(1982)
Reviewed By-Paul Cooke Director-Doo-yong Lee
Scripted-Sam-yuk Yoon Starring-Jang Lee Hwang , Jim Norris , Steve Tam & James ChanWhen a big gangland boss clamps down on the restaurants and local businesses the small time honest folk pool resources and hire a soldier of fortune to help them. This dishevelled man of honour has demons of his own to battle from a history of fighting to survive. With his elder brother representing his interests , as a Burgess Meredith type mentor to this Asian ‘Rocky’ , he stands up for the working classes against the tyrannous street gangs.
There’s Kung Fu on every corner and the frequent off screen leaps into shot by an assortment of attackers is both entertaining and amusing. Slow Mo high kicks and curious milk shake goo , frothing forth from the mouths of defeated foes , play out to oddly chosen funky tunes best suited to a disco club for the deaf.
The battle for dominance chalks down to Black Empire and Yellow Tiger organisations and the war cry sounds out like fingernails scratching down a blackboard. Their clashes are fervent and with regularity each gang sends out their best fighter to do one on one battle. The battle for supremacy does not go unchallenged though as an independent martial artist is taking down the winner of these duels. Appearing like an avenging angel , dressed in the hippest set of threads for the time in a fashion statement of matching blue denim , this Fu dude has winning moves that must come from his ‘Jeans’ !.
The storyline is wafer thin and barely able to cover the cracks in a Sumo wrestlers attack stance but the abundance of fight Action keeps the movie moving along at pace. One of the standout fight sequences involves the two main protagonists , both anti heroes from different sides of the tracks but with equal ethics. A sequence within a health spa turns into a Fu Fist brawl with one man taking on the big bosses henchmen in a display of furious fisticuffs and round kicks a plenty.
Our dishevelled wanderer provides the main diet of take out Fu’d though , plodding from one fight to another in his tatty raincoat like a Kung Fu Columbo. This is mainstay low budget , one take Asian gang Fu fodder that like a Chinese takeaway tastes good but is soon forgotten once the next dish comes along. The big battle royale at the end is worth sticking around for though as the gangs all gather in a desolate setting within a brick yard. An eclectic conglomerate of bad ass brawlers go head to head equipped with guns , knives , swords and bare fists in a showdown that has more biff , bash and ka pow than an old school Batman episode. Throw in some dodgy dubbing and several rib tickling lines of dialogue such as ‘Your time has come … prepare !’ and the side splitting shenanigans wash down like a formulaic friend of old.
This Tomas Tang production delivers an insert free movie that perhaps shows just how wild and wacky those Ninja replete productions really are and how innovative a movie entrepreneur Tang actually is. Slap some white , yellow and black Ninja nuttiness into this mix and it would definitely pick up that extra notch in the wildness department. ‘Secret Executioners’ may well remain a secret as it stands , for this is definitely a rare find and a reasonably well executed one at that.
Presentation : Full Screen / Centred Release : VPD Coding : PAL Sound : Mono
Film: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 3.0 BITCH SLAPS Sound: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS
