The Man from Hong Kong

Summary

“He used his art for an evil purpose… but he fought well.”

Twilight Time has recently been rebooted by Screen Archives Entertainment. Their first two releases were the off-the-wall British horror film Venom (aka The Legend of Spider Forest) and the Ozploitation Kung-Fu epic The Man from Hong Kong. I am happy to see that the new Twilight Time roster of films seems devoted to bringing stateside some very niche titles. For The Man from Hong Kong, it seems that Twilight Time has used the same transfer and some of the special features that were present on the Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray in Australia. This is good news for those that have not purchased the film stateside. I sat down to watch the movie the other day and found myself warming to it almost immediately.

In Australia, a tour bus stops near the large geological formation known as Ayers Rock. An Asian man (Sammo Hung) carrying a Connaire briefcase, switches briefcases with a white man waiting on him. They don’t realize it is a sting operation. The officers – Morris and Bob (Hugh Keays-Byrne and Roger Ward) arrest the Asian man for narcotics violations after a chase up the Ayers Rock, while the other drug smuggler perishes after fleeing a helicopter in his car. The Chinese man is revealed to be Win Chan – the top courier for a cartel that works between Hong Kong and Australia. In Hong Kong, Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) leads police officers in some drills. Their drill is interrupted by a hang glider. Her name is Caroline (Rosalind Speirs) and she is from Sidney. She is almost immediately bedded by the inspector, who lets her know he will be in Australia soon to pick up a criminal. Arriving in Australia, Fang is met by the Australian police that took down Win Chan. They take him to his man. After a brutal beat down of Win in his cell, Fang gets a name out of him – Wilton. Fang wants to pursue Wilton and passes along the information, but the police would rather Fang just extradite Win and go back to Hong Kong. When the day comes for Win to be extradited by Fang, Win is shot by an assassin from a nearby rooftop. Fang gives chase and fights the assassin from one end of a restaurant to the other in one of the film’s best sequences. He realizes that the assassin was a master of Kung Fu and that he had worked for Mr. Wilton (George Lasenby.) At the dojo of Mr. Wilton, preparations are made to defend themselves from Fang and his associates. The two men will of course cross paths soon.

The Man from Hong Kong is a perfectly competent B-movie action film from the Seventies. Brian Trenchard-Smith knew the limitations of his budget, so he made sure to write to the strengths of what could be made inexpensively yet have an optimal visual effect. The movie is well shot with the Australian and Hong Kong locations coming across very prominently in wide angles. It’s nice to watch a low budget film where the director understood how to craft an interesting sequence. The fight scenes are inventive and violent. The fight scene that takes place in the restaurant, I would argue, is one of the best fight scenes from the Seventies. It’s a sprawling fight that starts in the kitchen and makes its way all the way through the restaurant as the two combatants beat the ever loving hell out of one another. The film also has an abundance of stunts. The film manages to pack in numerous sequences involving high flying hanggliding, a helicopter chase, a few car chases, building climbing, some explosions, and a lot of martial arts fighting. It is all made more impressive by Brian Trenchard-Smith’s eye for scenery and detail. Using wide angled lenses for the majority of the picture, the film does not feel constrained despite the modest budget. He makes both Sidney and Hong Kong come alive in the scenes shot in those locales.

Jimmy Wang Yu is an enjoyable leading man with some great acrobatic and martial arts skills. Whoever dubbed his voice gave him an enjoyably smug baritone that does not fit the actor, but honestly, that may add to the film’s enjoyment. Where Yu fails is in the sexual chemistry department. I like that Trenchard-Smith tried to flip the script by having an Asian star irresistible to white Australian women. Unfortunately, the chemistry seems forced and with lines like “What did you expect? Acupuncture?” the dialogue wasn’t helping much. These sequences are certainly failures, but they are so cheesy that they add to the enjoyment of the film. Watching Fang horse riding with his new lover or later bemoaning his new love’s demise gives the film a meta quality that I am not one hundred percent sure was intentional, but it works. The other actors in the film are enjoyable but not particularly memorable, with the exception of George Lazenby. George Lazenby is fantastic in this film. George Lazenby is also surprisingly good at karate in the film. Shockingly good honestly! It makes one wonder what would have happened if he had been able to make the proposed film with Bruce Lee.

At the end of the day, fans of B-movies, martial arts, Ozploitation, and George Lazenby should definitely seek out this release. It is a very well made film that checks off every cliche in the book, and is all the better for it. Great popcorn entertainment.

Video

Twilight Time has a very healthy looking transfer of the film for this release that I assume is the same transfer that Umbrella Entertainment used for their release of the film. Fine detail for the most part is very good and the saturated look of the film is appealing. Grain is present but not unnatural. The film looks pretty good for a Australian B-movie from the Seventies. Fans that have not purchased the Umbrella Entertainment release who live stateside will enjoy this presentation!

Audio

Similar to the video, this audio (presumably sourced from the Umbrella Entertainment release) sounds pretty good overall. Twilight Time has provided a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that has taken the original mono source and given additional depth to the track. I enjoyed the track a good amount. While range is still limited in ways that one would expect, the soundtrack comes across well. Clarity is pretty stable even if some hiss does occur. 

Supplements:

These features originally appeared on the Umbrella Entertainment disc and have been ported over. Unfortunately, the additional supplements from that disc, including four films by Brian Trenchard-Smith and a short making-of feature, have not been ported over. That said, the supplements included are of high quality.

• Commentary – writer/director Brian Trenchard-Smith, actor Hugh Keays-Byrne (Morrie Grosse), and stunt coordinator Grant Page. 
• Uncut: Not Quite Hollywood Interviews – this nearly feature-length compendium of interviews features director Brian Trenchard-Smith, and actors George Lazenby, Rebecca Gilling, Roger Ward, executive producer David Hannay, and second unit cameraman John Seale. These are fantastic and very informative interviews.

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4/5

Overall – 4/5

The Man From Hong Kong is an extremely enjoyable Seventies martial arts B-movie from Ozploitation auteur Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film makes the best of its limited budget by focusing on wide angled shots of Sidney and Hong Kong and some truly remarkable martial arts fighting and stunt work. The film’s script is mostly preposterous, but that doesn’t really matter, because the film is too entertaining for that to matter. I am thankful that Twilight Time has ported over the feature and a couple of the great supplements from the Umbrella Entertainment release. The only issue at hand is that the Umbrella Entertainment release also featured four more films from Brian Trenchard-Smith on the disc. That many features on the disc may have also caused some compression issues on the Umbrella disc, but I do not have it to compare. Either way, I am excited to see Twilight Time starting back up with such an enjoyable film.