Batman: Soul of the Dragon

 What's happenin' hepcats and kittens!! Readers of the Rotten, I am back from migraine/cluster hell and no, that is not what this write-up is about. So today I found on IMDB a few actors I follow as they discussed this particular animated film from Warner Brothers. With a overall vibe of exploitation, blaxploitation and Kung Fu double features were the order of the day, this movie also brings about a well-known superhero. This is Batman: Soul of the Dragon.

 

 

I am the night... Dig?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The era is 1970s, an organization known as the Cult of Kobra seeks an ancient relic that will bring about the destruction of mankind. Baby, that ain't cool. Our story centers around 6 students of an elder martial arts master and how they each found their path. O-sensei (James Hong of Chinatown,Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Jackie Chan Adventures, Dragon Dynasty and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) has instructed would-be warriors for many years. Each of these students come from different walks of life and each all have their own pain they either wish to conquer or use that rage as a weapon. 

 

 

Laaaaadies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli of Privileged, Eli Stone, U.S. Attorney, Grimm, 13 Hours, Mother's Little Helpers and A Million Little Things) has learned what he must to bring about his crusade as Batman. His close ally, Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos of Double Dragon, Sabotage, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Stargate Atlantis, Wolvesbayne, Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) a super spy for the CIA, a James Bond archetype that just happens to resemble the late Bruce Lee. Richard finds this cult is fronting all sorts of criminal acts as they chase after a mystical door. A door Richard and his fellow students are all together familiar with. Time to rally the troops.

After Batman agrees to join Richard, they have a greater task ahead of them. Getting the ruler of Chinatown on board with them. The merciless, ruthless and gorgeous Lady Shiva (Kelly Hu of Surf Ninjas, Sunset Beach, Martial Law, The Scorpion King, X2: X-Men United, Succubus: Hell-Bent, Robot Chicken and Batman: Under the Red Hood) runs a fighting ring, probably some racketeering and a bit of protection money. That being said, that section of town is probably street crime free, no graffiti and less cars getting boosted. Shiva longs for the battle for those that belittle her master's goals and teachings. Not to mention Bruce's disco and Shiva's fight club suffered damages. Damn, if only Shiva knew a boy billionaire that is loaded with greenbacks.

 

Ms. Woosan if yer nasty

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, at a nearby dojo, Ben Turner is teaching classes for underprivileged kids and trying to strengthen their hopes and dreams. Ben Turner a.k.a. Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White of Spawn, Silverhawk, Universal Soldiers: The Return, Blood and Bone, Black Dynamite, For Better or Worse, Black Dynamite cartoon and Chocolate City) who claims if he didn't spare a cult member, none of this would be happening. With our four warriors ready to bust some heads and kick some ass, the cult is moving forward with their intentions, their leader of course has two substantial fighters higher than his typical acolytes.

King Snake (Patrick Seitz of EverQuest II: Echoes of Faydwer, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Mega Man Star Force, League of Legends, Black Butler, Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil" The Mercenaries 3D), a blind martial arts master and Lady Eve (Grey Griffin of Star Wars: Jedi Knight- Jedi Academy, True Crime: Streets of LA, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, The Weekenders, Doom 3, World of Warcraft, Star Wars: Clone Wars, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Ultimate Avengers: The Movie) a true believer and devout follower with twin blades at her service. 

 

A few points of observation at this time. One, this doesn't appear to be any Batman continuity but feels more like an action/adventure flick. Two, this is a great voice cast handling our main characters, the story is solid and the animation does an excellent job.

In addition, voice work done by Jaime Chung (Days of Our Lives, Katrina, Greek, Samurai Girl, Sorority Row, Sucker Punch, The Hangover Part II, The Man with the Iron Fists, Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Resident Advisors and Gotham), Chris Cox (All-Star Superman, Gears of War 3, F.E.A.R. 3, Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Skylanders: Giants) and Erica Luttrell (The Magic School Bus, The New Ghostwriter Mysteries, Dave the Barbarian, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, The Death and Return of Superman and Magnum P.I.)

