User Reviews

FISTS OF THE DOUBLE K is a somewhat early kung fu outing designed to ride the wave of kung fu films that came out following the popularity of FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH and ENTER THE DRAGON. I notice that these early films tend to be rather low budget and lacking the genre tropes that would become well-established by the middle of the decade. Thus FISTS OF THE DOUBLE K is a film that feels surprisingly westernised, almost like a cowboy movie, with an upstanding hero riding into a town ruled by a corrupt gang who run the place with an iron fist. The film's score occasionally rips off THE GODFATHER and other films.

Plentiful action ensues, but given that this is a very low budget production, none of it is particularly extraordinary or exciting. I found that the drama was only really heightened right at the very end with an involved and extensive battle in a quarry which doesn't disappoint. Yung Henry Yu, while an erstwhile and determined young hero, doesn't get any kind of characterisation at all and might as well be a cardboard cut out. This film is deservedly obscure for a reason. Modern releases advertise the fact that John Woo directed; it's better to say that he worked on this as assistant director and that there's no evidence of his later style here. Jackie Chan and Yuen Wah also worked on this as stuntmen and extras but you'll be hard pressed to spot them.

This film was not made in 1998-it was probably made in the late 70's or early 80's. It was released by everyone's favorite bargain basement martial arts video rip off artists "Arena Home Video". The copy I had included an "exclusive" John Woo interview that was cleary just taken off of TV. That interview, while providing no insights into Woo's work other than an early love of film, some creative use of a flashlight and glass slides, and his belonging to a high school newspaper's film club, is the best part of the tape. "Hong Kong Face-Off", whatever the real title is, might as well be called "Hong Kong Rip-Off". Any price higher than the 99 cents I paid for it out of a bargain bin would be too dear. The film is basically just a mish mash of kung fu and western cliches. The main character is sent from a police academy to clean up a small town ruled by a criminal who killed the cadet's father. He fights the criminal's men and falls in love with a blind girl. The blind girl's family is slaughtered in the course of the film, and our hero, eventually, defeats his enemies and promises to return to the town after he brings his criminal to jail. That's it. There's some truly awful comic relief, *very* uninspired direction (Woo, to his credit, does *try* some new techniques-unfortuantely, they all come off badly) but mostly there is some of the worst acting I have yet seen in a kung fu film. I mean, this film's acting and kung fu was so bad, it had me pining for the less straightforward and more amusing (in a so-bad-its-good way) "Sun Dragon" or "Soul Brothers of Kung Fu". The only redeeming thing about this garbage was that it gives us a chance to see John Woo, ever-so-fitfully developing his (overrated) style. The oh-so-honorable hero is there (Woo did not have the wisdom to inject any sort of ambiguity into his hero as he would do later, so the guy comes off as a cowboy mantinee idol), there's a disabled heroine, poorly developed romanctic sub plot, loyal and honorable but overpowered older sidekick (see the Killer for more of this). Whew. Avoid unless you simply *have* to see all of John Woo's films.

Also known in the U. S. as Fist to Fist, Dragons of Death and Hong Kong Face-Off, Chu ba is directed, written and produced by Jimmy L. Pascual, who was assisted by a very young John Woo. It also has fight choreography by Yuen Woo-Ping.

With fifteen minutes cut from its runtime, it played American theaters with a running time of around 70 minutes.

It's a simple story of Henry Yu Yung, a young cop who is sent to arrest a man in the same village where the man who killed his father lives. The fights are brutal and without a lot of the flash that American audiences may have been expecting from a Hong Kong movie.

There's also the opportunity to see a very young Jackie Chan as a guard.

(1973) Fists of the Double K/ Fist to Fist DUBBED MARTIAL ARTS PERIOD PIECE

Said on the cheap DVD case that it was directed by John Woo but according to imdb.com he was only a "Second Unit Director or Assistant Director" but you can't really tell by watching this. And although this film contains some of the worst marital arts action, since it was made right after the Bruce Lee era it still has some of the trademarks that lead Woo to his later masterpieces of "The Killer" and "A Better Tomorrow" to name a few. If by any indication that Woos ideas are shown here, I'm giving this yet another revenge martial arts piece a pass since it's unique and consists of something I've never seen before using "A Fistful Of Dollars" and "Jean Pierre Melville" use of the blind girl. And yes, it's badly dubbed with lousy fights, but I couldn't help to be compelled by much of it's story. It's centered on a cop who has just graduated from some martial arts police unit and was given instructions for a job to seek the foe responsible for his fathers death. The movie then showcases 5 deadly martial arts hired assassins with the leader of this group called 'Scarface', he stumbles onto this town and stop into an eating saloon. They're apparently had been sent by the main boss and after they see him, they mention that they're two more who are on their way. A blind girl and her father are heading to this very same town, and they're sidetracked by two ruthless individuals and they seem to the other two killers that the other men are referring about. The cop saves the girl and her father with deadly results. He's also going to cross paths with those other killers as well as they're tough as well but not as tough as him. We don't know how these are going to be killed except that each of them are going to be killed in a unusual way. Some of the things I liked about this 'chop socky' film is that it doesn't showcase your common trend often shown in 'chop socky' films since the bad guys always gets killed. Here is one revenge movie where the hero doesn't kill the main bad guy and just arrests him. Here is one chop socky film that shows no boring martial arts training. The hero just shows up and kills the people who are working for him and that's it and I wouldn't mind seeing this movie re-done but with Donnie Yen or some other this time since the fights still doesn't match up with the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen they're still compelling solely because of the set up.