Customer Reviews

Sun Dragon [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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"

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.

This is one of the 3 movies that Billy Chong made with Carl Scott. The story is really bad, but luckily the fighting is good. Carl Scott's family gets murdered by thugs, and after getting seriously injured he is found by an old kung fu master who takes care of him. It was really cool to see Leung Siu Chung playing the old master. He is the film's fight choreographer, and is the father of Bruce Leung Siu Lung and Tony Leung Siu Hung. Once Carl Scott trains in kung fu, he goes to get his revenge. Scott gets 3 major fight scenes, and Billy Chong has like 6. While the story is bad, that isn't my main problem with the movie. The villains are where it lacks. The white guy who fights in the final fight is obviously a real fighter, probably a kickboxer, but he doesn't have the screen fighting skills to match his 2 opponents. Billy Chong's movements are so fast, fluid, and crisp, it's hard for anyone to match up with him. And Carl Scott has got some awesome moves himself. Scott is one of the only black actors I know of who was in oldschool kung fu movies. There was Ron Van Clief who was great, Jim Kelly was ok, Dennis Brown was good in Dancing Warrior, but the only guy who can match up to Carl Scott in screen fighting skills would be Eugene Thomas who starred with Alexander Lo rei in a bunch of ninja movies.

If you are Carl Scott and/or a Billy Chong fan, then you will want to take a look at this.

2.5/5

The picture quality on the Crash DVD is decent at best, and the English dub is pretty bad.

This is probably one of my all-time favorite kung-fu movies.
It is the classic revenge story (set in the west?) with the
incredible talents of Billy Chong and Carl Scott. This movie also features
nutzo NY Karate legend Louis Neglia...

Great acting and training sequences. Phenomal fighting!

Why haven't you ordered this yet?

Wow. What can I say about this movie?

The good: Most of the fight scenes range from good to very good. I guess you could say that the premise of the story was pretty good. Interesting concept for a Chinese production company to film a martial-arts film in America. This movie could have been very good, except for a few things.

The bad: The dubbing was HORRIBLE. The absolute worst I have ever experienced in a Kung-fu film.

Also, one of the more glaring issues I had with this film was the lack of attention to detail. This film is supposed to be set in the Old West, but the clothes on some of the Caucasian men in the film, scream mid-to-late 70's. Some of the guys looked like they came straight from a biker flick. Did T-shirts had tags in the back in the Old West? If they did, then I apologize.

I dunno. I can't recommend this flick. If you can stomach the bad to experience the good...give this a try. But you might be sorry.

This was a very well done martial arts flick. Although some of the earlier Chinese productions sometimes lacked good quality, this movie had good production values. The fight scenes were breathtaking and Billy Chong, and Sun Dragon Carl Scott were outstanding. Although this movie had basic film special effects, it's good to look back at a time, when performers really had to know there craft, as all the performers in "Sun Dragon" were highly skilled martial artists.

I first came across this movie as a kid under the title "A Hard Way to Die" on Channel 5-Drive-In Movie. Billy Chong (who's real name is Willy Dozhan, originally a singer in his native Indonesia) proves that, along with "Jade Claw" & "Super Power", he's a martial artist to be reckoned with. This movie is fast-paced, has great Fu, Carl Scott gets plenty of good moves in & Liang Siao Sung (who plays Dr. Ko & is Bruce Liang's father) & Lam Hark Ming (Ah Kuan) give some great choreography. However, this what partially filmed in Arizona (most of it was filmed in Taiwan) with an American/Chinese crew. The language barrier resulted in some glaring technical errors and unintentional hilarious dialogue/dubbing (the Chinese actors supplied their own voices for the English dub).

What we have here is a very nice try. I can look past the flaws and enjoy the Fu, but I'm sure others who aren't big Fu fans might dismiss it. I was happy with the transfer. Aside from a few scratches it was fine~widescreen and the original, extended opening. Watch "Jade Claw" first, then try this. Check out the 'zine "Hong Kong Superstars, vol.2, #1" for the whole Billy Chong profile if you can find it. It will explain why Billy didn't make more pictures.