Hot, Cool and Vicious

Rating:
Summary: More Cool than Hot and Vicious
Review: Starring: Tan Tao Liang, Don Wong Tao, Tommy Lee Tso-Nam (1976) (Corey Yuen Kwai as a gang villian with no fights or skills)

I bought this movie because the buzz about it was so great. I was dissapointed!! While Tan Tao Liang shows his kicking power in this movie, Tommy Lee must have thought that it wouldn't be such a good Idea to showcase him or for that matter any kung fu as with most pre 1978 movies the only fight in the last 5-10 min of the film.

Wang Tao was good, for the little kung fu he did as well as Tommy Lee. Its just that the amount of fighting was little and the story was very boring.

It's amazing to me how people review movies based upon one the aura built around one of its stars. Tan Tao Liang is on of the greatest kickers on film, but this is not even close to being a 4 or 5 star film. Tommy Lee played what Tan and Wong reffered to as "a yellow haired gorilla". Lee utilized what appeared to be the "Mantis fist technique".

Rating:
Summary: Well-mounted kung fu film in the style of a western
Review: THE HOT, THE COOL AND THE VICIOUS (1976) has a much more complicated plotline than the average kung fu movie and boasts some intriguing touches not often found in the genre. Packed with incident, it's a skillful blend of police drama and western as it focuses on a small town security chief (and Northern Leg expert) and his efforts to arrest the son of the town boss, all while keeping an eye on a notorious killer (and Southern Fist fighter) who's arrived in town on a mystery mission. Eventually the town boss's partner in crime, the albino Mr. Lung, returns for the inevitable showdown.

Captain Lu, the Northern Leg expert, is played by Tan Tao Liang. The Southern Fist fighter is played by Wong Tao. After initial antagonism, the two team up to combat town boss Yuen (George Wang) and the blond-tressed Mr. Lung (played by the film's fight choreographer Tommy Lee). Also in the cast are three striking actresses, one of whom (Sun Chia Lin) plays a woman seeking revenge on Captain Lu and attacks him with weapons at various points.

The film's dizzying narrative is interspersed with fast and frequent kung fu bouts, one of which takes place in a deserted ghost town. Tan demonstrates his amazing leg power with satisfying regularity. Wong Tao fights well but also has dark matinee idol looks, sort of in the mold of Hollywood golden era swashbuckling star Tyrone Power. His character is something of a womanizer, a rare quirk for a kung fu hero. The film's stars and director (Lee Tso Nam) reunited for the similarly styled CHALLENGE OF DEATH (1978).

Rating:
Summary: great plot and execellent fight scenes
Review: This movie probably has the best plot i've seen for a old school
kung fu movie. There is a great opening fight scene and there is just enough fights in the movie and the main villian tommy lee is cool as mutha and his voice is just scary. Don't listen to any bad reviews just buy it you will be thanking me, at a price of 15 dollars you can't go wrong this. Needs to be in every kung fu fans libary. The only complaint is it could have had a little more fighting in it but thats just nitpicking so get it now.

Rating:
Summary: The best Martial Arts Movie ever made
Review: This movies set my standard for how all other kung fu movies were made.

This movie goes above the greats like The Five Deadly venoms and Snake fist fighter.

Get ready for a treat!

Rating:
Summary: Not your typical martial arts film, yet average at best
Review: Yes, it's Asian martial arts action with a touch of the Old West (American spaghetti westerns) when the gang from The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious get together. I'm not sure who was hot, who was cool, and who was vicious, but this is by no means a bad film. It actually manages to follow two converging storylines without making a confusing mess of things, and the true motivations of a couple of characters are hard to judge for the film's first hour or so. I wasn't overly impressed with much of the kung fu action, I'll admit; there's a great emphasis on kicking (and, at least in the case of martial arts fighting, I'm not a legs man), and I felt that all of the early fights seemed a little too choreographed - the moves are all there, but the intensity is lacking. The action is taken up another notch in the concluding fight sequences, but by then I was facing an even bigger problem with the film.

Things were going along quite well, and then a character named Mr. Lung (Tommy Lee) showed up out of nowhere. I don't care how good a fighter he is, the man looks quite ridiculous, sporting blonde hair and a face covered with enough white makeup to last a geisha girl for a whole month. To make things worse, he possesses unnatural skills (suddenly pulling a well-made rug of reality right out from under the story), and his voice, at least in the dubbed version, is given a wicked little echo that was probably supposed to impress me - it didn't impress me at all because it sounded ridiculous. Then there is the fact that the guy hobbles around with a noticeable limp, but when he starts fighting he's Jack B. Nimble. Mr. Lung pretty much ruined this movie for me.

What about the spaghetti western aspects of the film, you ask? They are certainly not all-pervasive, but they are there. You start out in a saloon-type establishment, featuring special "entertainment," complete with a sassy little woman running the place. When the town's chief of security first appears, you see his feet stop just before he throws open the doors of the bar and comes in - very much in the mold of the standard Western good guy entrance. Naturally, you have your barroom brawl thrown into the mix, the introduction of some horses to the action, and a few other little things - just enough to be interesting, really.

I consider The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious an average martial arts film; it could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse. One thing is for sure: this isn't your average 1970s martial arts film.

Rating:
Summary: Not your typical martial arts film, yet average at best
Review: Yes, it's Asian martial arts action with a touch of the Old West (American spaghetti westerns) when the gang from The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious get together. I'm not sure who was hot, who was cool, and who was vicious, but this is by no means a bad film. It actually manages to follow two converging storylines without making a confusing mess of things, and the true motivations of a couple of characters are hard to judge for the film's first hour or so. I wasn't overly impressed with much of the kung fu action, I'll admit; there's a great emphasis on kicking (and, at least in the case of martial arts fighting, I'm not a legs man), and I felt that all of the early fights seemed a little too choreographed - the moves are all there, but the intensity is lacking. The action is taken up another notch in the concluding fight sequences, but by then I was facing an even bigger problem with the film.

Things were going along quite well, and then a character named Mr. Lung (Tommy Lee) showed up out of nowhere. I don't care how good a fighter he is, the man looks quite ridiculous, sporting blonde hair and a face covered with enough white makeup to last a geisha girl for a whole month. To make things worse, he possesses unnatural skills (suddenly pulling a well-made rug of reality right out from under the story), and his voice, at least in the dubbed version, is given a wicked little echo that was probably supposed to impress me - it didn't impress me at all because it sounded ridiculous. Then there is the fact that the guy hobbles around with a noticeable limp, but when he starts fighting he's Jack B. Nimble. Mr. Lung pretty much ruined this movie for me.

What about the spaghetti western aspects of the film, you ask? They are certainly not all-pervasive, but they are there. You start out in a saloon-type establishment, featuring special "entertainment," complete with a sassy little woman running the place. When the town's chief of security first appears, you see his feet stop just before he throws open the doors of the bar and comes in - very much in the mold of the standard Western good guy entrance. Naturally, you have your barroom brawl thrown into the mix, the introduction of some horses to the action, and a few other little things - just enough to be interesting, really.

I consider The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious an average martial arts film; it could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse. One thing is for sure: this isn't your average 1970s martial arts film.