Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Golden Dragon, Silver Snake (1979)

A madcap kung fu comedy, a Jackie Chan style film of violence with slap stick. The plot is fairly familiar, Dragon Lee arrives in town to investigate the murder of his brother. He takes a job as a chef and observes a group of gangsters on motorbikes who demand protection money. These gangsters, led by a mysterious man who strokes a cat, are also trying to force a young woman and her uncle to sell them their farm. They are resisted by Silver Snake (Johnny Chan), who is also being trained in kung fu...

Obviously these gangsters are the bad guys Dragon Lee is looking for and he soon links up with Silver Snake and helps battle the gangsters, leading to an extremely long final showdown in a holiday resort.

The film is a shameless Bruceploitation film with Dragon copying many of Bruce's mannerisms and even a Game of Death style yellow outfit. However, there is also a lot of innovation and interspersing the fighting with comedy skits and stunts, some of them very bizarre. The film is unintentionally hilarious with the terrible dubbing, at times it seems like a parody but is highly entertaining.