From the street thugs to the axe wielding lunatics, to the car chases; this truly embraces 70s exploitation so well. And yes Bronze Tiger does resemble Jim Kelly of Black Belt Jones, Black Samurai and Enter the Dragon. The funny part is Kelly Hu is reprising Shiva's voice. She voiced her originally in Batman: Arkham Origins as well as, Michael Jai White reprises Bronze Tiger of which he played live action in Arrow. Yes this was a fun flick, it's violent, good story and plenty of action.

 

Black Samuarai? Hell no. That's Bronze Tiger, baby.

 

The Crazies

Okay I'm back and yes we are finally on an outbreak movie. I just thought it was in poor taste to have done such last month. So as we are under quarantine we may as well get on with this so I went with a master of horror, George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Season of the Witch, Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, Creepshow, Day of the Dead and Monkey Shines) and naturally as this is one of his earlier films, we are back to Pennsylvania. This is The Crazies a.k.a. The Mad People and Code Name: Trixie

Virus can't touch you in flavor country.

Evans City has a crisis on its hands with a military plane downed in the mountains and its cargo leaks into the city's main water supply. DUN DUN DUN!!!! Oh you know the score here. Plausible deniability, military attempting to get a handle on it and it's gone completely pear shaped or tits up if you prefer. Naturally we discover our virulent affliction is man made, code name of Trixie. Nothing good with come of Trixie. Keep that in mind.

Firefighters David (Will MacMillan of The Enforcer Salvador, Bad Girls, NYPD Blue, Las Vegas, The West Wing, Raising the Bar and Jada) and Clank (Harold Wayne Jones of The Crazies, Knightriders, The Paper Chase, Fantasy Island, Hunter and Provoked) get the call to a blazing inferno formally a house as the husband/father killed his wife and set his house alight! Meanwhile, David's pregnant girlfriend Judy (Lane Carroll of Hercules in New York and The Crazies) is assisting Dr. Brookmyre (Will Disney of The Crazies) to the children of said arsonist. Shockingly enough, they suffered from some burns.

Clarice Starling?

A massive military police action with soldiers donning gas masks and hazmat suits are blocking the town. The obvious joke er um named officer in charge, Major Ryder (Harry Spillman of Dirtymouth,The Crazies, Born Again, All My Children, The Sex O' Clock and Comfortably Numb) uses the hospital as base command and they're here to help with the virus. They claim the virus either outright kills them or drives the subject completely bonkers.

Ryder's higher-up Colonel Peckem (Lloyd Hollar of The Crazies, Good Times, Siege, Lou Grant, The Jeffersons, Boardwalk, Rage of Angels and Kiss of Death) and his pet scientist Dr. Watts (Richard France of There's Always Vanilla, The Crazies, Dawn of the Dead, Vortex, Dreams Come True, The Sorrows of Dolores and Graveyard Shift) have an experimental cure they can unleash. I had to rewind to that scene because Dr. Watts is the same man that plan the scientists calling officials and journalists dummies in Dawn of the Dead. So yeah I missed that whole exposition plot dump due to laughing.

Dammit, left the coffee pot on.

With quarantine being issued about the town, the soldiers are doing house to house searches trying to help folk and have to shoot the loonies. It's part of the Midwest, how will you know the difference?

As a box office bomb, this film hit cult status with the VHS generation and well because the director is George A Romero.

Some fun film facts now!

Most of the bit characters including the white hazmat soldiers were paid local high school students.

The massive house fire was actually the local fire department destroying an abandoned house, so Romero and crew set up cameras and was allowed to film the whole event, creating a great effect on a ridiculously low budget.

Most of the screams, gunfire, soldier and townsfolk dialogue and sound effects had to be added in post-production ADR in Romero's basement of the Latent Image Studio.

It's eerie, relevant and frankly will ennerve the right folk like it was intended to do. Romero's concern about the control the government has over the country worried him constantly.

