What goes on folks?! Hai! Karate returns with another flick up for review for all of you who love martial arts movies! For this go-round, we cover a flick from the Shaw Brothers Studios featuring the legendary Lo Lieh, The Dragon Missile!! The film also stars Tony Lau Wing, Nancy Yeh Nan-Si, Ku Feng, and Terry Lau amidst a full cast. Ho Meng-Hua sits in the director's chair for this one. This flick has been getting some notice of late, and it should - for reasons both good and not so good.
The Dragon Missile begins with Si Ma Jun(Lieh)
demonstrating the fearsome capabilities of the
Dragon Missile. It's basically a flying guillotine
but in dual form that has a boomerang effect
that sends it on its killing ways, then brings
it back to the thrower. We get past the credit
scene and find ourselves in a stately mansion
where the lord(Feng) is dying from some sort
of illness. Before we get sympathetic though,
the lord orders three aides to be beheaded just
for suggesting he make arrangements after his
passing. The lord gets Dr. Fu(Hao Li-Jen) to
inform him that in order to live, he needs to
get the Longevity Rattan, have it be burned to
ashes and then made into a powder. Only then
can he live. But Dr.Fu doesn't grovel enough
to the lord's liking, so he has Si Ma Jun kill
him right outside. Then he sends him out to
get the rattan.
Now if you've kept up so far, you would think
that Si Ma Jun could be trusted by this lord.
NOPE. He orders Chief Yang(Man Man)to send
six other assassins out with Si Ma Jun to keep
an eye on him. Yang in turn tells them that
if they get the rattan from Sima Jun and give
it to him, he will reward them greatly. All of
them relish this, none more than Miss Sha(Lau)
who apparently was related to Wolverine from
the X-Men in some form given her unique skill.
They all set out for the only place to get the
rattan, from the herbalist Tan. Tan however
refuses to give it to them being that the lord
is unjust. Si Ma Jun and the others kill him
and his aide and take the rattan. Tan's daughter
Tan Li(Nan-See)arrives too late and vows revenge.
The group stop on the road where Si Ma Jun beats
up Miu Fei(Fan Mei-Sheng). He gets the rattan
stolen from him by a tree-hopping bandit. This
turns out to be his classmate, Tieh Er Long(Lau
Wing). Si Ma Jun heads to Er Long's house, and
they shoot the breeze along with Er Long's mom.
Si MaJun comes back secretly to get the rattan
and winds up fighting his mom who's not bad with
her skills. But she winds up a victim, and Er
Long and Tan Li wind up teaming up for revenge.
(Side note: He did her DIRTY.)
Si MaJun is beset on all sides, and winds up
having to fight off not only Er Long and Tan
Li, but the other killers. This becomes a big
storm of intrigue until Si Ma Jun gets the rattan
to his lord, only to find that due to a mishap
where the rattan got wet, it becomes useless.
The lord, infuriated, orders Si Ma Jun beheaded.
And the loyal killer now becomes a fugitive, on the
run until the ultimate showdown. Can the Dragon
Missile remain invincible?
The Dragon Missile is B-movie status when you
really get down to it for good and bad reasons
like I said before. The plot is as chopped up as
an egg salad with no real taste to it. Ho Meng
Hua keeps things moving at a detriment to the
film. Exhibit A? The fact that throughout the
entire movie, the only characters who get any
sense of character outside of being one-dimensional
are Si Ma Jun, Er Long and Tan Li. In that order.
THAT'S IT. No other info on the killers. Mind
you, we don't even KNOW the lord's NAME. For
the whole flick! The film is a rush job. This
is due to the fact that Shaw Studios was at this
time dealing with the fact that they were no
longer top dog in the cinema world. They were
trying to keep up with Golden Harvest and another
studio from Taiwan, First Films, who happened to
be making a picture that ripped off their hit
from 1974 that Meng-Hua directed, The Flying
Guillotine. That movie would star & be directed
by the rapscallion actor Jimmy Wang Yu, known as
Master of The Flying Guillotine, and become a cult classic.
In fact, THAT film ran the same week as The Dragon Missile, forcing
the Shaw entry to only run one week and leave the
theater in defeat. Wang Yu had a habit of copying
his competitors' flicks with his own movies and
this time it paid off big. It stung more because
you can see that Shaw put some money into their
film despite it being lackluster overall.
For instance, the weapon itself is exemplary in
its creation. It's the centerpiece of the film,
and would be an inspiration for future films to
employ such wicked weaponry. It even had its
own slick leather holster. That said, it might
be your only reason to catch this movie. I mean,
Lo Lieh was okay as Si Ma Jun. He manages to let
him be more than a loyal killer with his acting
especially in the last 20 minutes being on the
run. Tony Lau-Wing was coming into his own as
an actor with Shaw Studios. This was his third
picture with them, building off of his stellar
turn in The Big Boss. (Side note: he was working
on two other pictures in addition to this at the
same time.)He'd go on to be an iconic figure for
them in their later years. Nancy Yen Nan-See?
There's only one word for her: MEH. She had some
chops, but no real appeal. Straight wooden. Even
Terry Lau as Miss Sha looked like she was just
going through the motions. The fighting is decent
but barely so. You may get a bit dizzy with the
plot if you step away, be warned. There's no real
bloodshed, unlike the movie that inspired it.
And the jumping plot is going to make you scratch
your head. There's one or two moments where you
will get the feeling like, 'let's just get this
paycheck and go party, bump all this.' Ultimately,
The Dragon Missile is something to see for the
actual weapon itself and mot much else. It's now
available on DVD and if you've got the El Rey
Network.
RATING: 2 OF 5 DRAGON PUNCHES
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