What's happening fight film fans? Hai! Karate returns with an obscure flick from the bins at your local supermarket, fresh and reviewed just for you! Today's flick? Showdown At The Equator, starring Lo Lieh and Nora Miao!! The cast also includes veteran actors like Bruce Leung Siu-Leung, Fung Ngai and Tong Tin-Hei. This flick was made by the Dragon Nation Film Company(catchy title) and directed by Gwan Jing-Leung, a journeyman actor and action director. Let's get down to the gritty of this picture...
Showdown At The Equator starts out with a
heavy credit montage. If the theme song seems
familiar, it is - it's Issac Hayes' hit song
'Run Fay Run' from the soundtrack to his movie
Three Tough Guys. And once more, we have a
kung-fu flick that liberally 'borrows' soul
and R&B classics to supplement the score. We
get past that and find ourselves witnessing a
guy getting thoroughly beat down by a gang
before being iced. We then jump to see Chen
Chung(Yiu Ping)being told about the incident
by his daughter,Chen Wan(Miao) in their restaurant.
Soon after, a gang comes in to demand 'protection
money.' When Chung refuses, the gang demolishes
the restaurant and beats him down in the process.
They get help from a drunkard, Yu Wang(Larry Lee
Gam-Kwan)who they offer a job to. Now to this
point, we don't know WHERE the hell this place
is. From the looks of things seen later on, it
just might be somewhere in Thailand. But we
then get to meet Li Shung(Leung Siu-Leung), a
regular dude who shares his home with his mom,
has some real fighting skill...and works as an
undercover informant in the gang for the police.
It turns out that Yu Wang has these money stacks
that he just gives away if he's not getting into
fights. He eventually links up with the gang,
which breaks Chen Wan's heart since she has
grown fond of him. BUT...he's got his own reason
for joining. And that reason is Steven(Lieh)
who runs the gang with a critical eye. All of
this leads to the climactic(meh)showdown that
will settle things once and for all...
Showdown At The Equator...is not a good film.
Yeah, there's a bunch of fighting. Fighting
that can get into video-game mode at times(if
you see it, you'll be perplexed by the cast-off
European beer hall brawlers near the end of the
film that Yu Wang has to face). Nora Miao is
essentially a pretty face here that helps move
the flick along in parts. Lo Lieh is in this
movie sparingly as well, and while he's got that
70's movie villain swag down to the double knit
suits, it's just not enough. Add in footage of
a soccer match that no one expected(I mean, you
can tell they jumped a turnstile), an uneven
plot and you've got a poor movie. When your
film only rocks with two R&B hits...when you've
got to believe that a drunk can just pop up with
stacks of dough and no one asks where or how...
when most of the baddies are either bald or are
really bad at going to the dentist... I can only
really recommend this for kung-fu film devotees
who won't mind 90 minutes of meh. True story.
RATING: 1 OUT OF 5 DRAGON PUNCHES *special shoutout to tarstarkas.net for imagery!!*
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