As an italian i saw this film on tv and years later i came across it on youtube. It features the talented burlesque-like comedian Franco Franchi who is known in appearing with his comedy buddy Ciccio Ingrassia in a number of cheap italian comedy films were their nearly parodied every possible film genre known to mankind until they decided to go different paths... This was then the result of Francos one man show.
Now lets get down to the flick. This movie makes a move on the eastern kung fu films popularized especially by Bruce Lee at the time ( Sadly it was released the same year when Bruce Lee died in 1973 ) Alone the cover is a parody of Bruce Lee's The Big Boss and so is the italian original title. A few elements are directly taken from the 70ts Kung Fu series starring David Carradine which came out one year before this. Franco plays somewhat of a Kung Fu grashopper student in a sort of Bruce Lee type of role who is trained by a master that tries to look oriental but clearly isn't ( he is a kung fu master who leads a Karate School full of Karatekas... Silly enough ?. Good it's parody.
The greatest flaws are again the dumb jokes some are funny for italians or sicilians and the fight choreography/scenes... Gosh. I highly doubt that anyone of the crew, actors or producers must had any knowledge about Martial Arts it's just ridiculous stupid even for a parody. Typical raw italian humor that tends to racism in caricature of asians where is no sign of difference between chinese and japanese culture. The story is also filled with every trope and clicheè to the already limited Kung Fu film storytelling.
Now lets get down to the flick. This movie makes a move on the eastern kung fu films popularized especially by Bruce Lee at the time ( Sadly it was released the same year when Bruce Lee died in 1973 ) Alone the cover is a parody of Bruce Lee's The Big Boss and so is the italian original title. A few elements are directly taken from the 70ts Kung Fu series starring David Carradine which came out one year before this. Franco plays somewhat of a Kung Fu grashopper student in a sort of Bruce Lee type of role who is trained by a master that tries to look oriental but clearly isn't ( he is a kung fu master who leads a Karate School full of Karatekas... Silly enough ?. Good it's parody.
The greatest flaws are again the dumb jokes some are funny for italians or sicilians and the fight choreography/scenes... Gosh. I highly doubt that anyone of the crew, actors or producers must had any knowledge about Martial Arts it's just ridiculous stupid even for a parody. Typical raw italian humor that tends to racism in caricature of asians where is no sign of difference between chinese and japanese culture. The story is also filled with every trope and clicheè to the already limited Kung Fu film storytelling.
