First, one has to realize that Jeanne Bell -
TNT Jackson - had no martial arts training other than perhaps fighting off
letches when she was a Playboy model. There are plenty of opportunities in
this for us to see how she got that job. But also back in 1974, the vast
majority of Americans had never seen a real martial arts film from Hong Kong
- so to them this might have seemed fairly legit. Better I expect than many
Western action films at the time. It admittedly doesn't hold up so well fifty
years later but still has just enough trashy aspects to be of interest. I
wish the quality of my video from a dvd that I bought decades ago was better
- pretty murky and in one shootout at night, I had no clue who was who. This
was directed by Filipino schlockmeister Ciro Santiago with Roger Corman involved
on some level. In theory, it takes place in Hong Kong with a side trip to
Isle de Sol but seems to have been shot entirely in the Philippines.
TNT Jackson shows up in Hong Kong looking
for her brother who has disappeared. She asks the taxi driver to take her
to a hotel that he stayed in and the driver says, no way. That is the Yellow
Zone. Only criminals go there. Take me. In the first minute she sees an attempted
rape and about ten guys who try to rob her. She sends them all packing after
a good beating. In her giant afro, it makes it easy for some fellow to double
for her which I expect kept him busy through the film. At the hotel she meets
up with the owner, Joe (Chiquito, a Filipino actor) who helps her. She is
soon a female of interest in the little community of thieves and drug dealers.
She is first checked out by Charlie played
by Stan Shaw who is a familiar face from films such as Truck Turner and Rising
Sun. He likes what he sees and wants to romance her - what she doesn't know
but we do from the first scene is that he killed her brother. This romance
will not end up happily. Charlie works for a drug dealer who keeps getting
his supply robbed and they begin to suspect TNT of being behind it. Leading
to the classic fight with her only in panties fighting off a bunch of guys
in her room and turning off the lights - "you want black, you got it black".
And them turning them back on to get a good look. And her turning them off.
Though she is clearly doubled in her flips and falls - she still gives it
a good go in the action scenes - and is clearly not doubled in the nude scenes.
