Product Details

• Actors: Billy Chong, Carl Scott, Louis Neglia, Joseph Jennings, Hsiao Sung Liang
• Directors: Yi Hwa Hsi
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Xenon
• VHS Release Date: October 13, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305104220
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #395,542 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BILLY CHONG SUPER STAR, February 27, 2008

By 

Karen Shaub "Nickname: Queen B" (the inner reaches of the outer limits) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Sun Dragon (DVD)

One of the great mysteries in martial arts film is why Billy Chong did not become a superstar of the genre, a question that will certainly perplex any of you who haven't heard of him and decide to check out SUN DRAGON (US title A HARD WAY TO DIE). Filmed in Arizona around 1980 by Eternal Films, SUN DRAGON is simply put a minor classic of the kung fu genre. While it suffers from all the short comings of the typical chop socky flick of that time, it rises above most of the genre by virtue of its two stars, Billy Chong and the nearly as impressive Carl Scott who was literally just a kid at the time.

Chong combines the best of all worlds: the burning intensity of a Bruce Lee, the goofy agility of a Jackie Chan, and the boyish charm of an Alexander Fu Sheng with his own little Indonesian self to produce an exciting new original that started out with a brilliant flash and then apparently just went back to Indonesia where he had been among other things, a pop star. What a loss! Such fighting skills, such screen presence, such a looker! But back to SUN DRAGON, for there is also Carl Scott!

Scott too fell off the face of the cinematic earth after a couple of movies, and I dare you to see THIS ONE and give me one good reason why! His martial arts here are nearly flawless and his bo kata is a real eye opener, he's as good as anyone I've ever seen on this side of the international dateline, and he certainly had no competion from the likes of Jim Kelly or Ron Van Clief.

You say you want to know more about the movie? Well, in many ways its your typical kung fu flick; high spirited boy(Chong) gets in trouble fighting (in this case he rescues a hapless girl from a gang of would-be rapists led by the local magistrate's son) and has to be sent away for his own good. The difference is that in this case he's sent to the United States, or more speicifically, Arizona, to stay with his Grandfather who we never do get to meet in the course of the movie. Instead he gets side-tracked breaking up fights that are bring staged for money at the local Chinese run tavern, and bouncing all the troublemakers out on their keisters.

At the same time we have a second storyline going about a black youth named Tom who barely escape with his life when a group of evil-doers decides that his family's little ranch would be the perfect place to hide out while things cool off from their last job. They kill Tom's parents which naturally means he's going to have to get revenge. Our hero Billy Chong and his newly found friend at the tavern take Tom to the local kung fu master/herbalist who heals Tom's body and as at no additional cost turns him into a lethal killing machine for purposes of extracting revenge.

Oh, there's more, MUCH, MUCH MORE. I haven't even told you about the samurais yet! But I have to leave SOME surprises for you, don't I? In the final analysis there's only one reason you go to martial arts films and that's to see terrific action performed by guys who know how to do it right. So while styles have changed in the way fights are presented, in SUN DRAGON you'll still be able to spot the brilliance of the two stars who should have been more--Billy Chong and Carl Scott!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Carl Scott learns kung fu in less time than anyone in "The Matrix", March 29, 2008

By 

Mantis (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sun Dragon (DVD)

Li (Billy Chong) plays a Chinese immigrant who comes to America to work on the railroad. Tommy (Carl Scott) plays the son of African settlers who are killed when they refuse to sell their land to some greedy dudes in charge of the railroad. Tommy escapes the slaughter and Li finds him and takes him to a Chinese doctor who is also a kung fu expert. The doctor will not teach Tommy kung fu until Tommy mentions that revenge is his ultimate motive. "Oh, alright then."

This is really a fun movie. Though I loved it, I'm not sure if I can recommend it to fans of old-school. It's a different kind of fu flick. The time mentioned is the old west, but the hair, clothes, and sets are definitely the late 70s. So it's not the costumed old-school flick that most fu fans crave. If you like martial arts films from all periods, then no problem; this belongs on your shelf. It is similar in tone and choreography to the better work of Bruce Li (whom Carl Scott had previously worked with) as the story is silly and the fights occur every 10 seconds or so.

This version from Crash Cinema has good, partially widescreen picture quality, and tolerable English dubbing. It also contains cool, lengthy trailers for "The Master Strikes", "Taoism Drunkard" and "Sting of the Dragon Masters", aka "When Taekwondo Strikes". 3.5

1979. aka: "A Hard Way to Die"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "You saved my life! - why don't you help me get my revenge?", June 24, 2011

By 

Mike Sehorn "Rezo the Dezo" (APO, AE United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sun Dragon (DVD)

I don't gravitate towards Hong Kong films very much, especially anything produced before 1986, but I gave in to "Sun Dragon" as a self-experiment. While I haven't been converted, I can't help but speculate that if I were a connoisseur of Chinese material from this era, this would probably be the kind of movie I'd be drawn to: its production is questionable and its story is weird, but it boasts some great talent and a veritable boatload of fight scenes. I'm not sure which faction of the wuxia film fanbase this one would appeal to, but despite its relative obscurity, I think more people would be capable of enjoying it.

The story: a Chinese immigrant (Billy Chong, Kung Fu Zombie) arrives in the American southwest to start a new life, but must contend with a vindictive gang determined to put him down. At the same time, a young man (Carl Scott, Soul Brothers of Kung Fu) barely escapes with his life when a group of runaway gangsters murders his family for their land. Somehow, they will come together and, through the power of kung fu, right the intersecting wrongs in their life.

According to my research, Billy Chong's career mostly petered out early in the 1990s and Carl Scott more or less disappeared from the film business overnight just a couple years after this one's release - a shame, considering their obvious physical talents; I would have loved to see them in a more contemporary piece. "Sun Dragon" is an excellent stage for both of them to show off their talents: the film boasts an impressive eighteen fights scenes (that's an average of one fight almost every five minutes!) in which both display mastery of traditional kung fu forms and Scott proves his proficiency with a wooden staff. I'm not a fan of traditional 1970s fight choreography, but there are a few universally entertaining fights: the bar brawl between Billy and a Native American warrior/Chinese stuntman wearing braids is reminiscent of an Ong-Bak fight and the showdown between Scott and Ma Chung Tak (Jade Claw) is likewise plenty furious. The fights are split pretty evenly between one-on-one and one-against-many encounters, but I'm disappointed by the latter by how sloppy every group of opponents has to perform their moves to give the heroes a fighting chance.

The movie's setting is unclear: apparently it's supposed to take place in the 1930s, but a friend of mine believed it was the Old West and a lot of the wardrobe is definitely from the mid-70s. Once you get over that, the storyline ends up getting pretty complex. Including all the different relationship angles between both major and minor characters, there are about four or five plots running through the film, all of which are afforded significant screen time. The characters just act weird sometimes, like the master who heals a wounded Carl Scott (action choreographer Hsiao Sung Liang, Bruce Lee: the Man, the Myth) refusing to teach him kung fu for self-defense but deciding to teach him after all when he learns that Scott's out for revenge. Production-wise, the movie is competent overall (a few fights are shot against open doors and windows, creating an unintentional silhouette effect) but features some very awful dubbing - the kind of dubbing where it's clearly men doing the voices of female characters and some performances being done in such monotone that the characters sound stoned. Ugh.

I can't say I'm a fan of this film, but I recognize its strengths and am certain that if this is your medium, you'd probably be interested in "Sun Dragon". Maybe some other movie will end up shifting my tastes in martial arts fare, but for now, I remain a gweilo in spirit; check this one out if you're more than me.