Funky Grindhouse! It's...
THE MAN FROM HONG KONG (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1975)
"Hey, don't give me any shit!"
A cheesy ballad (extra mature), containing kick-ass action in slow-motion, sloppy innuendo, lurid stereotyping, and heroic motor car stunt action explosive death! What more could you possibly want?!
Tang (Wang-Yu) is the HK action superstar who travels to Australia to help get to the bottom of a not-very mysterious crime thing. This action-packed road leads to big bad boss Wiltan (George Lazenby), who is both ruthless and slightly useless at the same time. This meagre plot is of course a template for stunt action violence in true 'Ozploitation' style. Don't get me wrong, The Man from Hong Kong is of poor quality, especially the poor Aussie sense of 'humour', which is neither witty nor humourous... frankly it's just unwelcome. However, the Golden Harvest Kung-Fu elements mixed with the terrific Aussie car stunt action raise the entertainment value somewhat. In fact, the car stunts are some of the best I've ever seen, and Trenchard-Smith's direction is verrrry stylish indeed.
Wang-Yu is no Bruce Lee, but he plays the part very well, and Lazenby is spot-on as the bad guy. As usual, he did all his own stunts, which is admirable considering he gets set on fire! That crazy maverick!
Madman's Australian only (region 4) release is tremendous! A vast amount of extras (including 2 extra Trenchard-Smith films!) make this 2 disc set well worth the money, but the low budget roots of the film show very clearly, as the transfer is awful. In a way it suits the grindhouse feel to the film, but it is bad, especially the black levels, which are a major, major problem. A bit more care and attention to the "brand new transfer" would've gone a long way. That said, kudos to Madman for even bothering to re-issue this cult classic, I very much enjoyed watching it again after sooo many years. Recommended!
