Super Bodyguard (2016)

Super Bodyguard (2016) Aka: The Bodyguard; Iron Protector Chinese Title: 超級保鏢 Translation: Super Bodyguard

Starring: Yue Song, Xing Yu (as Shi Yanneng), Li Yufei, Collin Chou, Michael Chan Wai-Man, Shang Tielong, Xu Dongmei, Yang Jun-Ping, Li Changhai

Director: Yue Song

Action Director: Yue Song, Xing Yu

Yue Song is an interesting name in the annals of martial arts cinema. Much like director Xu Haofeng, he is his own creature with his own vision, which he has dedicated his career to carrying out. Both of them are martial arts filmmakers and both men write, direct, choreography and often produce their own films. Yue Song goes the extra mile and stars in his movies, making them these bizarre vanity projects in which he gets to kick the hell out of everyone because he just so awesome. And yet, looking at the outtakes of this movie, it’s clear that he does wish to return prestige to the Chinese kung fu movie, which many will agree has not been the same since 1990s. While Xu Haofeng’s movies are artsy, meticulously crafted love letters to the Wulin, or Martial World, Yue Song’s films are more bombastic, comic-book inspired affairs.

The movie begins with the crowd of people in the (fictional?) city of Lengsheng gathering around some guy in a brown leather overcoat doing the splits. That guy is Wu (Yue Song, of Iron Monkey and King of the Streets), the master of the Iron Leg and Iron Fist style. Wu kicks into action when a business man is being chased by some would-be robbers, whom he beats into submission. Wu turns down a reward from the guy, which will serve him well later. When Wu returns to the public square where he was getting in touch with his inner Van Damme, he is approached by Li Jiang (Xing Yu, of Kung Fu Hustle and Flash Point).

Li Jiang turns out to be Wu’s older martial brother. We learn through flashback that Li was kicked out of the school for some unspecified reason and ended up in the Big City. These days, Li Jiang runs a huge bodyguard service and invites Wu to work for him. Now that their master has died—Wu is carrying his ashes with him—Wu doesn’t have much else to do. And what do you know? His first client will be that same old businessman he saved earlier. The old man is not impressed with the big bruisers that Li Jiang suggests, and decides on Wu because he’s a “simple man.”

Wu gets hired to watch over Fei-Fei (Li Yufei), the man’s bitchy daughter. When she meets Wu for the first time, she’s drunk at a club and is almost getting carried off until Wu cracks the skulls of those who would take advantage of a girl who’s soused off her rocker. The next morning, he’s doing the splits in front of her room, so that when she gets out the shower, he can see her. (NOTE: the walls of her room are plastered with James Bond posters for some reason) She hates the idea of having a bodyguard—we learn that she’s had them around her since she was a child—and tries to insult him, buy him off, and even get him beat up, but his kung fu is too good for any of that. She even has one of her well-endowed friends try to seduce him, although he’s hiding a fancy salt shaker or something in his pants and that scares her away. Wait…what? It’s one of those Steven Seagal moments where the girl is doing a sexy dance in front of the guy who was in charge of all aspects of the film’s production and it becomes clear that he just wanted an in-script reason to look down her dress. Yue Song, you ol’ devil!

Anyway, there is a kidnap attempt on Fei-Fei, which Wu is able to stop because his kung fu allows him to run down a moving van despite his wearing shoes that weigh 50 pounds each. Oh, so Wu is like Goku from the Dragonball series. Just like in Bodyguard from Beijing, this is the moment where Fei-Fei starts to accept his presence, even though she doesn’t get all wet between the legs like Christy Chung did in that film (Jet Li, you sly dawg). We find out Li Jiang is working for a crime boss named Mr. Fu (who will be played by Michael Chan Wai-Man, of Broken Oath and Spirits of Bruce Lee). Li Jiang needs to guarantee Fei-Fei’s kidnapping and tries to remove Wu from her protection, but the decides to protect her sans payment. They hide out from the bad guys on an island, but it isn’t long before they get found out.

