A MAN CALLED TIGER [1973]

A Man Called Tiger (1973)
Directed by: Lo Wei
Written by: Lo Wei
Starring: Jimmy Wang Yu, Kawai Okada, Reiko Casahara, Yôko Minakaze

AKA LENG MIAN HU 

HONG KONG

AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: 26TH AUGUST, from EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT

RUNNING TIME: 112 mins / 79 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

Chin Fu heads over to Japan looking for work among the local Yakuza. After beating up an enforcer at The Pearl night club, he’s invited by Yakuza boss Shoban Shimizu to be one of his right-hand men. His job is to take back the extortion racket from the rival Yakuza gang led by Yamamoto, one business at a time. One such business is a Chinese restaurant ran by a fellow Chinese man whose son, Liu Han Ming, Chin Fu used to study martial arts with. However, Chin Fu’s real aim is to find the truth about the death of his father which was supposedly suicide but may have been murder. Han Ming offers to go undercover in Yamamoto’s organisation to find out what he can. And then there’s singer Ayako Yoshida who’s looking for her father, Shimizu’s girlfriend Hsiao Li who likes Chin Fu, Yamamoto’s girlfriend Reiko Kasahara who likes Chin Fu, Chin Fu’s landlady Ms Chang who likes Chin Fu, waitress Emi who’s also looking for her father, and – actually I think that’s all in terms of ladies – oh no there’s Iliako….

Writer / director Lo Wei, who deserves his place in the hall of fame for making Bruce Lee a star, even though Bruce took over more and more of the action and couldn’t wait to get away from him – isn’t actually the easiest of filmmakers to get a proper handle on. His films often have sloppy moments, but then every now and again there’s a really good or at least interesting one, and sometimes he’d try to be quite original. One thing that he liked to do – bearing in mind that he scripted many of his movies – was to densely plot his stories, adding characters and subplots to films that could have been straightforward martial arts tales like so many others of the time. As you can probably tell from the above synopsis, this is certainly the case with A Man Called Tiger, which would have starred Lee if he hadn’t jumped ship. Perhaps to try to partly make up for no Lee, a concerted aim was clearly to make Jimmy Wang Yu – fairly popular at the time but who could also have been much bigger if the Little Dragon hadn’t popped up and quickly changed everything – seem as cool as possible; wearing a different snazzy suit in every other scene, constantly having ladies approach and even come on to him, and, thanks to Han Ying-Chieh’s really rather good choreography, look almost like a decent fighter. Hell, even some of his kicks look good, and, while the Lee influence can be seen in some of the action the temptation was wisely resisted to have Wang Yu be very much like Lee – which would have probably pissed off co-star James Tien, who was intended to be the lead in The Big Boss until it was noticed that supporting actor Lee was rather good. No, instead we have Wang Yu’s own usual screen persona dialed up to 11, in a film which, typical of Wei, doesn’t always make the most of its material and situations, and where unimportant stuff sometimes takes up too much time while seemingly more pressing concerns like character motivation are glossed over, but which is certainly one of his better balanced movies.

Our Jimmy sure gets a cool introduction – actually no , he gets three cool introductions. A group of men are gambling on the street and one guy is taking all the money before saying “ow”!, due to a foot coming down on one of his hands. The stamper is of course Chin Fu, who then proceeds to beat up three attackers before being asked “who are you”? and the camera zooms towards him and he says “I’m Chin Fu and don’t you forget that. Want to make trouble”? The titles start to come up, but stop halfway through to show three more guys accosting a noodle stall owner for money and getting their asses kicked by Chin Fu who than says “Chin Fu, that’s my name”. And then, after the credits have ended, our modestly presented hero takes off his belt to whack four undesirables who are chasing a woman, before telling them and reminding us that “my name is Chin Fu, you people had better believe it”. I wonder if these bits were conceived late in the day to present Wang Yu’s character in a good light because he then acts friendly with gangsters and pretends to be one for a lot of time afterwards? Now we’re introduced to Yoshida, singing at The Pearl the first of three songs that are heard almost in their entirety – well, the second song is heard twice. Chin Fu is there, sitting at the back drinking, when he’s approached first of all by waitress Emi who offers to buy him a drink because he says he’s ran out of money, then by Yoshida who shows him a picture of her father on a pendant and asks if he’s seen him, then goes back on stage and sings a happy song because of Chin Fu’s dislike of her previous numbers being sad. But then some henchmen for gangster Shimizu, led by Lin Mu Lang, show up and demand money!