Because of its cult status, in 2010 a remake was released shot primarily in Lennox, Springwood Lake and Panorama Iowa. Thanks to TubiTV, I got to watch this and several other older horror films. A quick update for parents. The big spoiler is kids do get shot in this flick. I myself have no children but I am an uncle and it creeped me out.   So yes I give this spoiler out due to its disturbing aspect of the film.

And yes today's film has titty in it.  Sorry lady readers, the man children were going to ask me anyway.

Premarital sex?  Heavens!

Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread

Hey all. Back from my much requested "Outbreak" demands and I plan to review one tomorrow.

I am hoping it won't be insanely depressing. How about a karate film with a heroine up to her shapely hips in a gaggle of smugglers, gangsters and prostitutes? Now while that was setup sounds filthy as it was intended; it makes it no less accurate.  From the Dragon Princess and Sister Street Fighter, comes "Sue" Etsuko Shihomi back in action with the following sequel.  This is Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread a.k.a. Sister Street Fighter in Danger a.k.a. Female Killing Fist- Crisis Resolved a.k.a. Return of the Female Killing Fist a.k.a. Sister Streetfighter 2

Hey she took Elvis's shades!

Yes the multiple titles means several foreign re-releases from those 20 to 200 Karate movie packs so yes this could be a concern on the quality of the film. Let us not forget Dragon Princess and Sister Street Fighter are both in Public Domain so take your small comfort. Let's check this out, shall we?

We have our Toei Company logo of waves smacking the rocks below and right into a three minute fight choreography intro. This is not uncommon with the Karate and Kung Fu flicks of the 1970s. So we see Sue in full form, whipping nun-chucks and snap kicks looking fearless.

Etsuko Shihomi(The Street Fighter, Sister Street Fighter, Karate Inferno, The Great Chase, Bullet Train, Karate Bear Fighter, Return of the Sister Street Fighter, Dragon Princess and Sister Street Fighter: Fifth Level Fist) reprises her Koryu Li character in this sequel and this time around she searching for Birei (Hisako Tanaka of Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread and The Great Chase), a former schoolmate of Li's has gotten into trouble.

Her friend's uncle asks Koryu to look in on Birei because he is convinced she is mixed up with some shady cats and that's no good. It seems Birei was kidnapped by some gangsters. They specialize in smuggling and prostitution, so these guys are clearly easy going and fun loving. Oh wait; that's hippies and not gangsters. My apologies. They're hightailing it to Tokyo for their ill-gotten gains.

Not Sonny Chiba!

No sooner does Koryu get to Tokyo she has a turbulent taxi ride. Apparently the gang was ready for her. She defeats crooked Cabbie's Kung Fu in the train yard only to square off with a swarmy nun-chuck hitter and his ninja nerds four. Sorry but these guys don't exactly put the fear of God in you like the Hand via Daredevil, Iron Fist or The Defenders.

The fight choreography on the train tops was fun and clever and probably dangerous as Hell. While Koryu's Karate is true and solid, she needs to level up if she is to defeat the boss and his evil gang. The prostitute's hinders are being used to smuggle diamonds. Surgically implanted in their buttocks, not jammed up them.  Sheesh, you sickos.  One can only assume their man whores have to balloon black tar heroin or get it shoved into their collective wangs.

By the power of GRAYSKULL!!!

Koryu meets up with her sister, (Tamayo Mitsukawa of Hoshi no flamenco, Hibotan bakuto: Jingi tooshimasu, Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread and Kozure okami)Hakuran and tells her what is going on and sis won't have anything to do with it but offers her apartment for a place to crash while she is on vacation. Yet as Koryu sleeps, the bad guys send another assassin after her. Um they just follow her around Tokyo or is this gang that connected? Seriously, what kind of spotters and surveillance are they doing around town?

And she does team up but not with Sonny Chiba this time. I know, I thought it blasphemy as well.

