Silent Tong

 

 (imdb)

THE TONG MAN-1919-Louie Toy (Toyo Fujita), antiques and opium dealer is assisted by his daughter Sen Chee (non-Asian actress Helen Jerome Eddy). Sen Chee is in love with Luk Chen (co-producer Sessue Hayakawa), Tong leader Bo Sing's most feared hatchet man. Chee convinces dad to hide sailor Lucero (Yutaka Abe), who murdered a man. Chen plans to return to China as a wealthy man but rival Tong leader Ming Tai (Marc Robbins) decides Toy must die for not paying him tribute. The assassins draw lots. Guess who gets to eliminate Toy? Chen of course. He sets up Toy for the kill but his love for Chee stops him. Later, Taj tells Toy he will have Chen killed if Toy agrees to let him marry Chee. Chee tries to kill herself and Lucero warns Chan he's marked for death. He rescues Chee and fights Toy who has a change of heart about the marriage. After Tai kills Toy himself and has Chee kidnapped, Chan and Lucero go for revenge. With a rooftop shootout/chase, an ax in the face and an unexpected happy ending. 

THE TONG MAN was a big hit when first released help by the free publicity that came from lawsuits brought on by many Chinese American communities aiming to ban the film from playing. Star Hayakawa was the US's first Asian film star. He and director William Worthington also made THE DRAGON PAINTER the same year.

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Feudal Japan

 

 (imdb)

AZUMI-2003-Azumi (Aya Ueto) is trained to be an assassin in feudal Japan. She has to kill her friend as a village is slaughtered. She then goes after several warlords who are deemed evil but Azumi has some doubts. This is a violent tragic story with great swordplay and direction but it's a little mean spirited. 

Director Ryuhei Kitamura made ARAGAMI the same year. He was previously known for VERSUS (2000) and later made GODZILLA: FINAL WARS (2004) and THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (2008).

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Thunder

 

THUNDER ISLAND-1963-In Puerto Rico, an American hit man Billy Poole (Gene Nelson) is hired by Anita Chavez (Miriam Colon) to kill Antonio Perez (Jose' de San Anton) the former dictator of her South American country. He plots to have another American Vincent (Brian Kelly) take him to an island where his would be victim lives. It also involves Vincent's wife Helen (Fay Spain) and their daughter being used as hostages. 

This forgettable little drama was written by Dean Devlin and Jack Nicholson and lead to executive producer Robert L. Lippert hiring Nicholson to write and direct FLIGHT TO FURY in '64. Director Jack Leewood directed only one other movie but produced a lot more including THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE and LOST CONTINENT. 

Lead actor Gene Nelson began a second career as a director soon after this but continued to act, mostly on TV.

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Bolt

THAT MAN BOLT-1973-A Karate expert/pro-fessional courier Jefferson Bolt (Fred William-son) locked up in a Macao prison is hired /black-mailed by a mysterious English man named Griffiths (Byron Webster) to deliver 1 million dollars from Hong Kong. When he lands in Las Vegas some mobsters try to kill him, so after a car chase he gets help from another mobster Connie (Jack Ging). At a casino he meets singer Samantha Nightingale (Teresa Graves) and after they have sex she's killed in an attempt on Bolt's life. He hightails it to Hong Kong where things get a little confusing when an Asian assassin is hired by Javanese merchant banker Kumata (Masatoshi Nakamura) to kill Bolt. 

The acting, dialogue and fights are sub-par but it also features appearances by Karate and kickboxing champions like Mike Stone, Kenji Kazama, Emil Farkus and David Chow. 

THAT MAN BOLT has two credited directors. One Henry Levin made his directing debut in 1944 with semi-horror movie CRY OF THE WEREWOLF. In the 1970's he directed several Matt Helm movies. BOLT was one of his last features. The other was David Lowell Rich who started in TV around 1950 and continuing till the mid '60's when he made some feature films like EYE OF THE CAT and THE PLAINSMAN. He went back to TV making many TV movies and in the early '80's returned to some feature film work including THE CONCORDE-AIRPORT '69. 

