This film is a solid (decent pacing, some action, okay acting) Hammer entry. Lee plays a slightly toned down version of his Fu Manchu character-being in charge of a tong rather than a world threatening organization. His chief opponent, a rather clueless and lucky ship captain calls to mind many third rate serial heroes who are constantly being bailed out by others. A couple of amusing cast notes-we've got the Jon Pertwee "Master" villain from Doctor Who in here as Lee's right hand man, and the french lead from "Brides of Dracula" gives another lousy performance, here as a doomed half-chinese concubine.
Which brings me to the chief value of this movie-it really gives one a good insight into English attitudes towards the Chinese and their colonial possesion, Hong Kong. First is the fact that there are no major chinese characters *played* by chinese actors-not an uncommon occurance in this era, to be sure (John Wayne, for example, as Ghengis Khan!). Second, the chinese rarely take any direct action in this film, and they need a western "man of action" to get the people to topple the tongs. Third, Lee and many other characters are extremely fatalist. I do not believe the film was *meant* to come off as racist as it now feels-but that is a function of the times. This film is basically a rather dull adventure film, with a huge imperialist subtext, if anyone cares to notice.
Which brings me to the chief value of this movie-it really gives one a good insight into English attitudes towards the Chinese and their colonial possesion, Hong Kong. First is the fact that there are no major chinese characters *played* by chinese actors-not an uncommon occurance in this era, to be sure (John Wayne, for example, as Ghengis Khan!). Second, the chinese rarely take any direct action in this film, and they need a western "man of action" to get the people to topple the tongs. Third, Lee and many other characters are extremely fatalist. I do not believe the film was *meant* to come off as racist as it now feels-but that is a function of the times. This film is basically a rather dull adventure film, with a huge imperialist subtext, if anyone cares to notice.