As you might have inferred from the synopsis above, Super Bodyguard is essentially a remake of Bodyguard from Beijing, itself a remake of Kevin Costner’s The Bodyguard. Being a remake of a remake, there is a bent quality to this film in that our hero is less Jet Li and more Donnie Yen from Dragon Tiger Gate. That goes for the fight scenes, which are exaggerated in terms of the hero’s abilities, and the characterization. Yue Song is pure Steven Seagal mode, displaying no weakness of character or lack of wisdom when the occasion calls for it. People criticize Jet Li’s stoic performance for the majority of Bodyguard from Beijing, but he does have some moral qualms to deal with when Christy Chung turns the seduct-o-meter up to 11. Yue Song is practically perfect from both the moral standpoint and his martial arts, which is expected in a film that he both wrote and directed.

That means that the action is largely one-sided. The film kicks off with a beatdown on some would-be muggers (or kidnappers), in which Wu takes down the ruffians with a combination of punches and takedowns. We later get a nice fight between Yue Song and Xing Yu, the only person in the film whose skills remotely matches Yue Song’s. There is also a good flashback fight with Xing Yu laying down the whoopeth against a bunch of Triad thugs. He shows some good moves and like the opening fight, wires are used extensively, but only for people to get knocked back 15-20 feet after each punch or kick.

The showstopper is an extended fight between Xing Yu’s main enforcers (including Li Changhai, Jiang Baocheng, and female fighter Xu Dongmei, apparently one of Jackie’s “New Seven Fortunes”) at an abandoned warehouse. The fight involves chains, hatchets, a horse-chopping blade, a head-butting style like in Drunken Master, wooden pallets, and giant tires. It’s a long and brutal fight and really the only moment that Yue Song is ever vulnerable or outmatched.

The finale consists of three set pieces. The first one has Yue Song finally kicking off the boots and fighting an entire army of bodyguards. The whole scene feels like a remake of the “Burly Brawl” with the Agent Smiths from The Matrix Reloaded, but with less CGI. At one point, Yue does the thing where he runs in circles on the bodies of the dozens of men surrounding him. Yes, it is wired, but it is complemented by plenty of footwork from him that is grounded. It does go overboard on the slow motion, moreso than the other fights. We then get a rematch between Wu and the Jin Gang from the warehouse fight. 

The last duel is a rematch between Yue Song and Xing Yu, in which the latter is wearing special iron gloves, which make him look like Jax from Mortal Kombat. It has some moments of good choreography, but it is surprisingly short and mainly consists of two men punching and kicking apart metal objects as though they were made of balsa wood. I think Michelle Yeoh and Luke Goss did it better in Silver Hawk. 

Super Bodyguard is enjoyable in a goofy way. The action is exaggerated enough to be fun. The fights almost all feel like the second restaurant sequence in Dragon Tiger Gate where Donnie in beating up an entire army with his bare hands. Yue Song does this, but with less of the extra posturing that Donnie often does these days.

Web of Death (1976)

Web of Death (1976) Chinese Title: 五毒天羅 Translation: Five Venom Heavenly Web

Starring: Yueh Hua, Lo Lieh, Ching Li, Wang Hsieh, Angela Yu Chien, Wang Chung, Lily Li Li-Li, Ching Miao, Ku Feng, Chiang Yang

Director: Chor Yuen

Action Director: Tong Gai, Yuen Cheung-Yan

Web of Death is the third movie that Shaw Brothers director Chor Yuen made in his second wuxia cycle, which would define the vast part of his output between 1976 and 1984. Most of the films he made were adaptations of stories written by famed wuxia novelist Gu Long, although this particular film was based on a story by Wong Ying. Wong Ying was a popular writer, albeit not quite up to the standard of his contemporaries, Gu Long and Jin Yong. He was younger than them, being born in 1956, which was when Jin Yong was serializing his first novel, The Book and the Sword. But the man was no less talented, as this movie adapted his work when Wong Ying was but 20 years old.

