Hard as a Dragon (1974) Poster

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6/10
New guy enters the business and makes an above average start
ckormos128 October 2019
It starts when gangsters confront one of their own about goods that are missing. They fight and disturb our hero, Raymond Lui Shing-Gung, who was sleeping on a park bench. He awakes to see the old guy, Hao Li-Jen, about to be beaten so he steps in. After defeating the gang he is offered a job.

The fight choreography in the opening seen handles the fact that the hero is outnumbered four to one by using close ups. The shots still show the entire bodies of the fighters but they only attack one at a time. There is no continuity to the overall positioning of the attackers. There is no shot of all four against one. This technique certainly works, as long as it's not overdone.

Raymond displays great martial arts skills. He does a lot of kicks and high kicks. There are plenty of fights and they do not get repetitive. It is mostly hand to hand gang fights but various weapons and props are added. It is basic stuff like this that makes the difference between the same old thing and better than the same old thing.

The story line only drags from the scenes with the kid. The kid could have been cut completely.

This movie was released in about six countries with as many different titles. My copy is a digital file that plays as a wide screen but small on a HDTV. It is English dubbed for the most part. Some parts still have the Chinese dialog and the English dubbing changes to different voice over actors back and forth.

Raymond Lui Shing-Gong was also a director, action director, writer, and producer during the golden age of martial arts movies from 1967 to 1984. Other than his movie credits, I find no biographical information. This movie seems to be his first lead.

I rate this movie above average and recommend it for all fans of the genre. It is a relatively obscure movie that I only recently came across but it is available and we all know where to look. It was a pleasure to find it as I have watched a lot of below average stuff lately and this is what keeps me going to complete my mission.
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