Tiger vs. Dragon (1972)

Tiger vs. Dragon  (1972)
aka The Good and the Bad; Kung Fu - The Invincible Fist; Death Rivals of Shaolin
Chinese Title: 餓虎狂龍
Translation: Hungry Tiger and Crazy Dragon

 

Starring: Chan Sing, Yasuaki Kurata, Chiang Nan, Wong Yuen-San, Hon Gwok-Choi, Irene Ryder, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Chieh Yuen
Director: Ng See-Yuen
Action Director: Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, Lee Ka-Ting, Tommy Lee (Gam Ming)

I'm guessing this is one of the earliest movies from Seasonal Films, Ng See-Yuen's production company and the people responsible for, among other things, Drunken Master and the No Retreat, No Surrender series. The cast is extremely similar to their 1974 Call Me Dragon, but with a more experienced Chan Sing in the lead heroic role instead of Bruce Liang (who did do the action and has a cameo early on). That said, Ng See-Yuen shows that he truly had an eye for talent early on and also had a good idea how to use said talent.

Set about the same time as Fist of Legend (and dealing with very similar themes), we have a Japanese karate master, Jai Tai (Yasuaki Kurata), being tasked with collecting some strategic maps from a number of spies at a drop-off point in Shanghai. Said maps will assist in the Japanese invasion of China. At the same time, Li Chang (Chan Sing), a Chinese military officer, is tasked with going to Shanghai and bringing down a white slavery ring run by shipping magnate of sorts named Lin (Chiang Nan). It just so happens that Lin's docks will also serve as a drop-off point for the Japanese spies. Li Chang and another undercover agent, Su Tung (Wong Yuen-San), become rather suspicious of Jai Tai and his so-called bodyguard (Chieh Yuen). Jai Tai in turn is suspicious of those two. It isn't long before Jai Tai's plans are discovered and Li Chang has to choose between bringing down the Japanese or his original target.

Yeah, there's nothing really new with the plot. There's a nice moment of suspense where it appears that Li Chang and Su Tung's cover will be blown, but some quick thinking on the part of some unlikely allies (including Bruce Liang's ex-wife Irene Ryder and Hon Gwok Choi) saves them just in the nick of time. My major qualms is that like many kung fu movies, the film more or less stops, leaving the whole plot thread about the white slavery ring unresolved. Also, Michael Chan, who play Lin's son, is shown to be a fighter early on, but disappears from the movie during the last 30 minutes. Also, the version I saw is 97 minutes, which seems like a long-enough running time for a film, but some bizarre edits suggest missing reels or something like that. For example, there's a part at the end where the bodyguard challenges  Chan Sing so his master can get away, but suddenly we see him fighting Wong Yuen San.

The action was quite good by 1972 non-Bruce Lee/Angela Mao standards. Of course, it helps that the film has a great cast of fighters *and* some really good choreographers as well. While still early in their game, Bruce Liang and Tommy Lee demonstrate those flashes of brilliance in hand-to-hand fighting that would define many of their later films. It's still a basher movie, but Chan Sing infuses his fights with the speed and power that people like Jimmy Wang Yu and Lo Lieh weren't able to. He also kicks a lot more than he would during his shapes period, when he used almost exclusively the tiger claw technique. Don't expect much from Michael Chan, who is introduced to the movie via a fight sequence, and then does nothing of note for the rest of movie. Wong Yuen-San did better work the following year in Win Them All, but he shows promise in this film.

And then there's Yasuaki Kurata. While I'm not completely sure this was his first Chinese movie, it was definitely one of his earliest, since his HKMDB credits have 1972 as the year he started working on the Jade Screen. Kurata simply is on fire here, and it's no wonder he would become so popular in Chinese movies later on. Just watch how intense and exact his blows are when he's beating Hon Gwok Choi to death and you see what separated him from your Mr. Suzuki's and run-of-the-mill Japanese karate villains of the era. The final fight is quite long, and in some ways comes across as a dress rehearsal for the finale of Call Me Dragon, one of the greatest fight sequences of all time, period. Here, Chan Sing and Kurata don't kick as much as that particular bootfest, but the two reverse punch each other in the face enough to kill a man twenty times over (sort of like the prototype for any given Rocky fight). Much like Call Me Dragon, Kurata whips out the tonfa and gives us a brief fighting clinic on how to use it, which Chan Sing counters with his sai. It's certainly more interesting than your average early 70s basher where the only weapons people use are knives and katana. Kurata also has a third, "emergency" tonfa, which he savages bludgeons Chan Sing with. Hundreds of face punches later, Chan Sing stands victorious, but Kurata put up a fight like none other. And that is enough to recommend the film to any MA fan.