Of the three movies that Chor Yuen made in 1976—the other two being Killer Clans and The Magic Blade—this is considered the least of them. It has all of the hallmarks of a classic Shaw Brothers films: elaborate sets and costumes, a strong cast, decent fight choreography, coupled with a complex plot populated by lots of characters and martial arts clans to follow. Strangely enough, it is the action choreography that keeps this firmly rooted in “Good” territory, as opposed to “Excellent” or “All-Time Classic.”

The movie opens with a meeting of martial arts masters, who are met by the then-head of the Five Venoms Clan (Chiang Nan, of The Iron Bodyguard and Call Me Dragon). The man unveils his secret weapon: the “Five Venoms Spider.” This is a mystical little creature—played by a regular tarantula with a dubbed-in elephant call, that can shoot deadly, acidic webs at all people in a sizable radius. The spider kills all of the masters present, but later the man relinquishes the weapon, which is hidden away from all the martial world.

Several generations later, the Five Venoms Clan is having a meeting of the Chief (Wang Hsieh, of Heroes Two and The Secret of the Dirk) and his sub-chieftains. Liu Shen, the Snake Chief (Lo Lieh, of Clan of the White Lotus and Heroes of the Wild), points out that there is a martial arts tournament coming up and the winner will determine the best in the Martial World. The Five Venoms Clan has been on the decline these past few decades and both the Toad and Scorpion Leaders (played by Lu Wei and Tung Choi-Bo, respectively) have lost their territory to the other schools. Liu Shen suggests that they unearth the Five Venoms Spider and use it to win the tournament and restore the clan to its former glory. The Chief, however, forbids such things and ends the meeting right then and there.

We learn that Liu Shen is having an affair with the Chief’s wife (Cave of the Silken Web’s Angela Yu, in her last Shaw Brothers outing). Both are conspiring to kill the man so that Liu Shen can assume the leadership of the clan. They decide to start spreading rumors that the Five Venoms Spider has already been found in order to spur the other clans, led by the Wu Tang Clan, to action. In Liu Shen’s words, “We’ll have the righteous clans find it for us.”

The rumor-mongering works, and soon the heads of the different schools (Shaolin, Emei, etc.) are meeting at Wudan Mountain to discuss the weapon. The head of the Wu Tang school, Tian Suan (Ching Miao, of Five Tough Guys and Clans of Intrigue), designates his senior student, “Three Saints” Fei Yingxiang (Yueh Hua, of Green Dragon Inn and Dragon Swamp), to go to Shaolin to try to learn more about the rumors. On his way to Shaolin, he meets a girl dressed as a male beggar, who claims to know someone (who knows someone who knows someone) who knows about the Five Venoms Spider. She tells him to meet her at a nearby lake in 10 days. That girl turns out to be Hong Susu (Ching Li, of The Magic Blade and Killer Clans), the daughter of the Venoms Clan chief.

Hong Susu heads back to the Venoms Clan headquarters, where she discusses the matter with her father. He reassures that the Five Venoms Spider has indeed not resurfaced, as it’s hidden in a “forbidden” place. Hong Susu figures out that said place is the tomb of the deceased Clan leaders. Unfortunately for both of them, the chief’s wife is eavesdropping on their conversation and relays the information to Liu Shen. He comes up with the idea of making two maps and sending them to two different clans, and then spreading the rumor that said clans have a map to the weapon. 

The rumor reaches Wu Tang, and two students—Fei Jingyie (Wang Chung, of Police Force and Five Tough Guys) and Qiuxin (Lily Li, of Shaolin Mantis and Soul of the Sword)—are sent to investigate. They come across a bloodbath: one of the clans has been attacked by the Holy Fire Clan. Jingyie and Qiuxin intervene, but when the smoke clears, both clans have been wiped out. They take the map and head for the crypt, where they find the other clan has already arrived. Jingyie sends Qiuxin to find Fei Yingxiang and tell him what’s going on. When the other clan is massacred by the crypt’s traps, Jingyie sneaks in and makes his way to where the Five Venoms Spider is being kept. While leaving the tomb, weapon in hand, Jingyie is ambushed by Hong Susu (who doesn’t know who he is) and is poisoned by her Five Venoms darts. Once she realizes who her victim is, she hires the Golden Dragon Security Company to carry both the weapon (hidden in a crate) and Jingyie back to Wu Tang. But Mr. Xie (Chiang Yan, of The Flying Guillotine and The Spiritual Boxer) has made some underhanded deals with some very shady people…