Instead she has a questionable guy Tsubaki (Yasyaki Kurata of The Fists of Vengeance, The Godfather Squad, Fight! Dragon, Return of the Sister Street Fighter, Challenge Me Dragon and Secret of the Shaolin Poles) that has his own motives for assisting her.

This is standard martial arts exploitation 101, protagonist given a quest, fights a ton of bad guys, deals with the boss battle and saves the day.

As Koryu fends off each weapon bound nutter butter we get to find out each assailant's name and fighting style. That's handy when I need to pick them out in a line up for the cops. Yes officer, that man right there. He was using Korean Kung Fu. No doubt in my mind.

Biggest pet peeves is the storyline isn't anything really different or that clever and the fricking handheld camera work for most of the fight scenes gets a little nauseating. Not sure what veteran director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (Sister Street Fighter, Wolf Guy, Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bear Fighter, Karate Warriors, Return of the Sister Street Fighter) was thinking with all the handheld. Surely a crane shot or a dolly cam would have been reasonable. I am amazed I haven't had a migraine from this handheld nonsense.

The original poster was very misleading as Etsuko Shihomi is posed in shorty shorts and go-go boots. How dare you, movie poster!  Is it a decent follow-up from Sister Street Fighter?  Not really.  The story is lack luster, Etsuko is amazing as always but the fights drag on or are very abrupt. Tempo, movie tempo. The evil boss cackles way too often and his whole underworld connections tend to stand out in a crowd a bit too easily.  The way Koryu is able to track these guys down so quickly without resorting to Batman level of interrogation of thugs?  C'mon!

Here's hoping the next sequel is better. 

Shhh, Sue beefed.

Golgo 13

Back again boys and girls. Hold your applause. After the last night's viewing of Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, I was surprised to find out that it was in fact the sequel to the 1973 film. Now ordinarily I am aware of my detailed research of film facts but was stunned to find out Sonny Chiba filled in for a previous actor for the role. Meanwhile the manga and anime looks like Chiba only to now know that Ken Tarakura (The Yakuza and Black Rain) was the first man to handle the ArmaLite M-16. So with this revelation, I think it only appropriate to give the first film a viewing and see if the sequel surpassed it or at least, was equal to it. This is Golgo 13.

Hey! That's not Sonny Chiba!

 Now keep in mind the manga (Japanese comic or graphic novel) written and drawn by Takao Saito and first published in Shogakukan Big Comic Magazine has been in publication since 1968, making it the oldest manga still being produced. A quick bit of info. The code name of Golgo 13 for those that never have read the manga, Golgo is shorten from Golgotha, the place of Christ's crucifixion and referenced as the apostle Judas that hung the crown of thorns on Christ's brow. A bit dark I know.

Our anti-hero can handle a wide array of weapons such as: pistols, blades and his extensive martial arts. His specialty is a custom M16 rifle with scope where it is said, he never misses a target. So if you need his services typically you are looking a million dollars to peak his interest and best be wired to his Swiss bank account or half up front in cash.

An organization reaches out to Golgo to smoke a crime boss Boa (Ahmad Ghadakchian of The Hour of Calamity, Mirage, The Target, The Desire, The Red Line, Soil and Blood and The Escape), due to him and his chronies wiping out spies of various nations poking their noses in his business. With director of Bullet Train, Jun'ya Sato (The Private Police, Jitsuroku Shisetsu Ginza keisatsu, Manhunt, Never Give Up, G Men'82, Ku-kai and Lost in the Wilderness) this film proves he can do location, good blocking and create a complex story and appreciate the source material so far as to hire Takao Saito for the screenplay. Wise move.

Once again we are greeted with water crashing a beachhead with the Toei Company LTD logo proudly displayed. A common staple for this time. Right into a external night shot and THANK GOD not a Day for Night filter in sight! Praise God!

