Review: The Man From Hong Kong

When a Hong Kong drug smuggler (Sammo Hung) gets arrested in the Northern Territory in Australia, Hong Kong cop Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) is sent to bring him back home. He ends up teaming with two mismatched Sydney cops (Hugh Keays-Byrne and Roger Ward) to take down local drug baron Jack Wilton (George Lazenby!). However, they’re a bit bemused by the HK cop’s extremely violent (but pretty damn effective) methods. Also in the mix is reporter Ros Speirs who bonks our hero and shows him how to hang-glide. I guess hang-gliding was all the rage in Australia in ’75. Rebecca Gilling plays the daughter of a doctor, whilst stuntman Grant Page plays a motorbike-riding assassin, and the inimitable Frank Thring plays an associate of Wilton’s. Bill Hunter has a tiny role as a plain-clothes cop named Peterson.

 

I’m not sure if he quite ranks as one of the world’s worst-ever filmmakers, but English-born Aussie filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith sure has made some crap in his time (“Turkey Shoot”, anyone?). Let’s face it, when “Leprechaun 3” and “Leprechaun 4: In Space” are among your best films, you know you’re not David Fucking Lean, OK?. Although he has made two of the worst martial arts movies I’ve ever seen (“Strike of the Panther” and “Day of the Panther”) I had heard decent things about this 1975 Aussie/HK co-production, which debuting feature director Trenchard-Smith also scripted. It’s not only the “BMX Bandits” director’s best film to date, it’s actually a lot of fun…most of it intentional. Trenchard-Smith has a lot of help here, as the film was a Golden Harvest co-production with the one and only Raymond Chow serving as EP. On top of that you’ve got the very fine cinematography by Russell Boyd (“Picnic at Hanging Rock”, “The Last Wave”, “Gallipoli”, “Master and Commander”), maniac stuntman Grant Page, and co-star Sammo Hung served to co-ordinate the fights along with an uncredited Yuen Biao, Ching-Ying Lam, and Corey Yuen. That’s some pretty fine talent there, not to mention “Bloodsport” co-star Roy Chiao dubbing for star Jimmy Wang Yu, and one-time Bond himself George Lazenby as the chief villain.

 

We start off with the very recognisable Sammo Hung and “Mad Max” co-star Roger Ward, not to mention some excellent shots of what was then still called Ayers Rock, now Uluru. This was back when filmmakers could really get close to it and interact with it (The Sydney Opera House- in a completely different bloody state to Uluru- turns up about 15 minutes later). It’s all very good-looking and although it sounds like something out of a 70s cop-show, the music score by Noel Quinlan (who worked on several HK action films) definitely adds some pulse and energy to what is a fun, exciting action opener. Meanwhile, it’s corny as fuck but I just love that this film’s theme song is the very familiar and frankly wonderful ‘Sky High’ by one-hit wonders Jigsaw. Everyone over a certain age knows and loves that song, surely. Star (Jimmy) Wang Yu made one of my favourite martial-arts films of all-time, the ricockulous “One-Armed Boxer vs. Flying Guillotine”. He seemed quite humble in an interview I saw with him for the DVD of that film, but I’ve read and seen some pretty awful things about the guy’s treatment of women. According to the documentary on Ozploitation, “Not Quite Hollywood” (seek it out if you haven’t seen it, it’s pretty interesting), he was kind of an arsehole to work with here who hated Australia and treated his female co-stars appallingly. I guess that’s all irrelevant gossip, what really matters is that he’s a bit bland. However, at least in his case, his casting wasn’t just trying to get some international exposure at the expense of the credibility of the story. It’s a film that deals with Chinese characters in Australia. So although he might have star quality of a dubious degree, at least this isn’t an Aussie film trying to pander to foreigners by importing a foreign star (I really like Richard Franklin’s “Roadgames”, but the Yanks are pretty inexplicable in that) or forcing Aussie actors to put on fake American accents or something (“Daybreakers”, I’m looking squarely at you!). Much better than our leading man is HK legend Sammo Hung, the long-time Jackie Chan associate not only handles things behind the scenes with the fights but plays a small-ish role as a criminal. Along with the wonderfully hammy (if underused) Frank Thring, he’s the biggest scene stealer in the film. Less impressive is “Prisoner” actress Ros Speirs, who wasn’t much chop on that show and isn’t very good here. She seems to be in a foul mood, possibly due to her co-star, who would apparently play practical jokes during kissing scenes (By the way, Wang Yu is such a stud here that he gets Speirs in the sack after having met her 3 minutes ago!). “Mad Max” fans will note co-stars Roger Ward and the always eccentric Hugh Keays-Byrne as a couple of colourful cops. The actors (especially Keays-Byrne) bring a lot more to their parts than was likely in the script. They get some pretty corny Aussie lingo and, in Keays-Byrne’s case hippie talk that can be annoying, but they do their best. Playing a hippie narcotics officer, Keays-Byrne’s hair is even more out of control than usual for this period in his career.