There are a lot of twists and turns to the story, which is what makes it so fun. It does not get too convoluted, but there are a lot of plot complications that stem from mistaken identity, incorrect assumptions on the part of (otherwise righteous) characters, and just rash actions on the part of the main protagonists. The main villains are obviously motivated by ambition, but a lot of the bad things that happen to the main characters occur because of their own prejudice and envy. While the bad guys are definitely bad, the good guys have negative human qualities that keep them from making the right decisions, too.

All this talk of the Five Venoms Clan may make some readers wonder if this has anything in common with Chang Cheh’s classic The Five Deadly Venoms. Not really. This is a wuxia pian through and through, while The Five Deadly Venoms, for all its wuxia trappings, is a kung fu movie. That said, one may consider this to be a precursor (of sorts) to The Five Deadly Venoms, with the latter being set many generations later when the clan is in its death throes. The movie does have the feel similar to that of Kung Fu Cult Master (itself based on Jin Yong’s Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre), where you can switch “The Evil Sect” with the “Five Venoms Clan” and the “Great Solar Stance” and “Magic Stance” with the “Five Venom Spider.” So, if you liked the over-the-top quality to that Jet Li film, you might enjoy this.

To me, the action was the weakest aspect of the film. Tong Gai and Yuen Cheung-Yan are great choreographers for sure, and the swordplay exchanges are well done. But they are generally quite short and none of the fights really stand out in any way. Tong and Yuen opt to emphasize the supernatural aspects of the fighting, realized via practical effects. So be prepared for lots of smoke, sparks, flames, and cheesy spider web effects. Lo Lieh’s character wields a staff with a snake head at the end that shoots spark and flames at its opponents. Yueh Hua has a fight at the Five Venoms Clan hideout—which itself is covered with kitschy spider motifs—that is full of explosions of poisonous gas (i.e. lots of smoke bombs going off) and acid pools. And you can guess what the Holy Fire Clan uses in their fight scenes. So yeah, too much “smokes and mirrors” and not enough of the nitty-gritty fight choreography. Thankfully, everything surrounding the action is fun to watch, though.

Sun Dragon (1979)

Sun Dragon (1979)
Aka: A Hard Way to Die

Starring: Billy Chong Chuen-Lei, Carl Scott, Louis Neglia, Ma Chung-Tak, Joseph Jennings, Gam Biu, Lam Hak-Ming, Hau Chiu-Sing, Leung Siu-Chung
Director: Hua Shan
Action Director: Leung Siu-Chung

Billy Chong is one of those names in martial arts movie world that I knew about for a long time—he got a fair amount of attention in Thomas Weisser’s Asian Cult Cinema—but it wasn’t until the last 10 years or so that I started to watch his movies. Despite his career kicking off in Hong Kong, he was actually Indonesian, born on the island of Java in 1957 as Chuang Chen-Li. Chong (also known as Willy Dozan) trained in a number of martial arts, including karate, kung fu, and quite possibly one of the silat styles practiced in Indonesia. He got his start in the film business in 1977 in Black Belt Karate, in which he had a supporting role opposite the star, Indonesian-born, ethnic-Chinese karate expert Larry Lee. He had another supporting role in 1978 in Invincible Monkey Fist, starring opposite Chen Kuan-Tai.

Chong really came into his own in 1979, when he had his first two roles as the main protagonist. The first was in Crystal Fist (released on physical media as Jade Claw as part of the Shaolin Dolemite Collection), which was a rip-off of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. Clyde Gentry III, who wrote Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon, points to this film as being the best non-Jackie movie to use the so-called “Seasonal Formula,” although I’m personally inclined to disagree. There is some great ying jao pai (or Eagle’s Claw style) in it, but there are better kung fu comedies out there than that one. His second movie was the kung fu western Sun Dragon, or Hard Way to Die.

