THE DRAGON BLOWS (1973)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Well, I can hardly avoid reviewing a film that's so humble, its very title admits that it "blows."

In truth, though, DRAGON BLOWS isn't exceptionally bad. It's just a cheap kung fu programmer, probably crafted as an attempt to coast on the fame of star Lisa Chiao Chiao from her support roles in the first two ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN films. One online source avers that Chiao Chiao had just left Shaw Brothers, so the producers of this Taiwanese movie might've been seeking to mold the actress into another Angela Mao, albeit on the cheap.

Chiao plays Shu Lin, a disciple of the Dragon Fist school. She happens across a rapist in the act of assaulting a village girl, ripping off the defenseless girl's top and exposing her breasts briefly (a rarity in chopsockies of the time). Shu Lin is so incensed that she unleashes her Dragon Fist, which kills the rapist, leaving the imprint of the amazon's fist in his flesh. (Her rage also causes the "ree ree ree" stinger from Bernard Hermann's PSYCHO to play on the soundtrack.) The village girl departs, and Shu Lin's brother, another disciple of the order, shows up and chastises her. Not only does Brother (I never caught his name) not want his sis getting into casual fights, he warns her that too much use of the Dragon Fist can deplete the user's energies to the point of death.

But Shu Lin can't stop being the Good Samaritan. She sees an old lady and a young child being besieged by thugs, so she drives the bad guys off. The injured old woman, apparently the child's grandma, expires, leaving Shu Lin with the task of finding the kid's parents. Brother reluctantly joins his sis in her quest, complaining all the way. (Although male co-star Charlie Chin lends ample martial aid throughout the film, I judge him to be a supporting character to Shu Lin's narrative.) The duo soon learn that the thugs are part of a secret society pursuing a relic, and they believe the little girl's family has that relic. So it's fight, fight, fight with lots of thugs, until Shu Lin and her sib encounter the master of the society. This time both heroes unleash their respective dragon fists (complete with PSYCHO stingers), end the battle, and reunite the girl with her relatives. Oh, and neither sibling expires from using their special technique.

One online review observed that neither of the actors playing the siblings was an authentic martial artist. Still, they both do good work at "fake-fighting," and at least Chiao Chiao gets into fights roughly every 20 minutes. That's more than one can say of many Angela Mao films, where the producers only used her for one or two scenes in various movies.