Triple Threat

For fans of legendary martial arts actor Sammo Hung, this TRIPLE THREAT 3-disc box set offers a great opportunity to see the man in action. Three films (all restored in glorious Blu-ray format) showcase the rise of Hung’s remarkable career, from humbling beginnings to Hong Kong superstar and beyond.

Disc 1:
THE MANCHU BOXER (Director: Wu Ma) from 1974 sees Sammo in the role of a baddie, and a Japanese one at that. It was an early role for him and as such, his screen time is somewhat limited though he gets opportunities to prove his formidable fighting skills. Undisputed star of the film is Tony Liu, who plays Ku Ru-Zhang, a young man whose exceptional kung fu skills save his life following a nasty brawl while at the same time, he kills one of the attackers in self-defence. Unfortunately, his ultra-strict father displays little signs of sympathy and sends his son packing, as he feels he has brought shame on the family due to having killed a man. Once Ku is out of the house though, his father confesses to a friend that the real reason he banished his son is because he fears that some attackers will return and seeks revenge, possibly killing Ku. Aimlessly wandering through the landscape, he comes across the Chinese equivalent of a highwayman but it ends badly (once again) as the robber turns out to be very ill and dies minutes later. Before shuffling off this mortal coil, he begs Ku to trace his wife and daughter and make sure they are ok, there’s also money involved. Once he finds mother and daughter, he reveals to the daughter that her father is dead (she doesn’t tell her mother) and only finds out later that he had not been in touch with his family for almost fifteen years. Nonetheless, he promised the dead robber to re-pay some debt to his family and now looks for work in the little village fate had brought him to. A female friend of the daughter and her father organise a job for him erecting a massive plateau for an upcoming and very important boxing tournament for the title of ‘Champion Boxer of the seven North China provinces’.

Soon, the villagers and Ku find themselves under threat, courtesy of Chien (Kim Gi-Ju), the tournament’s organiser, and two dangerous Japanese thugs, played by Sammo Hung and Wilson Tong. Sensing that Ku is secretly an accomplished kung fu fighter who won’t reveal why he doesn’t fight anymore (he had promised his father not to fight again…), his new friend Wei (Mu Scu-Cheng) tries to persuade Ku in vain to enter the tournament. It’s only when Wei is killed by Chien and the dead robber’s daughter also accuses him of being a coward and afraid of anything that Ku changes his mind and decides to take on the Japanese at the tournament. Apart from the opening scene, Tony Liu doesn’t get to do much fighting until the film’s second half kicks into action though the various subplots keep things interesting. However, I should perhaps warn you about a nasty rape scene, which was no doubt responsible for the releases 18 Cert! The settings and the cinematography are great and there are some sporadic snippets of Leone’s ‘Once A Time in the West’ soundtrack. But it’s Tony Liu’s film, not Sammo’s!

That said, Sammo Hung gets more than ample opportunity to make up for lost screen time in the riotous comedy PAPER MARRIAGE (Director: Alfred Cheung), a Hong Kong production from 1988 set in Los Angeles but filmed in Alberta, Canada. Here, Sammo is the undisputed star and more or less in every scene, you will be thrilled to know. He plays Bo-Chin, a down on his luck boxer living in LA and harassed and hunted by loan sharks. To make Bo’s already perilous situation worse, he also needs to pay his ex-wife (played by Joyce Godenzi, Sammo Hung’s future wife!) alimony, so he has even less money at his disposal to pay the loan sharks. Rescue might just be around the corner in the shape of Jade Lee (Maggie Cheung), a young woman desperate to get a Green Card, so she can enter a sham marriage with Bo, while ultimately living with her boyfriend Peter (played by director Alfred Cheung) although it’s not quite clear why Peter doesn’t marry her to begin with. Bo agrees to the sham marriage as he gets paid for doing so, but things get off to a bad start as Jade feels almost repulsed by Bo’s physical appearance (overweight for starters) and his crude, scatological sense of humour and altogether lousy manners. There’s clearly no love lost between the couple and yet, in the presence of immigration officers, who also come to visit them at home, they have to pretend to be deeply in love, which is the cue for some sidesplittingly funny scenes. While Jade can’t wait for the day she gets her Green Card and can live with Peter, Bo can’t wait for her to leave and he’s finally debt-free. Alas, Peter turns out to be a crook and vanishes with the money, returning to Hong Kong. Now Jade and Bo are both in the doldrums and forced to take on odd jobs, including playing guinea pigs for a medical research facility and Jade even signing up to some mud-wrestling. Of course, she has no experience and loses. Humiliated and fed up, she has one last (or so she thinks) argument with Bo before he kicks her out of his pad. Running along a path, she stumbles and falls next to a parked car, whose driver (Tony Morelli) happens to have an almost identical suitcase standing next to it. The suitcases get mixed up and the driver, who turns out to be in cahoots with some heavy duty criminals, now has a suitcase filled with Jade’s clothes and lingerie while Jade, returning to Bo’s house as by now it’s late at night, finds that ‘her’ suitcase is filled with lots and lots of dollar notes. You’d think this mix-up provides the answer to Jade and Bo’s prayers but their troubles only start because soon, the gang is after them, with a spectacular showdown in a massive shopping mall and an unexpected twist at the end… The film is a total cracker and both Sammo and Maggie are fabulous, with great talent for comedy and slapstick.

Finally, we have SHANGHAI, SHANGHAI (Director: Teddy Robin) from 1990. Although Sammo features prominently in this somewhat convoluted period piece set in 1930’s Shanghai, he’s once again not the top dog. Here, he honours goes to Yuen Biao, who plays Little Tiger, who travels to Shanghai in the hope to locate his older brother, Big Tiger (George Lam), a decent policeman challenged with a corrupt system. No sooner does Little Tiger arrive, he manages to get a lift in a wrong lorry whose other ‘passengers’, all members of a criminal gang, are planning an attack on an establishment where an acrobatic opera troupe is performing. Little Tiger manages to foil the attack and thus makes the acquaintance of some of its members, including Pao (Sandy Lam), a feisty lass who eventually takes a shine to Little Tiger. He also manages to reunite with his brother, who has his own problems to deal with when a former flame, Mary Sung (Anita Mui) shows up unexpectedly and although sparks are still flying, the strait-laced copper isn’t too pleased when he learns that Mary belongs to a group of revolutionaries, while Big Tiger conjures up his own masterplan to battle the city’s oppressors but it’s easier said than done and when Little Tiger forms an unlikely alliance with Chin Hung-yun (Sammo Hung), the head of the local crime syndicate, all hell is about to break loose. This one has a bit of everything, from romance to truly awesome stunts and high kicks. Watch out for that triple-tango between Little Tiger, Mary and Pao… You’ll never looks at tango dancing the same way!

As ever with Eureka, this 3-disc set (Disc 3 consists of the extended international cuts of ‘The Manchu Boxer’ and ‘Shanghai, Shanghai’) comes in a Limited Edition O-card slipcase (2,000 copies only) and Collector’s booklet. Bonus material includes various audio options, audio commentaries, interviews and trailers.