Starring: Jalal Mehri, Cynthia
Rothrock, Bolo Yeung
Director: Kelly Makin
Action Director: Jalal Mehri
Keith Bailey of The Unknown Movies has spoken at length in many of his reviews about the evils of Canadian cinema. His opinions mainly stem from the fact that many Canadian movies are financed through some government-sponsored arts fund, which removes the incentive to make anything that might entertaining to general audiences, which is frequently felt in the end product. Tiger Claws is not only a Canucksploitation film, but it's Jalal Mehri's attempt to do something similar to what Jeff Speakman did for kempo in The Perfect Weapon, but with less impressive results.
Although Kung Fu Jungle is getting a lot of positive buzz from fans, it really isn't the first film set in the modern day to have a serial killer targeting martial artists. Tiger Claws did it first (to my knowledge). There's a guy (dubbed "The Death Dealer") going around killing professional martial artists, using the same methods: blows that damage the internal organs without leaving external damage, topped off with a strike that leaves deep tears on the face. Detective Linda Masterson (Cynthia Rothrock) takes the case, believing the killer to be an expert martial artist. She is teamed up with loose cannon cop Tarick (Jalal Mehri) to find the culprit, whom he believes is using the Tiger Style.
This was the second film produced by Jalal Mehri and his fledgling production company, Film One Productions and Mehri's second experience as an actor. You can tell the man is still pretty new at all this. Moreover, the budget is obviously limited, even with the help of James "The Protector" Glickenhaus's company as a distributor and partial financier. Most of the actors outside of the main three are barely worthy of the title. Even Mehri, Brazilian born of Lebanese extraction, hardly convinces, given his accent, the natural timbre of his voice, the fact that he was still an amateur at this point, and his lack of diction. Moreover, the script is goofy and sometimes even wince-inducing. Mehri plays the same sort of character that Thomas Ian Griffith would play in Excessive Force, the loose cannon who's Always right and who gets the hot girl in the end. The movie even finds time for a strip club segment, although being a Canadian production, the scene is so demure that I can say I've seen racier things in a 007 opening sequence.
Mehri choreographed the film, but his inexperience shows in nearly every fight, especially those that feature himself. Despite his desire to highlight the Tiger Claw style and put some shapes into an American film set in modern times, Mehri isn't quite up to the task. He looks uncoordinated and gangly every time he fights, with the exception of one quick display of handwork when his character tries to sneak into the tiger claw schol. His sparing sequences are slow and clumsy. The camerawork is too close or generally inadequate to show off his good side. The final fight put him at a disadvantage initially (he's handcuffed at the beginning), but once he gets uncuffed, he wins far too easily, given the established ability of the killer (Spoiler: it's Bolo Yeung).
Cynthia Rothrock fares a little better. Her kicks are higher and crisper, although Mehri still doesn't quite know how to film her right. She gets to perform one of those "over the back" kicks that I love so much, and all things considered, she gets the flashiest movies. She also gets in some weapons work, including the saber/broadsword and an oar she uses as a cudgel. As an actress she tries, but is let down by the generally bad dialogue.
Where Tiger Claws gets it right is in its treatment of Bolo Yeung. Too many movies give Yeung little to do, especially when he plays a henchman. After the first two kills, which are played like a slasher movie, the filmmakers come to the conclusion that they're not fooling anybody and reveal the killer to be Bolo, even though the police spend a good half hour going after the red herring. Bolo gets quite a bit of fight time in the last half hour: he fights the tiger claw máster, then some tiger claw students, participates in a random bar fight, gets two fights with Cynthia Rothrock, and then duels with Jalal Mehri at the end. That's probably more fight time that several of his American films combined. He doesn't get to do much flashy martial arts, he's more like Chen Sing in using simple but effective tiger techniques mixed with some powerful, yet basic kicks. He's still intimidating, though.
The movie had its heart in the right place, but veterans like Rothrock and Bolo weren't able to help Mehri overcome his general inexperience in filmmaking. Here's hoping that Tiger Claws 2 sees an evolution in the filmmakers's abilities.
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