Woo fook (1977) User Reviews

East meets west Hong Kong spy thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 1 December 2016]

FOXBAT is one of those Hong Kong thrillers with a western-imported actor and director thrown in in a bid to sell the film to international audiences. This time around the hero of the piece is Henry Silva, who always looks like he should be playing the bad guy instead, playing a secret agent on the hunt for a stolen microfilm that has accidentally been swallowed by an innocent man. The story sounds ridiculous but it is played straight for the most part although there are a few outre moments.

British director Terence Young is credited as co-director and delivers an interesting film but one which has some pacing issues. I found the wealth of action to be fun, thrilling, and exciting, but the bits in between the action scenes are dull and talky. Silva seems to be depicted as a kind of Bond-style Lothario which doesn't come across as very convincing. The story was written by Philip Chan who also plays one of the bad guys; western audiences know him well for his roles in the likes of HARD-BOILED and DOUBLE IMPACT and he brings extra grittiness to this production.

There are some fine and destructive car chases in this film along with the usual shoot-outs and martial arts scenes. The bit in which Silva is forced to tackle a burly Sumo wrestler in his hotel room is a highlight and straight out of Bond, although even more violent. Popular Hong Kong actor Roy Chiao (DRAGONS FOREVER) is one of the main bad guys while Vonetta McGee is the love interest on hand, perhaps to bring in some blaxploitation value. Bizarrely, old American actor Rik Van Nutter, known for his Italian cinema career in the 1960s, is here too in his penultimate screen appearance. FOXBAT only seems available to view on old public domain copies these days which is a shame as a pristine widescreen DVD release would work wonders for it.

"The Foxbat is a mousetrap"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 5/10 · 10 May 2021]

A film of two halves, the first half sets up the situation about the photographs of the titular Foxbat and the second is the chase to find the photographs accidentally swallowed in microform by a noodle chef. The tone of the film shifts between intrigue, action and comedy and doesn't hang together well. Half the time I didn't know who was who and what was why. It was all rather confusing.

It had a good cast though. Henry Silva as heroic Saxon, Roy Chiao as evil Doctor Vod, the enchanting Vonetta McGee as Toni and Melvin Wong as the silent enforcer. The location shooting in Hong Kong was vivid and some of the combat was well staged. With all that though I thought it was pretty average.

A chaotic mess.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 1 September 2017]

When a Russian fighter pilot defects to Japan with his revolutionary aircraft—a Mig-25 AKA Foxbat—C.I.A. agent Michael Saxon (Henry Silva) is tasked with smuggling photographs of the plane out of Japan. Having taken the pictures with a camera hidden in his glass eye, Saxon places the film in a hollow cough lozenge, but runs into problems when the sweet is eaten by flamboyant Chinese chef Cheung (James Yi Lui), leading to several other ruthless parties trying to capture the cook.

Narratively speaking, Foxbat is a mess: the action jumps awkwardly from scene to scene and it is frequently unclear as to who the characters are, what they are doing and why. Director Po-Chih Leong delivers a smattering of crazy action—Saxon fighting a sumo wrestler, the agent killing his opponent with a toothbrush, a hospital shootout, and several scenes of vehicular mayhem including a chase through the streets of Hong Kong, Saxon commandeering a bus to pursue his quarry—but it's not nearly enough to compensate for the thoroughly confusing plot.

3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for the torture of Cheung with a feather, a full body burn stunt followed by a massive explosion, and Vonetta McGee (as streetwise babe Toni Hill, also trying to get her hands on the film) doing a high dive onto a sidewalk.

N.B. Bond director Terence Young acted as script consultant, and somehow ended up with a co-director credit.

Director Terence Young helped make this actioner!

[Serpent-5 · 25 June 1999]

Veteran director Terence Young help directed this actioner that has many different agents and bad guys going after a chinese cook in Hong Kong who swallowed a microfilm (thinking it was candy) that contains blueprint and documents for a special secret plane that Henry Silva took photos of with a camera hidden in his left eyeball! The film looks very high budget for a Hong Kong film, and even has Roy Budd doing the music (some music was from 1973 THE STONE KILLER). The film never played on the big screen in U.S., but debut on CBS network on latenight. I saw the un-cut print from Japan recently and the film is still very good. Recommended to action fans.