Nov 19 2008
Hey that Dragon’s not black!
Black Dragon aka Super Dragon aka Tough Guy (1974)
D. Chin Ku-Lu
BCI/NAVARRO
2.35
This is the second feature in the latest Exploitation Cinema double feature from BCI/Navarro doubled with the Bolo Yeung chop socky Chinese Hercules. I decided to wait on that one until I had some friends together because Bolo is always good for some laughs, so I went for Black Dragon instead. if you go by the box art Black Dragon stars Ron van Clief as an ass kicking machine in the Phillipeans. But in reality the movie is actually called Super Dragon and Ron is a supporting player and dubbed to boot! the actual star is one Jason Pai Paio plays Tai Lin a kind hearted farm boy who travels to the Phillipeans after his more successful brother comes back from there a rich man. He goes there hoping to become the success his much more aggressive and savy brother has become. Naturally the second he sets foot in the big city he encounters opium junkies, gambling and is pick-pocketed. The thief ends up becoming his friend, since the guy is just a homeless waif trying to make ends meet. Soon Tai Lin is working on the docks and ends up in a brawl trying to stop a worker from being beaten. His bosses are impressed with his kung fu skills and hire him on a plant boss to keep the workers in line making him sign a contract, even though he can’t read it (they make him draw an ox head since that is what his name means!). Soon he discovers why he is needed to watch over the docks when Ron Van Clief and his buddies attack the ship yard wrecking havoc. He fights them off but things aren’t quite what they seem after he has a run in with them at night and they don’t kick his ass but tell him that he is working the wrong side. Along the way he saves a virgin from the clutches of a brothel who ends up living with him and the thief and it is her that tips him off that his bosses are up to no good. It is only a matter of time before his brother shows up as part of the enemy cartel.
Super Dragon is really pretty standard 70’s Kung Fu territory. There’s no wacky supernatural angle to spice things up like in Five Deadly Venoms, or just plain bad taste weirdness like in Two Crippled Masters. It is straight ahead stuff with a kid lost in the big city who ends up butting heads with the bad guys. The Kung Fu scenes are good, even exciting, though not exceptionally violent. There is a little bit of nudity in the brothel scene and as soon as the virgin girl shows up you know she is rape bait, but it happens pretty much off screen. All in all it is a perfectly servicable, fun and well mounted action/martial arts film. The joy in these things is basically watching the martial arts played out in widescreen shots that don’t cut away, and this certainly delivers on that.
The print here is a mess frankly. It is thankfully, letterboxed, but looks to be from a video source (or at least the opening credits are) because there is some tape glitching in the first couple of minutes. After that there is scratches, splice damage, sound drop outs that eliminate entire lines of dialogue and mismatched colors from shot to shot. This is the worst I’ve seen a Kung Fu movie look since the dodgy releases from the old Xenon collections. I’m perfectly fine with these releases not being totally remastered in keeping with the “grindhouse” appeal of the films, but this is totally in bad shape. There are 70’s porn films coming out in better shape than this one. I checked out a few minutes of Chinese Hercules and thankfully it looks to be in better condition.
I was a huge fan of the BCI Welcome To The Grindhouse series. But the Exploitation Cinema series that has replaced it seems to have dropped in quality with lackluster transfers and cut films. With Satan’s Slave being the TV print, Mausoleum being a full frame print that is matted (and an R rated print that is missing footage, though its debatable if that extra footage has ever existed) and now this. They are not batting a very good average for the new line of releases. They are however adding some nice bonus extras like a commentary from Ron Van Clief during Black Dragon which is nice. The discs are dirt cheap, but some better quality control needs to happen.
Here’s the trailer. Notice they try to sell it completely on Ron Van Clief
2008-11-19
02:58:44
Andy Copp
