Chang
Cheh goes to Bangkok! A little sightseeing, some Muy Thai and I expect a
massage every afternoon. An hour massage now costs about $10 - in 1971 it
must have been dirt cheap. Not that I am a massage guy - a legit Thai massage
hurts like hell and an oil massage is just messy, but I would guess that
Chang Cheh was. I always enjoy these older films that drive around Bangkok
- trying to recognize spots and usually unable to. Bangkok is a completely
different city than it was in 1971. High rises, malls, hotels and condos
everywhere you look. The Siam Intercontinental where one of them has a drink
has been gone for about 20-years - it was a spectacular hotel with huge landscapes
- now a mall. A lot of Muy Thai boxing in this one as well. Mainly
from Hong Kong actors. Pretty much everyone in the cast is from Hong Kong
with only a few exceptions. Surprising that they could not hire Thais to
be the thugs. Hard to be sure exactly what was being shot in Bangkok or back
in Hong Kong pretending to be Bangkok. I don't know how authentic the Muy
Thai is but it is ferocious and brutal and the setting in the small sweaty
stadium filled with screaming, gambling men felt real.
The film begins in Hong Kong where David
Chiang is an architect and also a martial arts expert. His father (Chiang
Miao) runs a martial arts school and when Chiang goes to see him, the entire
school does a Cato on him - attacking him for the hell of it - he fends them
off pretty well thus establishing his credentials for what is to come. His
glasses come off, the grin comes on and he is Superman. His father has a
heart attack and tells Chiang that long ago he had an affair with a Thai
woman and they had a son - but he has lost touch with them. Could Chiang
go to Thailand and find him. He is a Muy Thai professional and has two tattoos
on his left arm. It sort of turns into a Bollywood Lost Brother film as Chiang
searches for him not realizing that the nice guy who has befriended him is
his brother - played by Ti Lung. I expected them to break into a song and
dance.
Ti Lung is having his own troubles. Chan
Sing wants him to sign with his crooked organization and he refuses. Ti Lung
has a fight lined up with the Champion who has a habit of killing his opponent
- but Ti Lung needs the money for an operation that his mother needs. That
would not be the case today as Thailand has nearly free medical care for
all. My girlfriend's mother had a tumor removed from her brain for the cost
of $200. Yay America! The Champion is played by a bulky savage Ku Feng.
He is a monster. It is quite a match. Rockyesque.
But when it comes to the big showdown, it
is our Hong Kong boy and his martial arts that wins the day. I like that
he digs into a guy's stomach with his hand and the rest of the minions go,
oh hell no and run away. Chang Cheh spends a lot of time touring and Chiang
romancing a Thai girl (Pawana Chanajit) while Ti Lung keeps telling his girlfriend
(Ching Li) that he will be fine. But the action scenes are well done
- Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung - and frequent. Chiang as is often the case
in contemporary films has the worst wardrobe of caps and hip clothes - but
I bet the girls loved it. The sequel is The Angry Guest where our boys go
off to Tokyo to fight the Yakuza!
