The Drug Connection

The Drug Connection (Du Hou Mi Shi) (1976)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Sun Chung

Starring: Chen Ping, Yueh Hua, Wei Szu, Eva Lin, Chien Yu

From: Shaw Brothers

Here's something I wanted to do more often this past week but wasn't able to due to various reasons. At least I saw an enjoyable film that for some reason was known in West Germany as Kung Fu Brigade Schwarzer Panther. The Letterboxd review is below:

I know that about a week ago I said I was hoping to see some more movies from the Shaw Brothers Studios; unfortunately, due to several people in the entertainment world passing away and me watching those movies in tribute (along with other factors), I was prevented from doing so. But, I had the time today to check this out, something far different from their standard period martial arts film; instead this is an unofficial remake of Coffy... yes, the Pam Grier blaxploitation classic.

Instead of being set in 70's Los Angeles this is set in the swinging area of 70's Hong Kong (which is at least presented as being just as trashy as 70's Los Angeles) and it follows the general plot of Coffy where an awesome badass woman goes after people involved in drug dealing after a loved one is affected by the business. Here, a woman named Wanfei (Ping Chen) goes after the people responsible for her sister Wanjing OD'ing on heroin that was given to her by a sleazeball who forced her into prostitution in order to pay for the drugs... and now she in an institution trying to recover. The blaxploitation theme is carried over into the groovy multi-colored opening credits you'd expect to see in the genre.

The opening of the film got my attention. Now, I am not talking about how they waste no time in presenting copious amounts of nudity. I am talking about how as you look around Hong Kong and all its lights you suddenly hear a funky song and you enter a nightclub full of many different colors and lights and people are doing drugs and dancing around in some outstanding 70's fashion... it started things off on a great note for me.

The rest of the film, it deals with the drug dealers trying to figure out who's killing their men, not suspecting it's an attractive lady who knows some martial arts skills and is not afraid to whip out a disguised blade to kill various bad guys. There's also corrupt cops, actual good cops (one is Wanfei's pal, typically known as THE DRUG SMASHER), and Wanfei having “a celebrity” for a boyfriend but he's not all that he seems.

While the movie isn't as good as Coffy I still enjoyed it, due to how 70's it was (oh man the interiors of some of the sets), how sleazy/trashy it was throughout-there's S&M presented in the most exploitative manner, for example-there are some nice action scenes, and it was nicely directed & well shot by director Sun Chung.

Whether you want to call this The Sexy Killer or The Drug Connection, this was a satisfying piece of exploitation nonsense. This had a memorable ending with many SOB's getting killed and it will inspire me to try and find more Shaw Brothers films like this to go along with me checking out the type of fare people associate with the studio.

My Best Of 2014 List...

... is finally coming on Wednesday, July 1. I'll be seeing one more thing and whether or not I rate it highly I'll post my Top 10 of last year, finally. I just need to figure out how I'll rank certain films.

Even More Rest In Peace Acknowledgments

Sad to say too many famous faces have been passing away these past few days, from Dick Van Patten and Patrick Macnee to Tony Longo, an enormous character actor you'd likely recognize from such films as Rapid Fire, Eraser and The Last Boy Scout. Rest in Peace to all. I'll likely be back posting here on Saturday.

RIP James Horner

I don't have a lot to say tonight but RIP to that great composer James Horner, who died on Monday in a plane crash. He's done a lot of great scores in the 80's and 90's, from the 48 Hrs. films I saw last week to Aliens, Glory and Titanic (or at least I hear that's a great score) and Apollo 13. I was quite sad by that news. RIP

Tonight I should be watching a new film I can talk about here tomorrow instead of seeing more movies I have reviewed here before.

Five Deadly Venoms

Five Deadly Venoms (Wu Du) (1978)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Chang Cheh

Starring: Chiang Sheng, Sun Chien, Philip Kwok, Lo Mang, Wei Pei

From: Shaw Brothers

Whether you want to call this Five Deadly Venoms or The Five Venoms, this is one of the more famous Shaw Brothers films and yet I hadn't seen it before. So, to see my first film from the studio in a few months I figured this would be the perfect thing to see and that's what I did when this was on the El Rey Network last night. The Letterboxd review is below:

Once again I realized that it had been far too long since I had seen a Shaw Brothers film. In the upcoming week I'll fix that by seeing more than one movie from them, and not all of them will be their typical martial arts films. This movie was on the El Rey Network and somehow I had never seen this-one of the most famous entries from the studio-so I knew I had to check it out.