Our story starts in Tehran with a paranoid looking man, Evans (Ali Dehghan of A Man from the South of the City, In the Nick of Time, Entourage and Love and Violence) walking to an alley. Probably the last alley he will see. Methinks the white linen suit under the cover of dark might have pointed him out easily. With a gaggle of men pummeling the everloving crap out of this fellow, it is clear to even the most casual observer, that he is boned. After a mass beating, our white linen fellow bit off his own tongue to spare the secrets he had.

I brought a tiny man for our transaction. Is that weird?

 On to Beirut! With Evans gone; four men sent to the same assignment, all have turned up missing. Never a body to be found. After a heated debate and country borders as a problem, it is decided to just kill Boa rather than attempt another arrest. The call to Golgo 13 is out.

A teletype is going on as to establish Duke Togo's credibility, without knowledge of his birth place, nationality or even potential political ties. Seems dicey to me but hey, I'm not the guy hiring a hit man. A bit of subterfuge, Golgo sneaks in the hotel room these agents are housed in and makes sure they are on the up and up. Sneaky maneuver didn't endear him to everyone but the man is safety conscious and has made enough enemies over his tenure as a sniper, I don't blame him at all.

These Always commercials are confusing

Head of operations, Flanagan (Nosratallah Karimi of The Interim Husband, The Triple Bed, The Carriage Driver, Khane-kharab and The Uninvited Guest) tells Golgo why he is here and what the assignment is. Shockingly Boa is not an upstanding citizen but a trafficker of drugs, women and weapons. He is connected enough to have many subordinates posing as him, so Flanagan doesn't even know who the real Boa is. Should have watched a few minutes into the film, I could have told you. One more hurdle is Flanagan's secretary/agent is been dropped in Togo's lap. Now he has a babysitter Catherine (Pouri Baneai of The Black Suit Thief, Alley of Valiants, Golgo 13, Tovbekar, The Moon and a Mumur, Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident and Shirin) who is to take on the role of his wife as part of his cover. Apparently she is a full service girl. Um, I really don't know where to go from that, so new topic!

To add more salt to the wounds, an Inspector is trying to track down the missing girls, assumes Golgo is involved and keeps trying to arrest him.

We have car chases, gun fights, martial arts, a bit of nudity and a decent story. I would say that both this film and Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon is on par with each other. Ken and Sonny are both excellent for the cold calculating assassin and both exhibit some level of empathy that somehow hasn't been completely ebbed out of the soul of the character. Boa's men are thugs and sadists. Some delight at the opportunity to beat their victims, others are fair shots but most are just cannon fodder. With everyone wondering who is the real Max Boa, I say smoke them all and then trace phone calls.

Got to say I was impressed with the performance of this notorious assassin and Ken Takakura was pretty convincing as the cold blooded sniper.

Okay Rob Schneider, this is were you die!

Dragon Princess

Welcome back to the blog! So after the Giallo film, I felt a need for a change-up and decided I haven't had a martial arts film with a compelling story, a collection of characters and some serious fight scenes. So normally you think Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li on maybe some Donnie Yen. This time around however I am heading back to Sonny or Shin'ichi Chiba and his Sister Street Fighter co-star Su or Etsuko Shiomi. This is Sonny Chiba's Dragon Princess a.k.a. Assassin Woman's Fist a.k.a. Lady Karate a.k.a. Dragon Princess.

Yumi's first drag queen encounter.

Wouldn't be my blog without alternative titles. A quick side note before going into the film story. Dragon Princess part of a double feature billing via Grindhouse and Drive-in with another Sonny Chiba movie, Karate Warriors.

This film opens with the Karate master, Kazuma Higaki (Sonny Chiba of Street Fighter, Return of the Street Fighter, Sister Street Fighter, Karate Inferno, Karate Warriors, Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, The Bushido Blade, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2)arriving with his daughter finding his shrine and dojo completely thrashed. A rival member of the Karate school,Hironobu Nikaido (Bin Amatsu of the Ninja Hunt, The Magic Serpent, Samurai Wolf II, Gokudo, Blackmail Is My Life and Gangster Cop) decrees Kazuma is not worthy to be teacher, a fight ensues. Kazuma is clearly the superior fighter but Nikaido will win by any means necessary, including calling in three of his boys to assist. Most dishonorable. With four masters attacking Kazuma, expect these cameramen to earn their money! Not kidding, these guys were like a sadistic ballet, moving gracefully but full of rage and focus.

