Anyone viewing the 1985 Jess Franco crime/martial arts epic LE SOMBRA DE JUDOKA CONTRA DR. WONG 40 years after it was filmed on Canary Island locations will be confronted by a very curious spectacle. The shadow of judo refers to Bruce, the main charater who works to bust drug smugglers in his tropical city. It was one of the first "martial arts" films made in the 1980s, a series of crime-action films made with sparse resources for Emilio Larraga's Golden Films Internactional. The martial arts action performed by "Bruce Lyn" aka actor Jose Llamas is not impressive and is mostly rendered in Lo-Fi B-movie style slow motion. But Llamas was not the only actor performing martial arts in the film. First, a bit about the late Jose Llamas from a post created by Nzoog here some time ago: "[In his work in Jess Franco films] Llamas was assigned anything from minor roles to leads, sometimes on the heroic side, as in Viaje a Bangkok, ataúd incluido (1985) and several antagonists, such as his “Macho Jim” in Los blues de la calle Pop (1983). Strangest of all was Franco’s decision that he fill in the shoes of Bruce Lee in some of the pseudo-martial arts features the director was occasionally and inexplicably turning out in the eighties despite an absolute lack of demand in Spain for homegrown product of this kind, not to mention Llamas’s lack of an appropriate background. The actor certainly looked athletic, had black hair and, as Mayans has said, could dance, but in the words of David Domingo “he’s hopelessly clueless about martial arts” (2). These words are in reference to La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong (1982-85), with Llamas credited as “Bruce Lyn” and the real Bruce Lee featuring on the film’s poster!"
There were numerous Bruce Lee clones appearing in a variety of 1970s and beyond would-be martial arts films. Bruce Li, Bruce K.L. Lea are just a few of the immitators Then there's the odd spectacle of Jess Franco himself playing the titular Doctor Wong with oriental eye make-up and speaking in a very high pitched variant of his real voice. Of course such esteemed actors as Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee had already played the oriental villain Fu Manchu in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) and Franco's own Fu Manchu entries. Butt his 1982 oriental villain romp is decades beyond those and approaches high camp levels of absurdity.
Beside scenes of "Bruce" battling local drug smugglers and teaming up with dubious CIA agents played by Franco regulars Lina Romay and Daniel Katz, Franco goes Godfrey Ho and inserts footage from at least two Asian martial arts epics to pad out the runtime and provide extra action. One of these is the 1973 SEVEN TO ONE/Nu ying xiong fei che duo bao, a Taiwan production starring Polly Kuan as a high kicking female martial artist, the other inserts seem to be from a typical Shaolin Temple style period piece from the same era.
It all ends with Bruce foiling the devious hijacking plans of the tourists and Doctor Wong attempting to escape only be intercepted by Kuan's character in an inserted car chase. An oddity to be sure, but Franco's Doctor Wong would return in his Digital era.
Bangkok provides the backdrop for another Franco martial arts actioner, BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE (1985), credited to Cliffor Brawm!
BANGKOK, CITA CON LA MUERTE is fascinating to the serious Jess Franco student but may not
engage interest as a serious action film with Jess Franco-style martial
arts interludes included. The formulaic plot combines drug running,
Thai pirates (led by Lina Romay), karate fighting, kidnapping, comic
relief and tourist footage which on first viewing looks cribbed from an
unknown source.* [Update: the DoP of this film, Juan Soler Cozar, read
this review and kindly informed me that he was actually sent to Bangkok
to shoot some street footage, and that it does appear in the film. I was
very surprised that they went to the expense and trouble to do this,
especially considering the production’s obvious micro-budget.]
