Bill Hunter). Yeah, that's right - BIKER CLASSIC. Keays-Byrne is a great favourite of mine. He's probably best known as Toecutter in 'Mad Max' (in which Ward played Fifi Macaffee), but was also in 'Mad Dog Morgan' and 'Salute Of The Jugger', two movies that have pride of place in my DVD collection. This man deserves a web page NOW! 'The Man From Hong Kong' is stupid but hugely entertaining martial arts schlock, and highly recommended. And boy, isn't that theme song catchy! I haven't been able to get it out of my head since 1975!

Who could forget the sound track by Ace, and the action of this movie, never mind the fact that George Lazenby, the dejected Bond, who really could have been one of the best was also in the film.

In the era of remastering and re-issuing of so much crap, why not get this classic off the shelf, blow off the dust and put it onto DVD! I'll buy it.

Even though I had trough finding it in the USA as it was under a different name!

This is a great action film, with all the stunts, kung fu, you could possibly want in a movie. Released in 1975 it captures all the best of the Bruce Lee films but with good sound and picture quality. A not to missed film.

If you can find a copy on tape, let me know.