The Man from Hong Kong
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Year: 1975
Rating: 7.5
AKA - The Dragon Flies
You would be hard pressed to say this was a good film in the traditional
sense - awful dialogue, mediocre acting at best, a plot that could have
been written on the back of a napkin, two cringe-worthy love scenes - but
damn if this isn't just a crazy smack in the kisser fun. Stupid fun but
quite amazing especially when you realize that what you are seeing is what
you are seeing with no special effects and not an awful lot of precautions
being taken.
Australian film in the 1970's is known outside of the country primarily
for the art films being made such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave
and My Brilliant Career - but there was also an exploitive genre based group
of films in horror, sex and action that started up. This is the first action
film and was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith who in 1974 went to Hong
Kong and made a documentary titled Kung Fu Killers where he investigated
kung fu films and interviewed Angela Mao and Carter Wong. He came back and
figured hell, he could make a kung fu film too. I mean why not and he teams
up with Golden Harvest. After the success of this film Trenchard-Smith was
to go on make other cult action films such as Death Cheaters, Stunt Rock,
Day of the Assassin, Turkey Shoot and BMX Bandits. But first he had to get
through this one.
So he hires one of Hong Kong's biggest action stars, Jimmy Wang-yu - he
of classic films like One-Armed Swordsman, Golden Swallow, Chinese Boxer and
One-Armed Boxer - but by 1975 his star was on the wane with a group of new
better trained actors coming on the scene - Bruce Lee for example. But still
Jimmy Wang-yu was a legend - not just on the screen but off the screen as
well.
Wang-yu got into numerous public brawls, had many affairs and had strong
ties to the triads. This last item was helpful when Jackie Chan was trying
to break his contract with Lo Wei in the late 70's (Jackie later appeared
in a Wang Yu film (Island of Fire) as a repayment) and Wang-yu interceded
with the triads to help Jackie. Back in the late sixties Wang Yu wooed famous
movie actress Jeanette Lin Tsui who was married, with children, and was
12 years his senior. There was no divorce as the husband Qin Jan, a famed
director of melodrama, happily obliged by hanging himself. The actress was
already pregnant when Wang brought her to the altar. It's hard to imagine
a star career surviving such a scandal, but Wang Yu did, although there is
a one and a half-year gap in between the Return of the One Armed Swordsman
and Chinese Boxer. The couple split-up in the mid-seventies after Lin accused
him of beating her up, but Wang later explain that he hit her because she
was involved with a lesbian. Their daughter is singer Linda Wang. So his
reputation as a jerk was well established.
It didn't get any better on this set. In the documentary Not Quite Hollywood
about the Australian Exploitation Cinema - a number of the people who worked
on this film called Wang-yu, "horrible", "Nasty piece of work", "One of
the two worst people I have ever worked with", Lazenby said he had "no regard
for anybody", the director said he was "difficult" and one guy said that
Wang-yu thought the white actresses he had the love scenes with were "scum"
and that he used to eat flies that he caught before kissing them. A real
charmer.
Trenchard-Smith brings in George Lazenby to play the villain. Lazenby wasn't
in great shape either career wise - after refusing to play Bond again after
the 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service (his debut), he was blackballed
by Hollywood and was taking what he could get. A year before this film he
was in the Golden Harvest film Stoner with Angela Mao and a year after he
was in Queen's Ransom with Angela and Jimmy Wang-yu again. Lazenby is the
kind of villain who has a sunken living room, shoots apples off girls with
a cross bow and says things like "Chinese make good servants".
The film is almost all bang bang kung fu action and stunts and in truth
the less dialogue the better - after sex he asks the girl if it was better
than acupuncture. The crew had no real experience with stunts - they just
make them up as they go not worried how dangerous it is. Wang-yu is a Hong
Kong cop and is asked to come to Australia to help question a Chinese man
that was captured smuggling dope on the famous Australian landmark Ayres Rock
where the Chinese man and an Australian cop run up it and have a fight on
top - and later blow up a car right below it with a car door that comes whizzing
right at the camera and turns right at the last moment - or a dead camera
man I expect. I would guess they didn't get permission to film there. Now
the Chinese man turns out to be none other than perhaps my favorite Hong
Kong action star - Sammo Hung who did more to influence HK action films
than any one. I mean anyone. He was still young and unknown here but had
done the action choreography on a few Angela Mao films as well as a King
Hu film, He does the martial arts choreography on this one.
Wang-yu is basically a Chinese Dirty Harry and breaks every rule there
is - gets into a bang up with Sammo, climbs up a high rise building without
a safety net below him, screws two women, has a long insane car chase, kicks
a guy off a motorcycle, takes on a martial art school run by Lazenby with
the likes of Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-ying (Mr. Vampire) and Corey Yuen (poor
Yuen Biao gets smacked around a few times), uses a glider to get on top
of the villains lair (and had one bad accident doing it) and has the big
face off with Lazenby. Which is legendary. Not for the fight per se but
because the director persuaded Lazenby to allow himself to be set on fire
during the fight. It didn't go well as Lazenby could not get off the burning
coat and his arm got badly burnt. When the scene was over he went over to
the director and slugged him. But the director also gets wacked by Wang-yu
who didn't take to him and tried taking over the film - that fight in the
elevator? That was Tranchard-Smith getting the crap beaten out of him - not
gently he said later. One of his crew asked him if he could beat up Wang-yu
in return - off the set - but the director declined. Too bad. But to Wang-yu's
credit, he performs his own stunts and most of them are not safe. Big ego.
Big balls.
Btw - Wang-yu's English is dubbed by another legendary HK actor from another
generation - Roy Chaio or so I read.
