The Screaming Tiger (1973)
Rare was the film in 1973 that incorporated the star's name in the title. One of the few such films was Screaming Ninja, aka Wang Yu, King of Boxing. The story is set in China in the early 1900x. Essentially playing an extension of himself, action-star Wang-Yu spends much of the time defending himself against evil martial-arts masters. He also tries to make sense of a tragic incident in his past.
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Simply A Masterpiece
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
The acting in this movie is really good.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
This movie begins with a young Chinese man named "Ma Tai Yung" (Jimmy Wang Yu) walking into a small Japanese village in the midst of a festival. Because this festival typically attracts a good number of tourists a small gang of pick-pockets have also emerged who are more than willing to separate these visitors from their purses. However, when a few hoodlums try to take the purse belonging to Ma Tai Yung they get more than they bargained for and are quickly beaten and subdued. Not long afterward Ma Tai Yung notices that a Komuso monk is following him and after awhile Ma Tai Youg confronts him. It's at this time that we learn that Ma Tai Yung has come from a small village in China to avenge the death of his family at the hands of some Japanese thugs. It is also disclosed that Ma Tai Yung has developed a hatred for all the people of Japan for which no amount of reason by this monk can alter. They then go their separate ways with Ma Tai Yung heading back to the village whereupon he bumps into a beautiful woman named "Ying Chu" (Cheung Ching Ching) who skillfully proceeds to snatch his wallet and hand it off to a nearby accomplice before Ma Tai Yung realizes what is going on. When Ma Tai Yung discovers what has happened he belatedly confronts Ying Chu about it. This results in yet another fight with several more hoodlums which Ma Tai Yung quickly dispatches as well. After this fight he returns to the task of recovering his wallet with Ying Chu following him every step of the way. It's then that he realizes that Ying Chu isn't nearly as bad as he once thought and with her help he also gets closer to finding the people responsible for murdering his family. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an interesting old-style kung fu movie from back in the day which has quite a bit of action yet also manages to convey an underlying message about racism and xenophobia in the process. Additionally, the fact that it had two beautiful actresses in Lan Chi (as "Mao Chi") and the previously mentioned Cheung Ching Chang certainly didn't hurt either. On a separate note, I should probably add that this film goes by several different titles which vary in length, quantity and quality. For example, the VHS tape I bought several years ago under the title of "The Screaming Tiger" is 75 minutes long and leaves out most of the interaction between Ma Tai Yung and Mao Chi. The picture was rather grainy as well. However, there is another version titled "Wang Yu-King of Boxers" which is about 88 minutes long and includes the scenes involving Ma Tai Yung and Mao Chi--but omits the first part of the film explaining the reason Ma Tai Yung is in Japan and his conversation with the Komuso monk. Likewise, it also goes by the titles of "Screaming Ninja" and "Ten Fingers of Steel" which are apparently 101 minutes in length. Be that as it may, while this clearly isn't a top-notch martial arts film in the same category as those starring Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, it wasn't that bad either and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
note - the information on some packages for this film is frequently false - not this film's cast, not its crew, not its international release title. 'screaming tiger' - written, directed, and starring wang yu, along with what was, at the time, his ensemble cast and crew, who worked with him on many other films of the period.ej's kung-fu capsule review for films of the chop-socky old-school - 1. basic plot type - revenge; school vs. school; ethnic conflicts; buddhist message 2. plot construction - standard English-version pretty badly chopped up; but what is there is actually well-constructed, if occasionally derivative 3. dramatic - yes 4. funny - occasionally; marvelous moment when wang yu finds himself surrounded by 20 thugs and, without a word, smiles and shrugs, and just starts tossing them around 5. dialog - good for this genre 6. cast performance - very good 7. crew performance - not great, but above average for this genre at that time 8. amount of fighting - a lot 9. quality of fighting - good 10. special any cast or crew notes - occasionally credited to lo wei in reviews, the film was actually written and directed by star wang yu; although wang yu had contributed to the general 'jap'-bashing that plagued chop-socky 'fu for a while, he had quite a large following in japan, where he would eventually co-star in 'zatoichi vs. the one-armed swordsman'; this film is the first effort, in hong kong 'fu films, to find some way to 'forgive and forget' and abandon ethnic strife 11. big positive - just a nice bit of genre film-making over all 12. big negative - editing is weak bottom-line - who should see this movie - solid kung-fu entertainment for those with any interest in the genre
i don't know why some people who say they like martial art movies could possibly speak ill of this film. this movie is everything that was good about 70's martial arts movies. Dragon Lee movies represent all that was BAD about 70's martial arts movies, but this movie's great. and Wang Yu is awesome.
Upon viewing this film once I was unable to observe the subtleties, the complexities that are encompassed in this masterpiece. From subsequent viewings, I saw it! The beauty and finesse of Lo Mien Dung's directorial ingenuity. A classic by all rights!