Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Firefist of the Incredible Dragon (1982)

I would never have seen this movie if it wasn’t for Mr Jensen, the Danish master of Asian exploitation, who got for a penny from Amazon.co.uk. I never been really fond of old school Kung Fu, and this looked like one of those movies that was factory-made in Hong Kong during the seventies and probably lacked every kind of entertainment-value. But no, that was not the case. Instead it was a South Korean martial arts-horror movie! Sure, set in Ancient times – but it’s (parts of it at least) horror and sleaze!

Because of the moronic English dubbing and slightly confusing cast of characters I had certain problems trying to figure out the story, but I guess I got this right: rich middle-aged bastard raped and killed and girl, and maybe her lover, and now they’re coming back as ghosts for revenge! Maybe just the girl, I’m not sure if her lover is a zombie or not. But he has grey hair and a deformed face and seems a bit upset.

This could have been a normal revenge from beyond the grave-kinda movie, but it’s not. First of all, it’s shocked-filled with nudity and sleaze. Even my dear bf, Gregory, looked up from his computer and said “Hey, this movie has a LOT of sex!” and imitated the ridiculous “sexy” dubbing from the voice actors. This is of course very fine and nice and makes these kind of movies extra entertaining. BUT this has something very special, a god damn killer-heart! Yes, a flying heart who bashes peoples faces in, makes their head explode and is very aggressive.

Probably the most aggressive killer-heart I’ve ever seen in the movies. Probably the ONLY killer-heart I’ve seen in the movies. And yes, it’s a very fake-looking rubber-heart hanging on a thread, flying around like a crazed bat. Here and there we also get some old school kung fu, but most of the time the story is focused on sleaze and during the last half, the angry heart.

Firefist of the Incredible Dragon has a couple of gorgeous scenes, not the fighting, but when one of the characters is haunted by a couple of ghostly women and another scene when bodies (I guess) breaks free from the snowy ground, and flies up in the air. Cool, visual stuff.

The French DVD should be the best version when it comes to picture quality and correct ratio, but it’s only dubbed in French. The UK DVD looks crappy and is slightly censored (no idea what’s cut) and is also a shorter version, but still worth every penny (or the only penny) it could cost you.

I stole the poster from En lejemorder ser tilbage, which is one of Mr Jensen’s excellent armada of blogs.

2 comments:

The Goodkind said...

Wow, this sounds like it will surely become one of my perennial favorites as soon as I find a copy. Thanks for turning me on to FFOTID!

Anonymous said...

I've recently come across a dvd of this in the bargain bin at the £1 store. Great movie!