Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Brilliant!

A valuable jewel is stolen by a gang in Hong Kong and the insurance company in America sends a man called Lucas to recover the gem. Lots of action ensues as he takes on the gang led by the dreaded Boss Lu assisted by his old friend Inspector Lu (no relation). Lucas is helped by ex-gang member Fat Dog and eventually also by Tung Hao who is one of the gang after Boss Lu mistreats Tung Hao's inamorata Nana. A typical kung fu film of the 1970s with nothing new but the final action scene on the ship is pretty good. Sometimes called Black Belt Jones II though the main connection with that film is Jim Kelly but he plays Lucas not Jones. It does have a good cast. Jim Kelly of course looking great, Tao-Liang Tan flashing his legs, Sing Chen as Boss Lu and the legendary Bolo Yeung playing Big Ox. Hoi Sang Lee appears but unfortunately only briefly in an early scene. The version I saw had the usual entertaining dubbing of the actors. In the end an elderly man swallows the jewel but its recovery is not portrayed, thankfully.An ordinary movie perhaps but any film where Jim Kelly dances and Bolo Yeung sings can't be disliked.

Having had the rare opportunity to see it in the Mandarin/Chinese language , I can give a review that is more fair than some others. "Tattoo Connection," or "Hong Kong Connection" in certain regions, is a wildly entertaining, colorful and stylish Chinese import, that happens to star a martial arts legend who belongs to the West. Sometimes billed as "Black Belt Jones 2," this film has no connection to that earlier movie, which had a very different, and much lighter tone. Jim Kelly, who is basically the embodiment of everything that was considered cool in the 1970's, stars as Lucas, a CIA agent on a mission to recover a stolen priceless diamond. Lucas is sent to Hong Kong to find the missing jewel, and encounters a criminal organization, and an underworld of violence, espionage and death. The Hong Kong setting is brilliant, as the city is one of the most mysterious and fascinating places in the world, and like Hong Kong, "Tattoo Connection" is filled with color and decadence, as well as eroticism, something rarely found in this genre. Sadly, this film was poorly marketed in the West; this is a patently "Eastern" production,with Eastern sensibilities. So when distributors got their hands on it they apparently tried to Westernize it, by dubbing everyone with totally silly English dubbing with British accented actors. The result of that is a kind of "death blow," stripping the movie of it's intense mood and turning it into silly comedy. It's very apparent that it's a much better movie when you watch it in Mandarin with English subtitles. Unfortunately that version is very rare. A personal favorite of mine, I put it up there with more respected Martial Arts titles such as "Master of the Flying Guillotine" and "Boxer From Shantung," and even "Enter the Dragon." It is a film I can watch repeatedly and never be bored with. The kung fu action is fast and furious, with well choreographed fights that look quite authentic. There is also quite a bit of sex and nudity on screen, but it's all done very well, and doesn't look cheap. A remastered dvd in it's original 2;35 aspect ratio, (and original language) would be most welcome.

This film is also known as "Black Belt Jones 2." When the "North Pole Star" (not Polaris) diamond is stolen by Mr Lu's Tattoo gang. Mr Lucas (Jim Kelly) "The Black 6 Million Dollar Man" is called in to get the stone back. He has to combat many people hand to hand without his shirt against high kicking rubber soled sneakers and go to topless night clubs in Hong King.The film was horribly dubbed. 3 stars for naked hot Asian chicks before they were en vogue.Guide: Not much in language. FF nudity.

Jim Kelly is one of the unsung heroes of Blacksploitation. His role as "Roper" in the movie "enter the dragon" exposed the world to this amazing martial artist. His solo movies were the stuff of legend, as they were usually very funny (unintentionally) and happened to feature an afro-centric black man (daishikis and afros are everywhere in his movies) who totally kicked butt! Among Jim Kelly movies, Enter the Dragon is by far the best. But his solo career, mostly consisting of independent movies about a black martial artist, is well worth exploring.If you are a member of the Wu Tang clan, or a kung fu movie junkie, you gotta love this actor and especially this movie. It has all the elements of a great 1970's style Kung fu movie: Bad dubbing, plenty of fight scenes, an odd plot, and a protagonist with a Jackson 5 afro and the attitude to carry it off.This is not an Oscar caliber movie, but rather an independent flick with serious potential. Yes, it's really campy, and yes, the fight scenes are outdated, but this movie is worth checking out at least for the poorly dubbed dialog. Jim Kelly is never given a name in this movie, and is instead referred to, over and over again, as "That black guy". For real, the movie features such gems as "You got beat up by that black guy again" and "Let's go fight with that black guy".To sum it up in a short sentence: That Black guy is awesome!