Return of the Tiger (1979)

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is one of the better Angela Mao movie from the late '70s. Since she stopped starring in Golden Harvest's movie, her movies weren't as well made or distributed. She seemed to be more focused on her domestic life, which probably was the right move since pure kung fu action movies were starting to be passe around the time this movie was made. Bruce Li is probably the most type cast actor of all time, but he's a good actor in his own right, holding on screen presence with his handsome good looks, and good martial arts skill.Making this a one of a kind movie is that both stars are starring together in this movie. What's amazing about Taiwan producers and directors is the way they fail to capitalize on the on screen talent of their stars. They'd rather stick to their pat formula for making movies, rather than exploiting the often great talent of their stars. This movie is no exception and it just drags on with boring scenes of the bad guys talking to each other, then more talking, and then more, ......and more. Another thing is that the movie has no atmosphere to it at all. The scene goes from a cheap office to a dirty alley, to a worn down warehouse, and the likes. There's not a single beautiful scene in this entire movie.Anyways, if a movie of this caliber is above average, you can surmise how bad some of the other Taiwan made Angela Mao movies are. Don't expect too much from this movie, as you see little of Bruce Li, and even less of Angela Mao.There are better movies made of Angela Mao from Golden Harvest in the early '70s. They are recommended far more over this one.

I'm not a huge fan of martial arts movies, but I'm trying. Sure, I enjoy Bruce Lee and some of the Sonny Chiba films I've seen, but beyond that, I've always thought of martial arts movies (and this is especially true of the movies from the 70s) as a bunch of faceless, nameless people repeating the same moves in endless fight scenes. And while there's some of that in Return of the Tiger, I've decided I may need to rethink my opinion. Overall, I enjoyed Return of the Tiger much more than I thought I would. It's far from perfect and the movie does drag a bit during some of the longer fight sequences, but for the most part, I was entertained throughout. Bruce Li and Angela Mao make an interesting and appealing pair. The bad guys are appropriately bad. Add in a few funny moments, awesome title music, and an ending with plenty of fists and feet and it's not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.Unfortunately, the copy of the movie I had available to me seemed to be heavily cut. The plot (at least what I got out of it) centers on Chang Wong (Bruce Li), a man playing both sides of a feud between two criminal bosses. His plan seems to be to force both bosses' hands so he can make his final move. Along the way, he and his female assistant will have to do battle with an army of trained fighters. I'm confident that an uncut copy of Return of the Tiger would improve my opinion and rating.Finally, what impressed me the most in Return of the Tiger was Bruce Li. I admit it – this is the first time I've seen one of his movies. I guess I unfairly thought of him as a Bruce Lee wannabe and dismissed him without giving him or his movies a chance. I realize now that the name and image were part of a producer's marketing ploy to cash in on the fame of Lee and not necessarily Li's doing. He's got a definite screen presence that I found appealing. I'll have to seek out some of his others movies.

Hello action movie fans!!! This is your Martial Arts movie extrordenair DANIEL KAHN NELSON!!! Here to offer you true martial arts movie fans a real critical view of Hong Kong and Japanese cinema!!! In the next couple of weeks I will be commenting on movies that have been under-rated and not judged carefully enough so be sure to watch where I strike next!!! This was actually a pretty good film. There was however one cheesy but cool moment, that being when Bruce Li put on oil to make himself smooth and slippery during a fight with the drug lord's body guard. In fact it was quite funny. But the fight seens involving the female assistant were well choreographed and the final fight seen was awesome yet left something to be desired. All in all a well earned 8 out of 10.

The most brutal action packed martial arts battle of the decade, Bruce Li, The Roaring Kung Tiger, faces his deadliest enemy.. the vicious and sadistic torturer from The Midnight Express. The Hoover Night Club in Bangkok is used to coverup the operations of the international narcotics group headed by an American, George Cross. A rival gang, run by a chinese, also tries to dominate the drug market in southeast Asia. Handsome professional killer Chang Hung, accompanied by his female assistant, arrives in Bangkok and smashes a Kung-fu school run by George. Tseng Tse-chan, leader of the chinese group, approaches Chang to eliminate george, but his price is too high. Unknown to him, Chang was hired by George to infiltrate Tseng' racket. The girl's job is to play the 2 rival gangs against each other..