Salutations people! Get ready for another foray into the world of fighting flicks here on your favorite place to chop it up about them, Hai! Karate!! Next up is a Jimmy Wang Yu piece from 1973 called The Tattooed Dragon!! The revered Lo Wei directs here, and the film also stars James Tien, well-known role actor Lee Kwan and Sylvia Chang.
The Tattooed Dragon starts out overlooking a
stretch of temple ruins somewhere in Thailand.
We see Dragon(Yu)scampering over the ruins,
running, running through the ruins to....what?
We don't know because this goes on for the first
couple of minutes. Then we see him come upon
a group of dudes who look rough & scurvy gambling.
Standing on top of a tall wall, he takes a brick
and hurls it at them. After some words, and a
brisk leap into their midst, he takes them on
and proceeds to give out lumps but dashes away
after taking the money from the refugee fund
they stole back and makes a perfect swan dive
through a hole in the wall to...somewhere. Why?
'Cause we gotta get to the opening credits, of
course.
Leung manages to make it to a martial arts
school to rest and try to heal from his wounds
during the night. But the next day however,
the robbers arrive and confront the school
members in a brawl until Dragon awakes and steps
in. However, after again beating down the
main robber, he catches a blade deep into his
thigh. But he escapes again, leaving the head
of the school to cover him. Which earns him a
mollywhopping. We cut to a farmer named Yeung
(Sam Hui) and his dog, Lonnie. They lead a
simple life, and it's one that might change if
Ai Hsiang(Chang)gets her father to agree to
their marriage. But as they talk, Yeung slips
away in a quiet moment out of nervousness. He
gets back and Lonnie comes to him to relay
something strange at the river. Yeung finds
Dragon unconscious on the riverbank. He gets
his friend(Kwan)to help, and Ai Hsiang also
gets involved.
Yeung reveals himself to be a fighter,
actually training for a local Muay Thai
bout with Kun. Kun wins money on Yeung's
fight and gets the gambling bug. Remember
this, we'll get back to it. Meanwhile, the
robbers return to their boss, Leung(Tien)
who takes the news of their defeat in a
classy way. He then lets them in on his
plan to build a casino in the town and
capitalize on minerals there. They go ahead
and build to huge crowds - which include
Ah Kun. Uh-oh.
Why uh-oh? Well, if you're familiar with Lee
Kwan, you know that homeboy is usually in a
film for one of three things: comic relief,
to move the film in a dramatic and downward
spiral, and to meet a graphic demise. And
so, we see Kun gamble and get into a rut. A
rut that leads him to try to get credit, and
leads him to get the deed to his house and
land to get more money, even slapping down
his wife IN FRONT OF THEIR KIDS. His wife
then makes a drastic move which leads Ai
Hsiang's dad to go to the casino to break
things up. He gets beat up for his trouble.
By this time, Dragon is healed up fully and
agrees to infiltrate the casino with Yeung.
They do and bust up the joint, grab all the
cash and deeds and get to re-distributing to
the people. Which doesn't sit well with Boss
Leung at ALL. So he sets out to take revenge
on Dragon and sets in motion a showdown for
the town and its money.
The Tattooed Dragon is okay to a degree. It's
interesting to see Jimmy Wang Yu in this
because while he's doing this film in the
midst of his tenure with Golden Harvest,
it's a role that sees a bit of humility
involved. I mean, the dude gets his ass
handed to him early on which isn't new but
it's how it happens. He hasn't been in a
situation like this since the One Armed
Swordsman days. Still, he gives his beatdowns
with precision, and his final fight with
Tien, while quick to the point of nearly
being anti-climactic, has some flair to
it. James Tien as a villain is meh. Yeah
he gets a sneer here and there but overall
he's just lounging around in clothes and
patting the behinds of his two escorts.
Sam Hui does okay as Yeung, a simple farmer
trying to help Dragon. And that's the
whole thing - the film is basic. By this
time, Lo Wei had the rep of phoning some
films in as a director, letting his star
be the one to carry the flick. In watching,
you may find yourself lose interest here
and there. Even the dog, Lonnie shakes
things up a bit doing his best Lassie
impression but it's not much. As far as
the fight choreography, it looks like it
was just a matter of sticking to close
quarter combat and nothing too acrobatic
save for a moment here and there. The blood
and gore is as minimal as the rest of the
film overall. Bottom line, The Tattooed
Dragon may be a film you just see for some
Jimmy Wang Yu and not much else. You can
find it online...
RATING: 2 OUT OF 5 DRAGON PUNCHES
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