Dragon's Claws (Joseph Kuo, 1979)

[Killer Meteor]

It's kind of a pity that Dragon's Claws was made in 1979, rather than say, 1976. It has the potential to be interesting and dark, but is compelled to include the usual obnoxious comedy that must have been mandated by law back in '79.

The actual plot is certainly intelligent enough: an obnoxious kung fu sifu (Lin Ho-Nien) is taken ill and it turns out he is suffering from long term injuries inflicted on him by his wife (Yuen Qiu, a former Bond girl of sorts, and later star of Kung Fu Hustle), whom he had raped and forced into marriage. Her former lover (Hwang Jang-Lee), now a Ching traitor, turns up to challenge the ailing master for leadership of the school. Their obnoxious son, played by lesser known Lau family member Lau Ga-Yung, generally gets in the way, whilst an obnoxious (notice the trend?) beggar (Pak Sha-Lik) intentionally sabotages the situation by replacing the official Dragon's Claws medallion with a fake, thus resulting in Hwang going on the warpath and much death and destruction.

The comedy in question mostly involves the beggar, who is a rather grotesque fellow lacking the charm that these characters usually have. And since the hero is rather unlikeable as well, being stuck with these two (not to mention Hon Kwok Choi as further unneeded comic relief) for a large duration of the film isn't the most entertaining pastime. And don't get me started on the icky urine-collection scene...

Thankfully, Hwang Jang-Lee saves the film. His character shows a lot of nuance and subtlety not usually seen in this kind of film, and has moments of tenderness and cruelty that make a change from the usual smug villain antics. When he and his cohorts step up the violence in the last reel, the drama is quite effective, and even Lau's clownish antics give way to an effectively furious final fight, mostly redeeming the tiresome mid section.

6/10

[RetroRobot]

True HJL is the only thing worth watching here.

[Markgway]

Sadly the only thing I remember about this movie is that it had stupid comedy which ruined it for me. I bet poor Hwang wanted to kick these mugs for real!