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Flying Guillotine

THE FLYING GUILLOTINE-1975-During the Manchu dynasty, Xin Kang (Ku Feng) creates the title weapon for his evil emperor Yung Cheng (Yang Chiang). After killing a German Sheppard and a rooster he trains a group of men to operate the weapon and they become assassins who get rid of the emperor's enemies. One soldier, Ma Teng (Kuen Tai Chen) revolts and runs away. He meets a woman and they have a baby. Meanwhile another soldier plots to overthrow his leader. When Ma Teng and the flying guillotine assassins cross paths again he invents an umbrella like defensive against the deadly decapitating machine. This violent and enjoyable craziness was directed by Meng Hua Ho  (THE DRAGON MISSILE) and is based on actual legends of the existence of such a weapon.

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Shaw Brothers

THE DRAGON MISSILE (FEI LONG ZHAN)-1975-This Shaw Brothers production features another inventive weapon: a deadly boomerang. An assassin (Lo Lieh) working for an evil governor (Ku Feng) obtains some medicine to save his boss's life but it's stolen by his old friend (Tony Liu). Later using the boomerang (called “the missile dragon”) the assassin beheads his ex-friend's mother and gets the medicine back but keeps it a secret from his entourage because they are under orders to kill him once he has it. Naturally, his ex-friend wants revenge and he's joined by the daughter of the doctor (Nancy Yen) who made the medicine. They also get help from a woman (Terry Liu) in the assassin's entourage who has retractable blades in her fingers (similar to Wolverine). After some fights and decapitations, a crazy all out battle takes place where fishing nets help to battle the boomerangs. 

Director Meng Hua Ho also made THE FLYING GUILLOTINE the year before.

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Hello Moto

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO-1938-In the fifth entry of the series, the famed Japanese detective (played by non-Asian Peter Lorre) investigates “the league of assassins” for Scotland Yard by disguising himself as a timid turbaned servant to one of its members (Leon Ames). He gets involved with Anton (Henry Wilcoxon), an industrialist who's life seems to be threatened because of his secret steel formula and Anton's girlfriend Anne (Mary Maquire). Forrester Harvey and Lotus Long (later in the unheralded PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN) have roles and the film's director Norman Foster (who directed most of the MOTO series) has a bit role. There's a great fight in a bar and the climax is terrific!  

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Green Dragon

THE GREEN DRAGON INN-1977-This is another crazy period piece Kung-Fu movie (from Taiwan). It's full of fights, several characters that are hard to distinguish from each other, a confused story and bad dubbing. The son of a local warlord kills a family. 2 swordsmen, Silent Tracker (Lieh Lo from FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) and Bold Dragon (Yueh Hua) hunt him separately. They clash several times. The son is taken into custody and some incompletent assassins try to free him. It's kept at the title place which is rigged with different deadly trap. This also features a "white ninja" woman (Polly Shang Kuan).

The director was an actor and stuntman too.

Also known as BRUCE IS LOOSE...for some reason...

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Why This Title?

KILLER ELITE-2011-This is not a remake of the Sam Peckinpah movie (although it came out around the same time as the STRAW DOGS remake). It's based on a novel called "The Feather Man". 

Jason Statham is Danny, an ex-member of Great Britain's Elite Air Service who gets back into things when his mentor Hunter (Robert DeNiro) is kidnapped and held hostage by a military renegade (Clive Owen). To save Hunter's life he must kill three assassins. It's an overly complicated drawn out action outing that Statham is typically associated with and basically proves three time Oscar winner DeNiro will do mostly anything late in his career. Also with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbajie (from TV's LOST),Dominic Purcell (also in the STRAW DOGS remake) and Yvonne Strahovski. This was Gary McKendry's first full length directorial effort.

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