Fresh and Exciting

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

After seeing The Man From Hong Kong, one can easily appreciate why Quentin Tarantino holds writer/director Brian Trenchard - Smith in such high regard. This is grind house cinema at it's gnarliest and released in the middle of that most influential grind house decades, the 1970's. But even today, it still has the power to thrill action junkies with the breadth, depth and variety of its stunts and set pieces. Forget the martial arts on show throughout just briefly. Consider also, the car chases and roll-overs (one occurring beneath the world famous Uluru), followed invariably by an almighty explosion, the hang-gliding, the skyscraper climbing and abseiling and (you guessed it) explosion, the foot chases and villains catching fire ... regularly. In its quieter moments we are graced with some wholly and unashamedly exploitative T &A accompanied by a funky 70's synthesizer soundtrack, just to give us pause before we launch into the next action chapter. This film has it all and does it all relatively convincingly on what was not much more than a half million Australian dollars budget at the time. What's most surprising perhaps, is that the film is an Australian/Hong Kong co-production, rather than American in origin. Besides the very obvious Bond references throughout, film buffs should clearly see the genesis of films such as The Mad Max franchise in TMFHK. Don't see it for the frankly hilarious dialogue, at times grating dubbing and quite honestly its overlong , exciting, but uneven martial arts choreography. See it and appreciate it it for its stunts. They are quite amazing.

The biggest criminal in Australia is one Jack Wilton (Lazenby). He has his hands in everything: drug running, gun running, prostitution, and he even cheats when he practices Kung-Fu. Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Yu), of the Hong Kong Special Branch, has traveled to Australia to take him down. Working with the local police, Fang infuriates them because he has no rules and is a one-man wrecking crew. All of Wilton's forces are after Fang - but can any force on earth stop THE MAN FROM HONG KONG? Wow. They truly don't make 'em like this anymore. What a shame. Starting from the great opening sequence with no dialogue, on through the exciting climax, The Man From Hong Kong delivers the goods and then some. The plot is perfectly simple, enough so that the movie can be packed with interesting locations, cool music, exciting stunts, tons of Martial Arts and car-chase setpieces, and still have likable characters as well. Not only is it well-shot, it's all directed and edited with verve and energy. We salute the great Brian Trenchard-Smith, who, despite anything else he will ever do, will be a legend for this movie and Stunt Rock (1980).The movie is rife with 70's style - just check out Lazenby's "'stache-fu", and his baddie pad (not to be confused with a bachelor pad). Also we get an excellent knock-down, drag-out fight between Yu and the great Grant Page which is as enjoyable as everything else in this superb movie. And there's still time for some romance, as represented by the beautiful Rebecca Gilling as Angelica. On top of that, there's some humor, mostly represented by Hugh Byrne and his great hair as cop Morrie Grosse. Because it was the 70's, the stunts are real, and there's no political correctness. It's all just a perfect cocktail of pure, enjoyable entertainment. It's just comforting to know there are writer/directors out there that GET IT. That understand great audience-pleasing tactics.Everyone here is at their best, and of course it doesn't skimp on the action. Sammo Hung is even on board, no doubt due to the fact that this movie was co-produced by Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest. It's filled with "yes!" moments, which we believe we've mentioned before, where as a viewer, something so cool happens, you just have to yell out, "yes!".Everything is done right in this awesome film, and the 2-disc Australian DVD pays this great movie a nice tribute. If you can find it, it seems to be the ultimate way to own this classic. Shockingly, this movie was not released on VHS in the U.S. until Tai Seng did a quiet, under-the-radar release in 2001. Because it didn't receive a golden-age VHS release on, say, Vestron, Paragon, Lightning, or a label like that, the movie's cult stature grew, but mainly in other territories around the world. With the advent of DVD, this can be rectified, and all can now see this fine film.Featuring the ultra-catchy, legendary song "Sky High" by the great band Jigsaw, The Man From Hong Kong is a must-see.For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com

