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5
Pattern Dragon Claws
 |
|
Country
: |
Hong
Kong / Korea |
| Year: |
1982
|
| Genre: |
Martial
Arts |
| Format: |
DVD
|
| Running
Time: |
1h30
|
| Distributor: |
Vengeance
Video |
| Date
reviewed: |
10/20/2003
|
| |
|
| Producer: |
Thomas
Tang |
| Director: |
Godfrey
Ho, Tommy Kim |
Cast: Hwang Jang Lee, Dragon
Lee, Jacky Kim |
|
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|
Story:
A monastery holds four books containing the secrets
of its powerful martial arts techniques. Everybody wants
to get their hands on them, including a band of local
evil types. The abbot is killed, and the head students
begin to argue over who should keep the books safe.
Review: Director Godfrey Ho made a living
from producing terrible films. This comes as no surprise
when you learn that much of his work is the result
of glueing together exerts from other people’s
unfinished movies, and box office flops that nobody
saw the first time round. Often filming short sequences
to abridge these random chunks of kung fu, they were
usually released onto the American market during the
home video boom of the early 80’s.
“Five Pattern Dragon Claws’, however,
appears to have actually originated from Korea, and
a collaboration of sorts between Tommy Kim and Godfrey
Ho. It doesn’t seem to be one of Ho’s
usual clumsy mish-mash of unfinished movies, but it
isn’t entirely clear in how the work was shared
between the two directors, but needless to say, Godfrey
pulls proceedings down to his level.
The dubbed dialogue is predictably awful. Most exchanges
are repetitive and empty, as the voice actor’s
struggle to apply meaning to the events on screen
and fill the Chinese actor’s mouths with meaningless
nonsense. In one insightful and revealing dialogue,
the star begs his girlfriend, “Will you come
with me? Come on you must come with me”. She
doesn’t want to go anywhere, and he cleverly
replies “ You must come with me right away.
Please, right away. Come on lets go. Please. Come”.
Award winning? Probably not, but one of the Buddhist
monks sounds a lot like Sean Connery, which raises
a laugh or two.
Sure, the generous scenes of martial arts occasionally
impress, especially some of the perfectly executed
kicks, but this is an ultimately forgettable movie,
which even Hwang Jang Lee cannot save, as his talents
are tragically under used. ‘5 Pattern Dragon
Claws’ is one of hundreds of uninspiring and
faceless old school kung fu films that fog the mind
and obscure the view of the genuinely enthralling
retro movies that are out there for those willing
to seek them out. |




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DVD
[ PAL, All Region
] :
A
rubbish disk. An obvious transfer from VHS which seems
to switch aspect ratio on occasion. For the most part,
it seems to be Letterbox Widescreen. Kind of. As for
bonus features, somebody should tell these people
that one trailer and some chapter stops does NOT count.
Maybe they should have listed the hole in the middle
of the disk as a special feature, too. Bad distributors,
no!
Reviewed
by Russ Houghton
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| Story |
Cast |
Entertainment |
Subtitles |
Overall |
| 2 |
2 |
2.5 |
N/A |
2 |

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| © 1999-2003 by KFC
Cinema. All rights reserved. |
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