If I can say anything about this movie before getting into the plot synopsis, it’s that the film is better than some of the other attempts to mix kung fu and western sensibilities, like Kung Fu Brothers in the Wild West; Return of Shanghai Joe; and Tiger at the River Kwai. The film involves a Chinese guy who has arrived in America circa 1860-something-or-other (we see the Chinese still working on the trains) looking for someone…his grandfather, perhaps? He quickly makes enemies for himself after getting involved with the local brawlers, who set up fights for people to bet on. He beats up all their talent and refuses to join their gang, so they become his enemies.

While that is going on, a pair of fugitives—Jimmy (Louis Neglia, 3-time champion kickboxer), Jackson (Joseph Jennings, a 9th degree black belt in Isshin-Ryu Karate), and Ma Shaw-Yee (Ma Chung-Tak)—are looking for a place to lay low after robbing a stagecoach (or a bank). They find a small farm belonging to a family of black homesteaders and try to buy the place from them. When the family patriarch refuses, they just kill everybody and occupy the place. The only survivor is Tommy (Carl Scott), who is seriously wounded. Tommy is found by Shao Chong (Billy) and his friend, Ah Kam (Lam Hak-Ming), who take him to a Chinese doctor (Leung Siu-Chung). The doctor is able to save Tommy and ends up teaching him Chinese kung fu—specially the Leopard, or Panther, style. Tommy and Shao Chong end up teaming up to defeat the fugitives once they throw in their lot with the brawl organizers.

If Sun Dragon doesn’t have a “so bad it’s good” reputation, then color me surprised. Its badness mainly stems from the lack of attention to period detail, probably derived from a mixture of both cultural ignorance and a small budget. The Eternal Film Co. made other films outside of Hong Kong, like Little Godfather from Hong Kong, but I can’t imagine that they had the money necessary to construct even faux-Western sets or even rent your most basic cowboy garb that you would’ve seen in an 1930s oater starring a pre-fame Duke. So, you have 1860s cowboy types walking around in jeans and tank tops (which didn’t really exist until the early 20th century), some of whom are also wearing sunglasses (once again, not popular in the States until the 1920s and 30s). There is also a scene near the end where Tommy beats up some Chinese guys for attacking one of their own: in the background, you can see a modern mining factor that I’m pretty sure would not have existed at the time.

Anti-Chinese racism is also ignored: here we have Chinese-owned saloons where people of both races seem to get along just fine. I mean, “whitey” doesn’t like Shao Chong, but it has less to do with him being Chinese (in and of itself) and more to do with the fact that he beat up their best brawlers and then refused to join their gang. Interestingly enough, when the fugitives suffer from an onset of cabin fever while waiting for the dust to settle from their heist, they start getting in fights with each other. When Jimmy, who ultimately ends up being the main bad guy, gets in a fight with Ma Shaw-Yee, it is Chinese kung fu that comes out on top when the two get into it. But then again, this is a Hong Kong movie so that sort of thing could be expected. It is interesting to see a Hong Kong film from 1979 about American-Chinese relations manage to be less racist than Ip Man 4, made 40 years later.

The action was staged by Leung Siu-Chung, best known as the father of Leung Siu-Lung (aka Bruce Liang) and Tony Leung Siu-Hung. I was actually impressed at how good Leung’s action direction is here. He goes for a solid mix of karate/kickboxing, shapes-based combat, and Bruce Lee imitation fighting. Billy Chong is clearly imitating Bruce Lee for much of the film, minus the catcalls. That said, he is a solid kicker and his footwork is fun to watch throughout.

African American actor Carl Scott learned karate/kenpo in the 1960s through the Black Karate Federation (BKF). He was discovered by Ng See-Yuen while playing an extra in Bruce Lee – The Man, the Myth and his first real Hong Kong film role was in Last Strike, also known as Soul Brothers of Kung Fu (1977). Sun Dragon was his next film, made two years later, and this was an even better showcase for his talents. I do not know if Carl received any formal kung fu training prior to his truncated career in chopsocky cinema, but he looks absolutely professional in performing the Leopard Style. That particular style didn’t always get a lot of attention compared to the other animal styles, but in 1979, we got Carl Scott in this and Lau Kar-Yung in The Tigress of Shaolin really tearing it up with the panther fists.