Lin gives Wang Yu a slap that causes his lips to bleed, then, in a moment obviously intended to recall that scene in Fist Of Fury, Chin Fu tells him that he’s Chinese before  knocking him out with the most badass slap that I’ve never seen. You may replay it several times. It should be famous. Chin Fu and Yoshida get on well, but their evening stroll is interrupted by some more of Lin’s boys, though their attack is stopped by Ms Chang, Shimizu’s girlfriend [well, “possession“]. She thinks that Shimizu will be impressed by and could do with someone of Chin Fu’s talents. Chin Fu and Yoshida are conveniently staying at the same hotel, but the [unnamed] landlady the hots for him and blatantly puts the moves on him, though without success, Chin Fu obviously fairly choosy even when women throw themselves at him. Even though Lin hates him, Chin Fu is recruited by Shimizu who puts him in charge of “entertainment”. He’s given a guy to help with muscle, and Ms Chang to help with – also muscle, though in a different way. Chin Fu gets off to a good start, even smashing, rather than smashing, a bottle in the face of one of Yamamoto’s collectors while others hold him, in a scene I’m surprised Wang Yu agreed to do. Old martial arts buddy Liu Han Ming then gets beaten up by Chin Fu to impress his employers, then Chin Fu gets Yoshida to give some money to  Li as atonement; it’s funny how any woman in this film will drop what they’re doing to carry out whatever task Chin Fu asks of them. The two make peace and Ki offers to assist. It’s puzzling that Chin Fu’s fatber didn’t gamble yet jumped off the roof of a gambling den to his death – or was he murdered? And can all these women about be trusted? A girl named Iliako meets Chin Fu briefly once, then picks him up in her car when chased by thugs. Why? “I can’t hep liking a guy like you” is the answer.

Wei still remembers to packmuch of his generous running time with action sequences, unlike on a few other occasions where one wonders if he forgot what the main purpose of these films was. Ying-Chieh’s choreography, which is traditional then brings in a Lee influence around half way through, and Peter Cheing’s editing really do succeed in making Wang Yu look good, he being someone who learnt moves quickly enough but tended to struggle to project the force necessary, with his fight scenes often relying a lot on simple bashing. Wirework and good angles make many of Wang Yu’s kicks look good, though of course the times when he knocks down multiple opponents with one kick look clumsy compared with not just Lee but others, and the attempt to show the impact of his blows, with plenty of blood on display, somewhat jars with the usual trampolining; slow motion shots of him jumping to avoid motorcycles are just funny. Quite a few times he easily bests multiple opponents, sometimes with the odd weapon, in scenes that are fairly good of their type. Then he and another walk into a derelict factory, from a distance which tells us that something big is going to happen; he bests some folk then the Big Boss himself Ying-Chieh, then suddenly it all relocates to a cable car which starts to move for no apparent reason. As is typical with Wei, the thrill and skill of this is weakened by some daftness, especially when Wang Yu and his opponent are suddenly hanging onto the bottom and swinging their legs to try to knock each other off, then really easily get back inside. Tien eventually joins in but only for one fight. Wang Yu then battles an axe gang which seems like the fight which had the most amount of time spent on it, and, injured, starts hobbling about so much that one wonders if he’s going to become the One Legged Boxer, but is still victorious over Tian Feng.

Japanese locations are clearly being use, as well as more local performers than you’d expect, but there’s no attempt to get a real flavour of the place, And things do get bogged down a little. In addition to there being two more missing fathers, both subplots being resolved in such a similar fashion that only one was necessary, we have added intrigue involving the two gangs, supposedly comic relief in the form of the club owner and his girlfriend, and a lengthy section involving high stakes gambling [which rarely works too well when you don’t understand the game that’s being played] which introduces three new characters, most notably one played by Wei who predictably plays quite a big part and isn’t even what he seems. We do certainly come away feeling that we’ve had have our fair share of mayhem, though those bonkers, usually unintentionally, bits which often turn up in Wei’s films are lacking. But as a substitute we have Wang Yu sometimes going over the top in attempting to look as cool as possible in every scene. In one uneblievable moment he wipes his lips immediately after kissing a woman – and she doesn’t mind. The potential in the idea of all these women liking one man isn’t properly explored, even when four of them are in a room. Some good farce comedy could have come from this – just imagine what Jackie Chan would have done with this setup – but then Wei wasn’t generally one for humour, even when his films could have done with some. And his screenplays often could have done with some reorganising and polishing. For example near the beginning of this film we learn of Ayako’s search for her dad, which gives us the impression that this will be an important element in the story, but it’s then not mentioned for absolutely ages, and turns out to not be that important. In fact it comes across as rather coincidental. Yet saying that, some details of the incident which set our hero on his quest aren’t even clear even at the end, an ending which perhaps sensibly, doesn’t even try to resolve the situation regarding all these ladies.

With a musical score from Joseph Koo that contains some of the expected funky stuff for a modern-set martial arts film of the period, plus those John Barry / Diamonds Are Forever chords which often made their way into these films,  yet which leaves a lot of material unscored, A Man Called Tiger perhaps lacks the insanity which could have made it into a cult favourite in its genre, though it certainly has quirks and, since seeing his early Chan efforts a few years ago, I came to the conclusion that Wei tried to make really good movies, and even had some talent, but just couldn’t quite get there. Perhaps most importantly, Jimmy is at his best here.