The movie is all about the Poison Clan; the master and leader of the clan is dying. His pupil Yang Tieh is sent on a mission to find the master's pal; he's rich and there's the possibility the title clan (five former students who were always masked; they each fight in a unique wacky style. They are Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad) may attack him for his cash. Yang has to try and find the quintet and not only discover their true identities but also see who he can trust... and you'll also get to see which one has a great maniacal laugh.

As I heard from other reviewers it was more about the mystery than the fighting. There's a lot of intrigue and all I'll say about the plot is that you see the Venoms go against each other. The movie's entertaining and all and I enjoyed the action scenes (along with some gruesome moments) but there are other movies from the Shaw Brothers I enjoy more, such as the first two One-Armed Swordsman films or The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. At least I can now say I've seen this.

99 River Street

99 River Street (1953)

Runtime: a lean and mean 83 minutes

Directed by: Phil Karlson

Starring: John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter, Frank Faylen, Peggie Castle

From: Edward Small Productions

Here's another film noir I saw and reviewed. This one is obscure and that is unfortunate as it deserves to be better-known, I say. I try to explain why below in my Letterboxd review without engaging in spoiling anything. By the way, the title of this refers to an important location in the movie.

This is another film noir that TCM showed last night; it'll be on again July 17. The reason for them playing it on Saturday was that they showed several films of Evelyn Keyes, who here played a friend of the hero. I hadn't heard of this until a few days ago but I knew that the star (John Payne) and director (Phil Karlson) both did the famous noir Kansas City Confidential, which I will watch one of these days. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot as it's one of those stories that has surprises and twists & turns but I'll say it's about a boxer (Payne) who has a big fight-the way it's shot may remind you of Raging Bull-but injures his eye and can't box no more so he has to become a taxi cab driver, must to the consternation of his nagging wife, who is cheating on him with a criminal. Most of this film is set during the span of one long night and throughout you get your share of cops, shady characters and some violence. This well-plotted and complex movie is a brutal and hard-hitting film noir, both literally and figuratively.

More than a few times throughout the movie engages in misdirection, and all I'll say about that is that it's either done amusingly or to creatively advance the plot. It's never done to be annoying and it's not a hindrance. This is a well made movie, with quality performances, the expected lighting and shadows, and a grim but interesting world view, where the protagonist is really a victim of circumstances, although him being a loose cannon and easily angered to the point of being violent (it may not have been intended but it did amuse me) did not help either. He really was haunted by that one big fight.

The fact that this is a movie which has fallen through the cracks and has become obscure even within its genre is a shame, as I say it deserves to be compared maybe not with the tippy-top movies but it should be with the likes of Kansas City Confidential, The Killers or Detour, to give but a few random examples. At least it can be ordered via on demand and burned onto a blank DVD-R disc or it can be streamed on Amazon.

Border Incident

Border Incident (1949)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Anthony Mann

Starring: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, James Mitchell, Alfonso Bedoya

From: MGM

This was a film noir I watched last night as I was able to and I needed to see something else from the genre. The Letterboxd review is below:

I was reminded that I needed to see another noir and I picked this one out. It's about the still relevant topic of illegal immigrants and Americans smuggling Mexicans over the border for the purposes of hard labor... the topic was interesting to me. It starred the likes of Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva and genre veteran Charles McGraw... and it's from Anthony Mann... sounds like a great formula to me.

The plot is simple: The United States and Mexico work together to stop a case where illegal Mexicans are shipped over the border to work as migrants in the fields and it's a conspiracy between people in both countries so it requires an investigator from Mexico (Montalban) and an investigator from the United States (Murphy) to work together and they both have to go deep undercover; there's natural tension over whether they'll be exposed as they deal with a bunch of sleazy people.

While it's not a typical film noir set in the city with such things as gangsters and hardboiled detectives, it's still one as it covers a criminal investigation and it was a low budget affair and shot as such, with many examples of the low lighting and shadows you expect from the genre. I was always interested in the story and its various twists & turns and wow is there a nasty death scene that happens which I won't spoil but just from using your imagination, your mind paints a picture of something quite gruesome.

Anyhow, if you're a fan of the director you'll likely want to see this.