Wu long jiao yi (1974) User Reviews

Best viewed in a group and everyone under the influence

[ckormos1 · 5/10 · 2 August 2019]

I found four titles for this movie: "The Crazy Instructor" or "Iron Head" or "Snake Fist Dynamo" or "The Dragon's Snake Fist". From experience with these movies, I would bet before watching it that nothing named in any of those titles appears in the movie. Except for "crazy". Crazy can fit pretty much any of these movies.

It starts with a crazy-looking guy demonstrating "martial arts" to some children. He is challenged by Chin Yuet-Sang. (See him in 1979 "Kung Fu vs. Yoga" - a movie I rated as one of the best of that year.)

Watching these movies always makes me curious about the lives of the actors. James Yi Lui seems to have a face for comedy. He was born into an acting family and his father was a comedian. James started with small parts as Shaw Brothers. He hit the "big time" with 1973 "Adventure in Denmark" which I reviewed here. He then formed his own company and somehow ended up in prison for debt. Heart trouble caused his early death in 1999 so enough said. Hong Kong movies like this are an acquired taste (or maybe a loss of taste). I rate is just average and can only recommend it to a group of guys who have plenty of beer and are used to this sort of thing.

"You,... are really aggressive."

[classicsoncall · 2/10 · 21 January 2013]

About every six months or so I tune into one of these Kung-Fu flicks hoping that it will be worth the effort. Come on, with a title like "Snake Fist Dynamo" this should be pretty good, right? Well this one just might be from the Johnny Knoxville school of 'Jackass' martial arts when the main character bites the head off a live lizard and chews it up before swallowing!!! That's just a sure fire way of ticking off the PETA folks, and making everyone else get sick to their stomach.

And what's with the title now that I've seen it? There's no discernible 'snake fist' style that I could figure out, although Lap Ban Chan almost got strangled by a boa and then proceeded to double team a pair of cobras before rolling around in a pile of snakes. I'm guessing they brought in the snakes to maintain some connection to the title, but otherwise the rest of it didn't make any sense at all.

However there were some creative elements. I never saw a Kung Fu artist meditate with a lit, dripping candle on his head before (nice touch), and that magic magnifying glass managed to enter X-rated territory if you used your remote to pause the action at appropriate spots. But did you notice - there were a handful of characters that seemed cloned from noted American actors, like the hero's John Belushi/Buddy Hackett sidekick, and the Japanese version of John Carradine along the way. As for the heroine who inspired the scenes with the naughty bits, she seemed to have a Mary Tyler Moore-like quality about her, which is to say, she looked wholesome and hot all at the same time.

As far as the picture goes, I just couldn't follow it. The dialog was impossible to understand on my DVD copy (except for my summary line), and the story was unintelligible. The hero's martial arts techniques looked amateurish at best and I had to wonder if any thought was put into this at all. Anyway, another six months from now and I'll probably catch another one of these groaners, just to see if I can take the punishment.

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting ...

[KennethEagleSpirit · 2/10 · 13 January 2007]

Their hands as fast as lightening. Well, maybe not. Kung Fu movies are, I think, the Oriental version of the American Western. A romanticized version of something that never really happened anyway. This Kung Fu movie? Probably shouldn't have happened at all. Its bad, but kind of funny in places. Which is the ONLY reason I give it as high a rating as I do. The photography is really bad. There is NO continuity. Sound track isn't that good. The makeup is very poorly done. No plot. All players obviously drop-outs of the Tiawan branch of the William Shatner School of Over-Acting. And the worst part? The choreography, which is the best part of a good Martial Arts flick, is bad. Real bad. Best part? It is kind of funny in places.

The earliest martial arts comedy/spoof I've seen.

[laestadian · 8/10 · 13 March 2007]

One Liner: This film is really funny and a little insane.

Most insane part: He bites the head off the live lizard and chews on it.

Comments: I didn't get the title. The main actor doesn't really have a noticeable style (for example Snake) and at one point confers to a book to find a style to defeat his opponent. There is a part where he wrestles with snakes, but that couldn't be it. There seemed to be a story line at first, but then I kind of just lost the plot. I thought the main actress was so hot.

Overall: I really liked the film, but it had a slightly disappointing ending.

Cake Tryst Dynamo-hum

[Bezenby · 6/10 · 29 October 2015]

Plot that doesn't make sense? Scenes that go out of their way to be surreal? Yep, no surprise here that this film's script was written by Godfrey Ho, director of brain damaging crapfests Ninja Terminator, Ninja Protector and Robo Vampire.

I'll try and describe the plot to you but it's not easy. A teacher at a martial arts school for kids gets into a fight with a random guy and then runs off before the guy can return with his brothers (and the guy does return, wanting the teacher to teach him, although it's filmed and dubbed so badly I couldn't tell if they were being sarcastic). After rolling about in a pile of live snakes (?) and biting the head off a lizard (could have done without that bit), our guy squares up to two guys in a bar and rescues some waitress.

This is where things get a bit confused, as now we see our hero with a sidekick who saved his life (when?) and our hero also had an affair with waitress (also not seen by the viewer). He also ends up finding a tomb full of gold and becomes security chief of the local town, which leads to him being attacked by a fat prostitute and various other characters who all try to kick his head in while he fights back rather badly.

After many, many strange sights (like the marching band who have water pouring out of their instruments, subliminal flashes of boobs, fighting inter-cut with shots of animals) we get to a final battle that really resolves nothing story wise. The gold is totally forgotten about and we barely know who our hero is fighting in the first place. It's all a bit mad, but then it's Godfrey Ho that wrote the story, so what else do you expect?