People are voting emotionally.

A Disappointing Continuation

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

After seeing The Man From Hong Kong, one can easily appreciate why Quentin Tarantino holds writer/director Brian Trenchard - Smith in such high regard. This is grind house cinema at it's gnarliest and released in the middle of that most influential grind house decades, the 1970's. But even today, it still has the power to thrill action junkies with the breadth, depth and variety of its stunts and set pieces. Forget the martial arts on show throughout just briefly. Consider also, the car chases and roll-overs (one occurring beneath the world famous Uluru), followed invariably by an almighty explosion, the hang-gliding, the skyscraper climbing and abseiling and (you guessed it) explosion, the foot chases and villains catching fire ... regularly. In its quieter moments we are graced with some wholly and unashamedly exploitative T &A accompanied by a funky 70's synthesizer soundtrack, just to give us pause before we launch into the next action chapter. This film has it all and does it all relatively convincingly on what was not much more than a half million Australian dollars budget at the time. What's most surprising perhaps, is that the film is an Australian/Hong Kong co-production, rather than American in origin. Besides the very obvious Bond references throughout, film buffs should clearly see the genesis of films such as The Mad Max franchise in TMFHK. Don't see it for the frankly hilarious dialogue, at times grating dubbing and quite honestly its overlong , exciting, but uneven martial arts choreography. See it and appreciate it it for its stunts. They are quite amazing.

Sent to Australia to extradite a drug smuggler, a Hong Kong detective takes matters into his own hands after his prisoner is assassinated en route to court in this fast-paced action film. This was the first full length cinematic feature from 'Turkey Shoot' director Brian Trenchard Smith and the film is assembled with all the energy of a young director willing to experiment. There are some great tracking shots courtesy of Oscar winner Russell Boyd and there are several effective low camera angles throughout. Some nifty editing also leads to decent comic relief, such as two Aussie cops declaring that the Hong Kong detective has "probably gone to lunch", followed by a cut to a restaurant brawl. On that note, the drawn-out restaurant fight is one of the best choreographed scenes in the film, and the action is generally solid here, but that is about all. The actual story is very bare bones and talented though star Yu Wang may be at martial arts, he lacks leading man charisma. The film also tends to get distracted from the drug smuggling plot too often for its own good. A romance with an Australian paraglider adds nothing to the tale other than an excuse for a brief topless scene. The film also does not give a nicely sinister George Lazenby enough to do as the chief antagonist in the tale. The theme song "Sky High" is excellent though, and fans of martial arts, Boyd and Lazenby will probably find enough of interest here, but this is a definitely a step down from the Bond movies that 'The Man from Hong Kong' most often feels like it is trying to emulate.

The Man From Hong Kong (1975) was one of the few attempts that film makers and producers have made in trying to market Wang Yu as an international star in the same vein as Bruce Lee. Even some film markets have began calling him "The Next Bruce Lee" despite already being an action star a few years before Bruce Lee made a Kung-Fu film. Wang Yu has a certain aura about. Unlike Bruce Lee, he's characters have a cocky attitude with a streak of sadism. Whilst Bruce was always about doing the right thing, Wang Yu was about getting the job done and if he has to but quite a few people in the hospital so be it.Wang Yu stars as a Hong Kong cop who has to go to Australia to capture a wanted convict (Sammo Hung). Whilst in Oz, he comes across a real shady crime lord (George Lazenby). Realizing he's behind the actions of the convict, he sets his eyes on him and watching all of his "activites". Not liking this unwanted pest and condescending him in public, "JImmy" gets on the Boss' bad side. One night he decides to snoop around the Boss' office building. Inside he finds a few dozen karate "students". Jimmy asks them to leave but they want to take him out. A long brutal fight ensues. Despite their impressive numbers and cache of weapons, Jimmy beats they snot out of them. Re-enforcements come and after dispatching a few more guards, Jimmy is severely wound.A van load of Samaritans give Jimmy a ride to safety. One of the woman has a father who's a doctor. Jimmy spends the nest few days convalescing and romanticizing his heroine. But is heavenly bliss is cut short when the Big Boss' men find him and try to whack him. After a nasty accident, Jimmy's new lover is dead. This causes Jimmy to snap and he begins to wage a one man war on the Big Boss and whoever get's into his way. The big boss waits for Jimmy and sends all of his available guards outside to great his arrival. A ticked off Jimmy is too much for the ill prepared henchmen. Jommy makes quick work of them and races towards the top floor. The Big Boss is tired of holding back his "awesome" fighting skills and attacks Jimmy. He's no match for Jimmy who decides to have fun with him. Noticing the police and fire fighters outside, he goes into the Boss' arsenal and picks up a couple of grenades. After binding the beaten boss's hands, he shoves the grenade into his mouth and pulls the pin. The boss freaks out running around his office to and fro. Jimmy jumps out the top building before the office explodes. A sadly overlooked film. I thought it was great. Unfortunately very few people do. George Lazenby was great as the evil boss and Wang Yu was perfect as the Hong Kong inspector. They make a perfect pair of foes. This unlikely duo also appeared in A QUEEN'S RANSOM. Watch out for Toecutter from MAD MAX and Frank Thring from MAD MAX 3. Directed by "JimmY" Wang Yu and Brian Trenchard-Smith. Fight scenes were directed by Sammo Hung. This movie also features the cheesy 70's pop song SKY HIGH.Highly recommended.

The hero, Yu Wang, is a poor man's Bruce Lee in this action film which is a poor man's James Bond adventure. It's an astonishingly lame-brained movie, with no plot or suspense: instead, it provides endless fight sequences which produce more yawns (from us) than thrills. As for George Lazenby, who plays the villain, he has absolutely no charm as an actor, but at least here he's passable and ALMOST makes you forget his Bond past...