Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog
10/27/00
Review
Format: Non subtitled VCD
Stars: Lau Ka Wing, Sammo Hung, Wang In Sik, Lam Ching Ying, Meng Hoi, Mars, Chung Fa (small role), Fong Hak On (very small role), many others

This VCD I got didn't have subtitles, so I had no clue what was happening except for the physical comedy that gave me a few hints, and there is a lot of that. This (I guess) is considered a martial arts flick, and it's two beat, probably made around 1977, and yea, here we go.

There are actually quite a few fights, but the thing is that they don't last very long at all. Wing has one in the beginning with all weapons (zzz). He uses sword against hooks, batans against hooks, and batans against knives. Not exactly what I look for in a fight, and I was hoping that this wouldn't be an all weapons movie (it wasn't). Sammo has an encounter in a gambling house or something, and gets into the dragon stance for a little while and does a few incredible acrobatics, like sweeps to arial windmills (actual name?), 3 times in a row. So this easily made up for the first fight.



Dead spot. However, I couldn't help but just laugh at Sammo. I wonder if he should have done more comedy, or standup, or more pure slapstick... mixed with martial arts of course, because he has such a great way of doing physical comedy. The way he distorts his face, moves his mouth around, his eyes, and points his finger at things he doesn't like, it's all hilarious, and he does it pretty often.

Wing and Sammo have an impressive fight (which lasts for a minute at most), but they use wing chun elements, acrobatics, and other stuff (as you can see, I'm not such an expert in pointing out martial arts, just Wing Chun and animal styles, maybe Choy Lee Fut). There's one part where Sammo sweeps under Wing, and Wing does a backflip to dodge, and they do it two more times, and Wing does a front hand spring over Sammo, and then a back 3/4 onto Sammo. Very good indeed. But sadly, like I said, it's a short fight.



After that is another hilarious comic scene where a guy is trying to get Sammo to drink poison and tells Mars that he'll just put one finger in, taste another finger (to keep safe from the poison, but look like he tasted it), and stick the other finger in Sammo's mouth to show him that it's fine. It has to work right? Of course. So Sammo comes, Mars acts like he's drinking very strong wine or something and runs off scared of the wine, Sammo walks up to the fiend, the fiend tries to coax Sammo into drinking it, and Sammo takes the guy's hand, puts it against a column, and smashes the bowl with the poison onto his hand. So the criminal puts his finger in his own mouth (which now has poison on it) and you know the rest. Smart guy.

This guy thought he was pretty clever


Not much happens besides some comedy fighting (Sammo hits 5 guys with a huge wooden mallet and a low piano key is struck each time, you can't help but laugh), until Wing and Sammo meet up with some bad guys and both Wing and Sammo take all 5 of them on, taking turns. It's pretty cool, but again, very short. One guy seems to use a Choy Lee Fut fist (hand flat, fingers come in but first knuckles remain straight).



Move forward (to the second cd), and Sammo and Wing are up to mischief trying to steal back the iron vest (or something like that, it can't be penetrated) from Wang In Sik's place (while he's sleeping), and Wing puts vases all over Sammo and tells him to be quiet (plus he puts one in his mouth), and then walks out with the vest. Sik wakes up and nothing really happens except Wing fights 2 other guys for maybe 30 seconds.

Sammo has a bout with some goons and then fights the Choy Lee Fut guy for a few seconds, and like almost every other fight in this movie, whatever choreography there is is very well done, but TOO SHORT! The rest of the fight is pure mess-around, and very funny.



Wing goes against someone I don't know in the best fight of the movie. It takes place inside a house, and they effectively make their way around the furniture and the choreography is especially good (Wing's use of 2 beat fighting is better than Sammo's, he needs to be in faster choreography to look as good as he can). It lasts about a minute twenty, but the entire thing is pure fight, so I was satisfied by this point in knowing that I had a movie that was worthwhile. The opponent got into a tiger stance and became way more aggressive after they had exchanged mostly fists and some elbows, which was the highlight of the scene. Wing pulled out a rope dart, stuck the guy with it, and tied him up with it at the end. Brutal.



Wing and Sammo fight Sik at the end, and he uses the crab style, whether that's a real style or not. He makes it look good, and Sammo and Wing take him on 2 on 1, and it's pretty cool. The entire time, Sik is wearing the iron vest and it acts like a shell on him and the other two can't really get through. Sammo manages to unravel the vest and that's how they win. Pretty cool actually because they were trying to think of how to kill a crab before fighting Sik, and they just put a rock on the crab (ruin the shell) and there you go.



Sammo and Wing fight at the end using staffs at first, which turn into 3 sections (the two of them perform very well with such weapons). Even here there's comedy involved, like when Sammo's showing off with his 3 section and wraps it around his own neck in a stance. Finally they get rid of their weapons and go hand to hand for around 30 seconds, with most of it trying to get a money bag that's flying around. That ruined the end for me, having the two of them fighting over a money bag (though it was funny).



Ok so it wasn't a GREAT movie but it was good. Perhaps because it focused on comedy and objects instead of just martial arts so much was why I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. But I did learn that Wang In Sik is very talented even with the crab style and Lau Ka Wing is as professional as you can get in a HK film. Entertaining, but I don't recommend to people who want a STRONG martial arts film. But if you're a fan of Sammo and his humor and don't mind some martial arts mixed in, this is your movie, but I rate this based on action.

3/5 - Longer fights, a better final fight (and a better second to final fight would help), and humor in other parts would have made this an equal to Paper Marriage.

UPDATE - 11/15/00 - The fighting in this is actually pretty good, and there are numerous bouts. Still not enough for a 5 because the fights are short, but Sammo and Wing and company are in great form and deserve a higher rating.

4/5

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