PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
I gave a "fair" review to the first movie in the Italian "Three Supermen" series but I imagine it'll be the only one that scores that high. SUPERMEN AGAINST THE ORIENT is probably typical of the series, in finding some reason to assemble the three heroes against a barely memorable threat. In this case it's something about breaking up a drug ring in Hong Kong. (The project was a co-production between an Italian studio and one in Hong Kong.)
There's no continuity with the first film but ORIENT simply recapitulates the pattern with three new characters: intelligence agent Robert (Robert Wallace) and two ne'er-do-well thieves (Sal Borgese and Antonio Cantafora). The latter performer also went under the name Michael Coby and played the civilian identity of SUPERSONIC MAN.
Since I'm not watching these films in chronological order, I don't know how they developed their schticks, but I noticed that, whereas the first film had the two thieves being outwitted by the suave agent, here the agent is more of a dull stick whom the clever crooks can manipulate. When the three adventurers accept the mission to go to Hong Kong, they're told to seek out a martial artist named Tang (Lo Lieh). The merry pranksters set Robert up so that he ends up fighting Tang in a tournament, where, not wearing his super-suit, he gets creamed and put in the hospital. (It's all good though, because when Tang learns Robert's an agent he uses "kung fu magic" to heal all his wounds in minutes.)
After that slightly memorable set-piece, the rest of the film settles down to a bunch of badly choreographed fights of the three red-suited heroes fighting drug smugglers. Tang and a female agent, Suzy (Shih Szu) also dress up in red leotards and provide the only hint of good fighting in the film. I imagine Shih Szu is the only female to do the red tights in the series, and that's the film's sole claim to cinematic "fame."
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