 

With a 70s Australian cricket team fast bowler’s moustache, George Lazenby gives unquestionably the best performance I’ve seen him give. He’s perfectly smug as the main villain. The very tall actor even manages to convince in the martial arts scenes, which won’t surprise those aware that he actually studied under Bruce Lee himself. I have to confess that if I knew that beforehand, I had forgotten it by the time I watched the film, so I was quite surprised. He’s tall and lanky, but without the awkwardness of say a Kareem Abdul Jabbar. He also allows himself to be set on fire at one point here, without- I repeat, without!- the aid of a stunt double. Stunt man Grant Page proves himself to be a madman throughout the film with a lot of insane (and real!) stunt driving, but Lazenby is nucking futs for doing that himself. That’s even more the case when you realise that what you’re really seeing is the stunt going wrong, as Lazenby wasn’t supposed to have to struggled to get his jacket off. Now that’s commitment to the film! ***** SPOILER ALERT ***** His character also meets a wonderfully memorable end: Grenade in mouth taped up, locked in a safe armed with explosives. That seems like overkill don’t you think? ***** END SPOILER *****

 

The action here is pretty good, I must say and a lot better than I was expecting. We get a pretty decent jail cell rumble between Sammo Hung and Wang Yu. One fight about 25 minutes in has Wang Yu and what looks like a 70s Aussie cricketer (actually stunt man Grant Page himself) seems to go on forever and is pretty good. That’s actually common among most of the fights here, they seem like drawn out ordeals for Wang Yu to suffer through, rather than making him an all-powerful bad arse who mows everyone down with a single punch. My favourite fight would probably be the one where Wang Yu takes on an entire martial arts class of students armed with an array of weapons, which is really good and quite bloody. Jimmy Wang Yu is no Bruce Lee on the charisma front, but you can’t really complain about the martial arts action provided here. If there’s one real setback it’s overlength. There is no way on Earth that this film should’ve run 111 minutes. This should’ve maxed out at about 88 minutes if you ask me. As much as the sight of Jimmy Wang Yu riding a horsie is rather odd, I really think the film should’ve either removed the Ros Speirs character or Rebecca Gilling character altogether. Giving him two chicks to bang is really just padding things out, not to mention makes the guy look sleazy. I’d probably excise the Gilling scenes and have the purpose of her character moved over to Speirs, grumpy as her demeanour appears to be. Pacing/length doesn’t kill the film but it makes it less enjoyable than it could’ve been.

 

George Lazenby doing kung-fu, cars blowing up, Bill Hunter in a tight, bright orange t-shirt- what more do you want? It’s not a classic of the martial arts genre, but this is clearly a step up from the director’s usual standard. Hell, it’s better than a lot of other East meets West martial arts films as well and would’ve been even better had Bruce Lee been able to take on the lead role as originally intended. It’s maybe not a very good movie per se on a screenplay or acting level, but it’s no “Turkey Shoot” and a lot of fun. Fun counts for a fair bit in my book, and it’s a shame Australia doesn’t produce more action films (Though they certainly can’t make ‘em like this one anymore, you’d get into all sorts of trouble).

 

Rating: B-