It's quite a trip watching 'The Man From Hong Kong' almost thirty years after it was made. Writer/Director Brian Trenchard-Smith went on to make the Aussie trash classic 'Turkey Shoot' and the early Nicole Kidman vehicle 'The BMX Bandits' so you know it's gonna be class all the way. 1970s buffs will get a kick out of seeing the One Armed Boxer himself (Jimmy Wang Yu) battling it out with "the Aussie Bond" George Lazenby. Their scenes together are very cheesy but a lot of fun. I almost kept expecting Jim Kelly to appear on screen at any moment ('Black Samurai' anyone?) The rest of the cast includes legendary Aussie camp icon Frank Thring, martial arts veteran Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, and half the cast of the biker classic 'Stone' (Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Rebecca Gilling, Ros Spiers, Bill Hunter). Yeah, that's right - BIKER CLASSIC. Keays-Byrne is a great favourite of mine. He's probably best known as Toecutter in 'Mad Max' (in which Ward played Fifi Macaffee), but was also in 'Mad Dog Morgan' and 'Salute Of The Jugger', two movies that have pride of place in my DVD collection. This man deserves a web page NOW! 'The Man From Hong Kong' is stupid but hugely entertaining martial arts schlock, and highly recommended. And boy, isn't that theme song catchy! I haven't been able to get it out of my head since 1975!

It's 1975. A time of funky pants. Muscle cars. Ridiculous sideburns. Porn-star moustaches. Bruce Lee still rules the world of action movies (despite being dead), and I haven't even been BORN yet.Sydney. Jack Wilton (The Laze) is a bad-ass crime lord with a penchant for cravats, orange velvet sofas and all things Oriental. Under the cover of his legitimate import/export business, he runs an international drug-smuggling outfit with connections in Hong Kong. Two federal narcotics cops, Grosse (Hugh Keays-Byrne, Toecutter from Mad Max) and Taylor (Roger Ward, Fifi from - er - Mad Max) manage to catch Win Chan (Sammo Hung), a member of this Hong Kong connection, following a well-staged--yet amusingly pointless--fight sequence atop Uluru (sorry, Ayers Rock). Chan is to be extradited, as soon as he testifies against Wilton. But the Aussie cops hadn't counted on the extradition officer being a certain Inspector Fang Sing-Ling (Jimmy Wang Yu), of Hong Kong Special Branch ("What's so special about Special Branch?" you ask? Watch the movie and find out!). Fang is a loose cannon, to say the least, and is intent on bringing down Wilton's entire operation himself, no matter how much of Sydney he has to destroy in the process.This was the first (and as far as I'm aware, only) Australia/Hong Kong co-production, and it's an unusual (but highly entertaining) hybrid. It's full of excellent martial arts sequences, choreographed by Sammo, and amazing stunt work, thanks to chop-socky god Jimmy Wang Yu and Aussie stunt legend Grant Page. But Brian Trenchard-Smith (who went on to direct the classic BMX Bandits, featuring one of Australia's finest acting talents: David Argue) has injected it with a heavy dose of laid-back, tongue-in-cheek Aussie style. It also has some touches reminiscent of Hollywood action movies, in particular the brilliant car chase, in the course of which we see a brand new Charger (That's a VALIANT Charger, not a DODGE Charger, for all you Yanks out there) gradually reduced to a smoking wreck. It must be seen to be believed.Jimmy Wang Yu appears to be almost completely lacking in both charisma and humour, but this may have something to do with the language barrier. He doesn't seem confident speaking English much of the time. He does, however, play "p--sed off" very well, and this gets him through. Besides, The Laze has more than enough charisma to go around, and there's plenty of humour provided by the cops (particularly Keays-Byrne, who's obviously enjoying himself). The film is also intentionally peppered with bits of political incorrectness, sending up the attitudes of the day ("Talk about the bloody yellow peril!" quips Grosse, surveying the aftermath of one of Fang's escapades).But the fun doesn't stop there! No, siree! There's babes! There's hang-gliding! There's...babes hang-gliding! There's assassinations! There's a young, svelte Bill Hunter! There's fake blood! There's Grant Page RIPPING HIS PANTS! There's nice scenery! And, of course, there's the obligatory pre-dawn kung fu practise on top of a hill overlooking a nice beach.The only sore point, for mine, is the terrible "hit" theme song by Jigsaw. The rest of the music's great. Very period. Very funky. But that song...well...it just...sucks.As a lover of cult cinema, a fan of kung fu movies, someone who's proud of Aussie filmmakers (when they get it right), and someone who just loves to be entertained for an hour or two without having to do very much, this movie is almost impossible to fault. If you're a wowser who believes in political correctness at any cost, or someone who faints at the sight of orange paint (when substituted for blood), steer well clear. But I happen to enjoy this sort of thing. So DON'T GIVE ME ANY S--T!