THE MAN FROM HONG KONG

Australia/Hong Kong, 1975, 103 minutes, Colour.
Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby, Ros Spiers, Hugh Keays- Byrne, Roger Ward, Rebecca Gilling.
Directed by Brian Trenchard Smith.

The Man From Hong Kong is Australian adventure by Brian Trenchard- Smith, a specialist in this kind of film with his documentary The Stunt Man and his Death Cheaters. Saturday matinees used to thrive on spectacular heroic adventure of the swashbuckling, larger than life, kind. Here we have an R certificate Saturday matinee spectacular of gangsters and the martial arts. Its goriness gets it the R certificate. For the rest it is mostly adolescent type adventure with a furious pace that never flags. There are a few interludes for breathers but it is mainly action, action. The stunt work and photography of Hong Kong, Sydney, Ayers Rock are of a high order. At least it proves that Australians can make spectaculars as well as, or better, than other film makers.

1. How good an adventure film was this? Martial arts film? The quality of its capacity for entertaining?

2. The Saturday matinee style and impressions of the film? Comic-book characters and situations? Standards of action, characterisation?

3. Comment on the heroes, gangster, the police in this genre? How seriously are they to be taken? Any underlying serious points about police and crime in Hong Kong, Australia?

4. How appealing was Fang as hero? His Hong Kong background? His police and martial arts skill? His co-operation with the Australians? Their views on his unorthodox methods? His physical vigour? His encounter with the women? Attitude to Mr. Big? The melodrama of the climax? A characterisation?

5. Mr. Big as the stereotype of Sydney gangsters? How convincing?

6. The presentation of the police: serious and comic aspects, the straight policeman, the hippie type?

7. Caroline and Angelica? How well characterised? What did they add to the plot? The women as sex objects?

8. The contribution of the kite flying sequences?

9. The impact of the opening at Ayers Rock? How credible? How visually exciting?

10. The vigour of the chases through Sydney? How well filmed and edited?

11. The scenes of the martial arts academy, the car chases etc.? The utilisation of locations, stunt work?

12. The climax in Mr. Big's rooms and the siege? The preliminary kite flying? Explosions and death? Appropriate ending for a gun-runner?

13. Audience response to this kind of violence, destruction, excitement? The impact on audiences of adventure hyperbole?