CHIBA!!!

They break out blades and start cutting him down by inches, damn near bleeding him out. Between adrenaline and the need to protect his daughter, Kazuma goes head on against them. These bastards go so far to threaten his daughter's life. With a commendable defense, the sheer numbers wear Kazuma down, they damage his hand so badly and cut out one of his eyes with a Kunai knife (a farming tool, throwing weapon/dagger). The guy was stabbed under the shoulder with a Katana, stabbed the hand with a Sai and had lost his eye to a Kunai knife and still standing. BADASS!

Leaving him a broken and bitter man, Higaki doesn't give back so much as a second glance.

Alive but crippled, our former Karate master takes and trains Yumi. Pity Yumi, for she will never know another life aside from her father's need for vengeance and she will be the instrument to carry it out. They have fled to Los Angeles to Rocky montage Yumi's training, building her skills, strength and stamina. Yumi (Su Shiomi of Sister Street Fighter, Return of the Street Fighter, Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread, The Great Chase, The Gorilla Seven, Return of the Sister Fighter, Karate Warriors, Hoero tekken and Fall Guy) is as trained and prepared as she can be.

Kazuma is on his death bed explaining that he asks Yumi to keep the corruption away from Karate and avenge them both. For her loss of a childhood and his crippling. This is spurred into action when Kazuma passes away. Yumi puts her plan into action and decides she will track these men down and show them the error of their ways.

Worry not my readers, for Master Nikaido is foremost master of being a complete cheat and utter dick wagon, as his thugs, "The Big Four" are sent out to dispatch the competition for impeding Karate tournament. Seriously this guy is lacking the armor but he is in full Shredder mode. This much dishonor, you would think his ancestors haunt him in the night and laugh at his tiny willy when he is in the shower or hitting the bathroom. Maybe he has an unlicensed, nuclear accelerator in his closet.

Yumi returns to Tokyo, a land she has not been in since a child to her grandfather. Grandpa while not creepy like say; the one from Silent Night, Deadly Night does cast a lot of shade on Yumi's dead father and how he left so soon after the death of her mother. Personally I think he just needed to vent his spleen a bit. Still bad form, Grandpa.

Yumi's job been made that much more easier as she follows these asshats to get not only revenge for her father but to deal a blow to Master Nikaido's plans. Twofer!

Pirate Chiba!!!

Yumi isn't the only one on a path for vengeance. She is joined by Masahiko Okizaki (Yasuaki Kurata of The Fists of Vegeance, Fists of Revenge, The Godfather Squad, The Golden Triangle, Young Hero of Shaolin, The Legend of the Owl and Blood, the Last Vampire), who was also a target for the competition, he and his bad ass mullet don't take prisoners nor BS lightly.

Another quick bit of trivia for the New Yorkers, this was double billed with Karate Warriors on 42^nd Street Marquee in 1976 before its massive makeover in the early 2000s

Now we can easily argue this is yet another Karate/Kung Fu/Taekwondo revenge story but there is some heart to go with the action, Su is damn impressive as a martial artist and okay that piggy portion of me is enjoying seeing her in pigtails (WHAT OF IT??!!) but unlike most of these films, it is usually a son or elder male student avenging the fallen master, not a young woman let alone the daughter of said Sensei. That you find more popular in Manga or Anime but not so much the live action films.

From this and a TV pilot, Su and Sonny went on to doing more films giving her international stardom. I look forward to finding some more of Sue Shihomi's later hits. I did enjoy this one.

Unfortunately, I found my version in Public Domain and it is clearly a straight VHS to DVD transfer with piss poor rendering. 

Master Raiden...you're female now. K.