Review: The Black Dragon

Jason Piao Pai ventures to the Philippines and gets a job on the docks. Unfortunately, his curiosity leads to him stumbling upon his employers dirty deeds. He teams up with some other fighters to take the bad guys down.

 

Fans of martial artist Ron Van Clief will be disappointed that his role in this 1974 martial arts film is pretty negligible and not the titular character. Fans of good cinema will simply be disappointed that this film from writer-director Chun-Ku Lu (“Bastard Swordsman”, “Holy Virgin vs. The Evil Dead”) is such a low, cheap effort. In addition to the poster and title lying their arses off, the film just goes to show that competently staged martial arts scenes alone aren’t enough to make a decent film. The English dub for the version I saw is also the most godawful and sometimes racist thing I’ve ever heard which may have tainted things to some extent.

 

The film is both dull and annoying, and our main character naïve to the point of being eye-rolling. He wouldn’t get into so many fights if he weren’t so naïve and nosey. Star Jason Piao Pai fares best in action mode, but his character just annoyed the shit out of me in general as did his goofy comic sidekick. Mr. Van Clief looks buff but leaves zero impression. Some very odd musical cues throughout including ‘Nadia’s Theme’ (AKA the theme for TV’s “The Young and the Restless”) and a very recognisable Ennio Morricone theme from “Once Upon a Time in the West”. The fighting is solid, the film is bottom of the barrel.  

 

Rating: D-

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