On the side of the bad guys we have Louis Neglia, who was a champion kickboxer with a record of 34-2. His character is a lot bigger—muscular and larger bone structure—than his co-stars, making him an imposing villain. His moves don’t quite impress—this happens with professional kickboxers turned actors—but for an Eastern Western, he’ll do. Joseph Jennings as the other Caucasian robber stands out as his character is a knife expert. Shaw Brothers actor Hau Chiu-Sing (Five Superfighters and Stroke of Death) shows up in a cameo at the end as an opponent for Billy to take on. The bad guys are a decent punch, but are let down by the script. That said, there is enough quality fu and earnest ineptness that Sun Dragon is worth a view.

Rage and Honor (1992)

Rage and Honor (1992)

Starring: Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Terri Treas, Brian Thompson, Catherine Bach, Stephen Davies, Alex Datcher, Patrick Y. Malone, Toshishiro Obata, Tim DeZarn

Director: Terence H. Winkless

Action Director: Bernie Pock

Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock. They are like the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the martial arts movie world. Or maybe Errol Flynn and Olivia de Haviland…if Olivia had trained in Chinese wushu, Japanese karate, and several other martial arts systems. The thing is, these two have done lots of great things for the action movie world, but most people are likely to remember their collaborations, especially once both of them stopped working actively in Hong Kong and focused on making movies in the States.

Their first collaboration was in Sammo Hung’s Millionaire’s Express, a film that followed their respective Hong Kong intros: Yes, Madam! (for Rothrock) and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars (for Norton). That film put them on the same team as bandits working under Dick Wei and Paul Chang. They quickly teamed up a second time in The Magic Crystal, this time as opponents: Rothrock as a the plucky Interpol agent and Norton as the kung fu-clawing KGB villain. Although it appeared they went their separate ways, with Rothrock working mainly in Hong Kong while Norton did projects in the Philippines, the two did join forces for a pair of programmers from low-budget legend Leo Fong: Fight to Win and Jungle Heat. 

But in 1990, Golden Harvest found itself trying to break into the American market once more and financed China O’Brien, which reunited the two. They joined forces the following year for its sequel, followed by this film and Lady Dragon in 1992. They teamed yet again for Rage and Honor II: Hostile Takeover. Norton choreographed Rothrock in Guardian Angel the next year. They both had supporting roles in the Don “The Dragon” Wilson film Redemption (2004), although by that point, I think most people figured that we would never get something like they did in their heyday. Most of their collaborations afterward appeared to be documentaries, until last year when they did the Western film Black Creek. 

Rage and Honor was their seventh (or eighth) collaboration and it is a conventional martial arts movie: the one where characters regularly break out into martial arts stances, even the policemen. Very seldom does anyone think to use a gun. But then again, that’s what gives these films their char.

Richard Norton plays Preston Michaels, an Australian policeman working in some urban hellhole American city for…reasons. He is currently working undercover in hopes of ferreting out a big drug dealer known as Conrad Drago (Brian Thompson, of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and Lionheart). However, he is constantly getting in trouble with his superior, Captain Murdoch (Catherine Bach, best known for “The Dukes of Hazzard”), for playing the karate vigilante. Murdoch is always threatening to send him back to Melbourne, which begs the question: Just how did he get the job of working in the States in the first place. There is talk of his partner getting killed in the line of duty, but the film never makes it clear if it had anything to do with Conrad Drago. Or maybe he was on a police exchange program or something? I dunno.

Anyway, Cynthia Rothrock is also in this film. She plays Kris Fairfield, a history teacher at the local high school who also runs a dojo in the evenings. She is constantly followed by one of her students, a wannabe freelance reporter named Paris (Patrick Y. Malone, of “A Different World”). Anyway, some of the local policemen show up at Fairfield’s dojo to watch her give a demonstration in practical self-defense, including a pair of cops of whom Michaels is suspicious. 