Rating:

SPECIAL FEATURES

Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling

Limited edition reversible poster featuring original poster artwork

1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the rarely seen uncut Hong Kong theatrical release version of the film, making its home video debut in the UK (112 mins)
Aside from a few shots where the grain seems to get a bit out of control or softness takes over, flaws which probably couldn’t be fixed because of the condition of the source elements, A Man Called Tiger looks absolutely fantastic here, the restoration making the most of the bright colour schemes with nice deep blacks for balance.

1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the re-release version of the film (79 mins)
I only flicked through this version, as I didn’t have the time to watch it all. Golden Harvest did to this [33 mins removed] what they did with New Fist Of Fury [a whopping 40 mins removed]; hacked it down to allow for more cinema showings and to make it more of an action movie, but went a bit too far. One of the most significant differences is the beginning. The Jackie Chan starrer lost its lengthy opening scene, which featured Wei, so it now began with Chan, a perhaps understandable decision seeing as Chan had now become huge. This film saw Wang Yu’s introduction [or introductions] cut out, so we now start in the nightclub with  singing and Wang Yu’s presence has been diminished, us now first seeing him in the club sitting drinking. This also gives the impression that Yoshida searching for her father will be the main part of the storyline even more than in the original cut by presenting it so early. However, the character’s role is then cut down, trimming a song, removing two small scenes and shortening a longer one, which result in her connection to the plot being less clear. Elsewhere lots of other scenes were shortened, which certainly speeds up the pace but makes things a bit hard to follow. Some of this material should have been left in for clarity, a cut running 104 mins was released in Taiwan and probably works better.

The picture quality is slightly inferior to the uncut version, but is still nothing to complain about.

Original Mandarin and classic English dub audio options on both cuts of the film (original mono presentations)

Optional English subtitles, newly translated for this release

Brand new audio commentary on the Hong Kong version by East Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) and Michael Worth
As is now customary., we get two commentary tracks, one from Djeng who either has a partner or goes solo, and one from the pairing of Leeder and Venema. Here, Djeng is joined, as he sometimes is, by Worth, who often seems content to just back Djeng up and remain in the background, but who here comes more to the fore, the two men both contributing on an equal balance. Djeng typically handles things like people’s credits [Worth jokingly says to him “are you going to do this with very actor in the movie”?], box office [it’s always interesting to hear what was big at the time, and we also learn that Enter The Dragon wasn’t a smash in Hong Kong]  and fun facts such as the Yakuza owning Pachinko parlours and rarely allowing filming. Meanwhile Worth makes some great observations such as Wang Yu seeming to channel James Dean, points put the Lee touches in the action, and praises Wei for certain things such as his compositions, . A great track.

Brand new audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
Djeng and Worth were hardly heavy going in their track, but of course Leeder and Venema provide the jokier side of things in a freewheeling discussion  which has, among other things, Chuck Norris-style jokes about Wang Yu and Robert De Niro doing an album of gangster songs. Leeder tells a great story about being threatened by the Yakuza to pay up because the previous owner of the house owed money; after letters, red paint on the front door and padlocks, a wily policeman suggested how to solve the situation – and ans that adultery is illegal in Taiwan, leading to another bonkers story that you just couldn’t make up. He also tells of how Wei sold his Chan movies to four different companies, perhaps just to be awkward, immediately before he died. Meanwhile Venema informs us that in Kyoto tourists are banned from approaching locals on the street, that motorbike gangs in Japan began with WW2 fighter pilots who didn’t really fit into society, and reckons that this wouldn’t have worked as a Lee movie. I agree.

Cutting Tiger, Hidden Subtitles – Brand new video essay by Brandon Bentley [7 mins]
It appears that A Man Called Tiger was originally even longer, with jumps in the original Mandarin soundtrack and extra material in the shooting script. Here, sandwiched by film footage so we know where the edits were made, Bentley reads out cut bits of dialogue while the text scrolls up the screen. It’s all portions of scenes already in the film, the longest bit involving Ms Chang bringing Chin Fu to her boss, but there’s also a setting up of the gambling which occurs later on which should probably have been kept in, plus more of Chin Fu and Iliako by the river….and we know Wei likes his rivers so one wonders why that was removed.

Do You Know What Sadness Means? [2 mins]+ Because I Have Your Love [2 mins] – Music videos prepared exclusively for this release
Re-edits of film footage so these rather nice songs play fine as music videos

Textless opening [2 mins]

Trailer [2 mins]

Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork

Trailer 

A collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by writer and critic James Oliver, and a short essay by Brandon Bentley about the versions of the film presented on this release

A film that links together both Bruce Lee and Jimmy Wang Yu, “A Man Called Tiger” is hardly a classic, but is nonetheless full of interest to the Hong Kong action lover. Recommended!