The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss (1974)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Rugged Australian cop Stoner (smoothly essayed with considerable two-fisted macho swagger by George Lazenby) goes to Hong Kong to put the fix on evil billionaire Mr. Chin (a pleasingly ruthless portrayal by Joji Takagi), who runs a drug ring that has created a powerful and addictive aphrodisiac new drug which makes women extra horny. Shrewd undercover Taiwanese officer Angela Li Shou-Hua (Angela Mao-Ying in fine fierce'n'feisty form) helps Stoner out. Director Feng Huang, who also co-wrote the wild script with Kuang Ni, relates the outrageous premise at a swift pace, maintains a blithely lurid tone throughout, and stages the plentiful rough'n'tumble fights with rip-roaring aplomb. Lazenby might not be the most adept martial artist, but what he lacks in fluidness and agility he compensates for in sheer brute force. Naturally, Angela as usual pulls off her fights with trademark beautifully balletic grace and breathtaking precision. Sultry Betty Ting Pei makes for a wickedly enticing femme fatale as Chin's main hench wench Agnes. Sammo Hung has a sizable secondary part as a chubby lackey who Lazenby beats the living snot out of. The smattering of tasty female nudity adds a nice dash of sizzling sleaze while such gnarly locations as a seedy nightclub and a dangerous back alley provide a tangy exotic flavor. Yu-tang Li's splashy widescreen cinematography gives the picture a heady psychedelic vibe thanks to all those gaudy loud colors. The funky-chillin' score by Tony Orchez and Tsao Hua Lai hits the get-down groovy spot. A really fun flick.

How does one dare to describe the pure majestic brilliance of this outlandish chunk of cinematic history in just one essay? Holy smokes, I'll give it a shot. Superlative, majestic, confronting, heart renching and above all really good and stuff are just some of the adjectives I will use to describe this emotional rollercoaster of a 35mm brilliance. I was so excited when I first saw Stoner, that I punched my elderly neighbour in the back of the head. Move over Steven, step aside Martin and go home Quentin, Feng Huang is here and he means business. From go to whoa this film packs non stop underpant exploding action that'll have you begging your best mate's auntie for more. Apparently this film was so popular in Amsterdam, that men started shaving off their eyebrows and colouring their armpits with lipstick in a effort to emulate Lazenby's modern-day Hamlet, Detective Stoner. Thank god Jack Palance turned down the role of Stoner or we would not have been treated to such a enigmatic foray into the world of contemporary cinema from The Georgie Lazmeistser. All in do you self a favour, buy yourself some cheetos and a bottle of Distilled Water and treat yourself to a night-in of hard-core provocative entertainment. 3 thumbs up, Cheers George, thanks for the good times. Keep on trucking you crazy cat.

...perhaps I ought say "distilled" rather than refined - this film embodies the concentrated essence of the trashy 70s action flick, a heady brew for the irony-poisoned minds of today's trash conisseur's minds (e.g. mine)."Stoner" (as it was labelled at my local rental store) opens with a shot of an urbanely smug 'Asian drug lord' kicking back in his office. The walls are all red, his desk perpetually rotates, and there's a big map on the wall covered in flashing lights. The mere shock of the decor alone sets the tone for the remainder of the movie - jerky fight scenes, needless sexploitation, and pornstar swaggering all drenched in polyester and enveloped in a funky soundtrack punctuated with some very strange moog.Needless to say, it's hilarious. George Lazenby, incidentally, proves himself pretty useless throughout the film, both in-character and out-. The real star is Angela Mao, rolling her eyes about furiously and kicking arse in the surprisingly good final fight scene. I guess George's role was played up for Western release so we'd have a strutting, obnoxious white guy to relate to.

Lazenby plays Stoner, a cop who in search of a organization who makes "the love pill" that is killing and spreading the market in Australia. Angela Mao only has a supporting part for top billing, so it makes me wonder if she is the lead (with more footage) in the HK version. The dubbing is terrible, but good action scenes helps. Look for Sammo Hung and Kurata Yasuaki as the bad guys fighter.