Little Godfather from Hong Kong (1974)

Little Godfather from Hong Kong (1974)
aka Godfather Squad 
Chinese Title: 香港小教父
Translation: Hong Kong Little Godfather

 

Starring: Bruce Leung Siu-Lung (as Bruce Liang), Kurata Yasuaki, Mang Hoi, Consalvo Dell'Arti, Gordon Mitchell, Shirley Corrigan, Maria D'Incoronato, Fan Yu, Mario Cutini
Director: Ng See-Yuen
Action Director: Bruce Leung Siu-Lung

 

Almost two years after Way of the Dragon, producer Ng See-Yuen gave us The Little Godfather from Hong Kong, aka The Godfather Squad. The film was an early lead role for choreographer and supporting player Leung Siu-Lung, who would go under the moniker of Bruce Liang  during much of the 1970s. The film wisely doesn’t follow Way of the Dragon’s story too closely, opting for something much bigger, and ultimately more absurd. The Italian mafia is lashing out against Interpol, killing their agents all over the map. They try to kill an agent based in Hong Kong via an exploding dog(!)—I swear I’m not making that up—who is saved at the last moment by David (Leung Siu-Lung), a martial arts expert. David becomes a local celebrity and is even invited to Rome to make a kung fu movie. Naturally, the Mafia isn’t happy with David having spoiled their plans and puts out a hit on him, which gets violent very quickly.

The one thing that The Godfather Squad has in its favor is Leung Siu-Lung, who’s a fine martial artist. A student of both Northern style kung and Wing Chun—Bruce Lee’s style—Leung was easily the most physically talented of the Brucesploitation actors from the 70s. He was especially impressive as a kicker, for which he’s most well known by fans today. Leung choreographed his fights, and refreshingly did his own thing, rather than just copy Bruce Lee’s moves. He also packed more power and snap in his moves than Cliff Lok did in Chinese Kung Fu Against Godfather, another Way of the Dragon clone, and was indeed one of the best martial arts actors of the early 1970s, when the genre was already saturated with actors of varying degrees of talent. Sadly, the big fight finale, where Leung squares off with Japanese heavy Yasuaki Kurata, consists of the two running all over Rome and even into the snow-capped hills outside the city, only occasionally trading punches and kicks.
     
Where The Godfather Squad really goes wrong is the script, which is far more amibitious than Bruce Lee’s film. Conversely, that means that when this film stumbles, it falls hard and gets goofy really quickly. The mafia killing a person with an exploding dog is absurd enough. But this mafia is led by an Italian man with two adopted sons, a German Nazi (played by sword-and-sandal film veteran Gordon Mitchell) and a Japanese karate fighter (the aforementioned Kurata). It’s practically China vs. the Axis Powers in this movie! You have machine guns with noticeably neverending clips of ammo; assassination attempts in front of the Vatican; hitmen who have a clean shot at their target, but still feel the need to walk up until they’re within kicking distance to take a shot; a woman who tries to run down a villain with her car, and despite being several yards away, still takes almost a minute to get close to him; and all sorts of lapses of logic and good sense.
     
Way of the Dragon, on the other hand, had a simpler premise and worked because of it.  The mobster want the restaurant, but the owner won’t sell. They try to use force, Bruce fights back. Now they want to kill Bruce, but he’s too strong. So they hire people worthy of his talent, leading to the climax. The actors acquitted themselves well to their parts and everyone knows how their characters should act in the circumstances presented. When a traitor shows himself at the end, his reasons make sense, as does the logic behind his waiting until the last second to betray his friends. Compare with The Godfather Squad, in which more than one character betrays our hero, but given that the aim of the Mafia was to kill him from the beginning, you can’t help but notice that they could’ve knifed him or shot him when his guard was down at any moment, but never did.

Some other observations:

- The machine gun at the end has an unlimited clip of bullets;
- Shirley Corrigan's face after she gets shot is goofy;
- Did Gordon Mitchell stash a sub-machine gun atop the tower *knowing* that they might get engaged in hand-to-hand combat that would eventually lead there?
- I wish the film had explained better the fact that both female characters had been hired to betray Leung at some point;
- When Bruce Leung steps off the plane in Rome with Maria D'Incoronato on his arm, she looks fairly attractive in that 70s way, but then she dons the ugliest pair of BIG 70s glasses I've had the displeasure of seeing.