He follows them after the class and catches them selling drugs out the trunk of their car and confronts them. They are interrupted by the arrival of Rita (Terri Treas, of Death Stalker III and various “Alien Nation” TV movies), who runs a pharmaceutical company and is Conrad Drago’s main squeeze. She kills one of the cops, but the whole confrontation is filmed from afar by Paris. Paris manages to hide the tape, but is nearly beaten to death by the other corrupt cop. The blame for the cop’s murder falls on Preston and he enlists the help of Kris to help him find the tape and clear his name. While that is going on, we learn that Kris has her own history with Conrad…

What would normally be a standard, predictable film is rendered a little less so by a supporting cast of weirdos. We learn that Paris was able to give the tape to a junkie (and former stock broker) named Baby (Stephen Davies, of Bloodfist VII—there were seven of those damn films?), who is quite the character. He then hocked the tape to a career criminal named Fast Eddie (Tim DeZarn, of Spider-Man and Cabin in the Woods), who speaks mainly in top-heavy dialog. Then there’s a female gang of hookers and butch lesbian bruisers, led by an attractive black woman named “Hannah the Hun” (Alex Datcher, of Passenger 57 and The Expert). She is interesting because she speaks entirely in third person. And Brian Thompson is…well…it’s Brian Thompson. He gives a standard Brian Thompson performance, although Brian Thompson doesn’t chew scenery to the degree Brian Thompson did in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. 

The film was directed by Terence H. Winkless, who got his start in the industry by adapting the source novel The Howling into a workable screenplay. He went on to direct the killer cockroach film The Nest, followed by Kickboxer clone Bloodfist, which introduced the world (outside of kickboxing circles) to Don “the Dragon” World. Interestingly enough, after making this movie, he spent a lot of time in the realm of tokusatsu, directing numerous episodes of “The Mighting Morphin Power Rangers”, followed by smaller stints on “Power Rangers Zeo”; “BeetleBorgs” and “The Masked Rider.” He even joined the Big Killer Animal boom that followed the “success” of the first Shark Attack and wrote Scorpius Gigantus.

Winkless’s direction in this movie is a bit odd. It has a story I can follow, but it never feels like a cohesive whole. The Captain Murdoch character disappears from the narrative shortly after Michaels is framed. There is a bit about most of the police being on Conrad’s payroll, but nothing much is done with that subplot. The movie teases a huge fight between Michaels and Drago’s bodyguard, Chan (Toshihiro Obata, who played Tetsu in the Ninja Turtles films). That never happens. In fact, both Chan and Rita just sort of observe the final throwdown between Drago and our heroes and then do nothing when good prevails. It almost suggests that they will just walk away scot-free. It’s weird: stuff happens and I understand why it is happening—except for Michaels being in the States in the first place—but it frequently doesn’t feel like an actual movie. Maybe it’s that cheap Cassio keyboard score that makes it feel like a made-for-TV film instead.

Credited as the stunt coordinator is Bernhard Pock, who did stuntwork in lots of big Hollywood films before dying in 1996 at age 33. I do not know if Pock did the fight choreography, of it that just fell to Norton and Rothrock, who did their best within the constraints of the production. The fights suffer from the same issues that plague a lot of American martial arts movies of the period: bad camerawork (i.e., too many close ups and bad angles) and editing. While it isn’t edited with a chainsaw like many movies these days are, it often cuts to an unflattering angle just as a blow is about to hit. It’s pervasive enough to be annoying, but there are still a few decent moments in the action.

Norton comes across as a standard Hollywood brawler who can throw a few kicks when need be. Rothrock is served better and gets to perform flashier moves, including a scorpion kick at one point. Norton’s earlier fight with Toshihiro Obata shows some promise, especially as it establishes Obata as the superior fighter. I was hoping that the climax would be set up so Rothrock would take on Thompson and Norton would have a rematch with Obata-san. But that does not happen and I’m disappointed because of it. Norton was better served by the choreography of his Hong Kong films and the China O’Brien movies. Both of them were, to be honest.