The yacht-going daughter of a millionaire is kidnapped by pirates. Her
father (Eduardo Fajardo) hires a bumbling private eye named Panama Joe
(Bork Gordon) to locate her. The daughter’s boyfriend is also on the
kidnappers’ trail. Panama Joe discovers the crooks are led by a drug
smuggler (Antonio Mayans), who is in turn being double crossed by Queen
Amania (Lina Romay). The detective roams around the faux Asian
locations, tries to play both sides against the other, while uncovering
deeper layers of corruption and double dealing. BANGKOK... is dialogue and
plot heavy to no good end, and Gordon’s imitation Inspector Columbo
ramblings just do not spark enough interest. The characters are shown
talking in cartoon dialog balloons during the opening credits a la LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967), but
Franco unaccountably drops this unusual device immediately and never
picks it up again. What’s left is a C-minus adventure with some comic relief and hastily staged karate stand-offs, in which
the participants miss each other by miles. Then again, given the budget and assumed rushed shooting schedule this could be understandable. It also could indicate the director's disdain for those perfectly choreographed martial arts films of Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, etc. Gordon (Christian Borck) just seems a disheveled guy, actually a German comedian/television actor,
who wandered in. Like the karate stuff, comedy-parody needs timing. The
lines and martial arts blows rarely connect. Actually, I managed to find
some amusement in the martial arts showdowns where the fighters miss
contact with each other by such obvious distances that it looks like
children playing at karate fighting. This is all likely due to a
crushing schedule/lack of budget. Nonetheless the colorful
cinematography frames the locations with skill and makes the Canary
Islands seem like Southeast Asia, at least for 90 minutes. BANGKOK, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (VSOM dupe from Spanish television broadcast), ends up as a colorful, amusing mix of Kung Fu fighting, faux Asian aesthetics,
modern day pirates, BANGKOK, APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (1985) mixes comic
book-style imagery with crime film elements, some self parody and a
adventure plot with a not-so-happy ending. Franco has tried this before,
notably in the delightful LOS BLUES CALLE POP…. (1983) and the above mentioned La sombra
del judoka contra el doctor Wong (1982).
Lina Romay has a few touching moments as the aggresive pirate leader. In one embarrassing scene, shes dances around in a
tight swimsuit accompanied by a mechanical band. The result might been
cute in 1973, but at this late date it is unflattering to
the talented Ms. Romay. Veteran character actor Fajardo (DJANGO) turns
in a professional but unexceptional performance as the millionaire.
The movie benefits from its luminous cinematography and occasionally
hectic energy but needs a more interesting focal point.. The Far Eastern
locations, represented via the aforementioned stock footage are given
an atmospheric boost by Pablo Villa’s (Franco and Daniel White) brassy
score, some of which recalls music heard in Franco’s earlier FU MANCHU
AND THE KISS OF DEATH/KISS AND KILL (1967). Given the negatives I’m at
the stage where I can still engage with and enjoy even an understandably
flawed genre mashup such as this one. It’s obvious that Jess Franco
took it serious enough to attempt to deliver a multi-faced entertainment
package under impossible circumstances. As he told me when I
interviewed him on his Golden Films Internacional period, these
productions were “poor”, i.e. made at very low coast, with little or no
resources and rushed out to theaters or hidden away in the offices of
producer Emilio Larraga to be lost forever. I had some fun watching it
but have no idea where one could see it outside of fan websites. I am
not aware of any DVD release, although it may have appeared on Spanish
VHS.
The version I saw was from the wretchedly unreliable VSOM and had no
English subtitles. A good quality HD transfer from a print or negative
with language options is required for a more in-depth consideration,
but it’s an example of Franco’s 1980s exotica.
*Thanks again to Juan Cozar for additional information on the production of this film.
Given the furious production pace of Franco's GOLDEN FILMS INTERNACIONAL period EN BUSCA DEL DRAGON DORADO, another Franco martial arts adventure, this time casted and shot as a children's film of all things, may have been shot back-to-back with LA SOMBRA DEL JUKODA CONTRA DOCTOR WONG. This time the featured martial artist was "Li Yung", no clones of "Bruce Lee" this time around. Presented as a daydream of Almond Eyes it could have been a delightful lark.
EN BUSCA DEL DRAGON DORADO (James P. Johnson, 1983): Yes, Jess Franco also made children's films. This one features several pre teen friends who are led to a hidden treasure by friendly jungle animals, including a cute chimp, a helpful tortoise, a convenient elephant and several talkative parrots. It also features lots of martial arts displays to exploit the then popular craze in Spain. Supernatural martial artist Li Yung demonstrates the dragon claws style of combat and also helps the curious kids defeat greedy villains. Franco directed under a beard and has a role as a kindly blind guide. It all ends up being a daydream of one of sleepy kids. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's story THE GOLD BUG. Franco would make another adaptation of this story a decade later, JUNGLE OF FEAR, dropping the kids and the martial arts content, featuring Lina Romay, some American actors, and William Berger in his final role.
