THE FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE (1973)

 

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

I've no way of knowing if, prior to directing and co-writing this film, Mario (EYE IN THE LABYRINTH) Caiano actually saw the telefilm for the American series KUNG FU. For all I know, he might have structured his Italian chopsocky on notes someone else made for him. But there's zero chance that JOE wasn't modeled on the ABC TV show about a half-Chinese priest wandering the Old West in search of his destiny.

There's not much that JOE gets right about the original concept. Only in the last half-hour of JOE does the viewer get any origin for the hero's superlative martial arts skills, which feats include:

(1) Jamming a nail into a wooden plank using only his bare hand,

(2) Hitting an opponent in the chest so hard Joe's fist goes through the other fellow's chestbone,

(3) Hitting a rampaging bull on the skull with such force that the animal simply dies.

Similarly, whereas KUNG FU had an excuse for casting a non-Asian in that the character was half-Caucasian, JOE cast a very minor Japanese film-actor in the role of a fully Chinese hero, and most probably gave him the Chinese-sounding moniker of "Chen Lee." (Lee did so few films before or after JOE that it's next to impossible to know how he was billed in those generally obscure items.) But Lee doesn't have to do more than very broad acting and fake-fighting, for Caiano doesn't call on the performer to do anything but kick butt on lots of evil white men.

To be sure, spaghetti westerns almost never fail to deliver filthy scoundrels who deserve everything that happens to them, and Caiano offers plenty of deep-dyed dastards. Joe, mysterious and mild-mannered, enjoys a couple of episodes thrashing bigoted cowboys before encountering Spenser, a wealthy landowner who treats Mexican peons like slaves. After Joe proves that Spenser's ordinary henchmen are no match for those "fighting fists," the villain sends out the call for bounty hunters. These include a couple of psychotic oddballs, including an alleged cannibal and a scalp hunter (played by Klaus Kinski, who in some markets got top billing for less than ten minutes of acting). Finally the evildoer somehow summons an evil martial artist from Joe's school, who, oddly enough, is played by a Japanese actor sporting a Japanese character-name. Bad Martial Artist almost defeats Joe by the usually verboten strategy of pulling out a pistol, but this only earns him the aforementioned heart surgery.

So JOE is a stupid film, but it keeps a good stream of violent incidents if that's what one wants.

That's more than one can say for the sequel, RETURN OF SHANGHAI JOE. Chen Lee did not return for this flick, so the producers found another Asian actor and dubbed him "Cheen Lee." RETURN seems to be Lee #2's only credit, possibly because he's so lousy at fake-fighting. The filmmakers brought in a secondary hero to team up with him: a hulking snake-oil salesman (Tommy Polgar basically doing a Bud Spenser type of role), but RETURN is completely forgettable. 

The sequel's only claim to the metaphenomenal-- and its only half-decent joke-- appear at the movie's outset. The huckster is first seen using a dowsing-rod in an attempt to find water for a destitute Mexican village (no idea what they were going to use to pay him for his services). Instead of water, the dowser unleashes a gusher of oil, but the Mexicans don't know their good fortune and think that the substance is the earth's "diarrhea." There's no serious attempt to convince the viewer that the huckster has dowsing powers, so the event can be chalked up to dumb luck. The oil does occasion the return of Klaus Kinski, this time playing the main villain, whom Joe and his ally must defeat, yada yada yada.