In a change from the usual Shaw Brothers martial arts film, Chang Cheh directs Alexander Fu Sheng in a contemporary kung fu actioner set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Fu Sheng plays Tan, a poor illegal immigrant from mainland China whose kung fu skill gets him in trouble with a petty gangster (Wang Lung-wei) in Hong Kong. He relocates to America to find work at a Chinatown restaurant where he befriends a fellow Chinese immigrant struggling to pay his way through college. After getting in a fight, Tan is recruited by a local gangster (Philip Kwok) to help him eliminate a rival gang led by Lo Meng. When Tan discovers that the gangster is selling the same drugs that his friend has begun using, he declares war on the dealers. His friend (played by Sun Chien) eventually puts down the drugs and lends his Taekwondo-fighting skills to Tan’s fight against the gang. The outcome of this confrontation varies as Shaw Brothers had Chang film two endings depicting alternate fates for Fu Sheng’s character to satisfy censors in different territories. While Fu Sheng turns in a solid performance alongside rising kung fu stars Sun Chien, Philip Kwok and Lo Meng, the film is still a lesser rehash of similarly-themed Chang Cheh films BOXER FROM SHANTUNG, DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN and THE NEW SHAOLIN BOXERS. The American setting is unconvincing staged by a combination of brief set up shots of the real location and Hong Kong-based sets making up the bulk of indoor and outdoor scenes partly populated by laughably awkward-acting Caucasian extras. The fighting from action directors Lee Ka-ting and Robert Tai is adequate yet lacking the creativity, vibrancy and dramatic punch of Chang’s past films. The biggest drawback is how badly the film has aged compared with most of Chang’s period films. Coupled with Shaw Brothers’ campy production standards, Chang’s heavy-handed directing style was rarely well suited to contemporary stories as further evidenced by awkward early efforts like THE SINGING THIEF and YOUNG PEOPLE.
Alexander Fu Sheng • Chang Cheh • Genre: Kung Fu • Shaw Brothers • Venoms Mob • Wang Lung-wei
- steve
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