Bullet Points: Sun Dragon
Location, Location, Location. The three most important attributes in the real estate game and a vital part to any movie.
1979’s Sun Dragon, starring Billy Chong and Carl Scott, immediately felt different than any other old school kung fu flick I have covered on the site, simply because the movie was shot in Arizona…
- Coming to America: Shao Chong (Billy Chong, Kung Fu Executioner) finds himself in Arizona after a brouhaha involving the mayor’s son back in his hometown in China, forced Shao to leave. The plan is for Shao to live with his grandfather in the United States, but when that doesn’t pan out Shao ends up in a mill town where he bumps into an old friend who had made his way to the United States years earlier, Ah Kum. Shao Chong also gets into it with some tough guys/bullies who run a fight ring of sorts in town. Shao Chong shows them up, kicks some serious ass and becomes an instant hero in town… and also makes some instant enemies.
- Down on the Farm: Tom (Carl Scott, Soul Brothers of Kung Fu) lived on his family’s farm, not too terribly far from the mill town where Shao Chong has become a hero. Notice how I said LIVED as in past tense… that is because three thieves on the run looking to lay low for a while happened upon the farm house that Tom and his family called home. The alpha male of the trio was a guy named Jimmy. Jimmy offered to buy the farm from Tom’s father but Tom’s father refused to sell. The thieving threesome would go with Plan B and take the home by force… killing Tom’s parents and brother in the process. Tom was wounded, but his mother’s last words saved him when she told him to run… and run Tom did, all the way to the mill town. Where he was found by Shao Chong and Ah Kum, outside the saloon that Ah Kum worked at.
- Doctor Feelgood: Ah Kum and Shao Chong take Tom to the town’s doctor, Dr. Ko. Ko uses some unorthodox methods to get Tom healthy again, but one can’t argue with the results. Once Tom is completely healed from the beating he took at the hand of Jimmy and his two cohorts, Dr. Ko ends up teaching Tom some Shaolin style kung fu after he learns about what happened to Tom’s family. Our hero Shao Chong agrees to help Tom exact his revenge on the three men who killed Tom’s family… even though Shao Chong has his own list of enemies to deal with at that point. Which brings me to my next bullet point…
- Less is More: There were times I was all in on Sun Dragon and there were times I was lost. The disconnect was thanks in part to a bunch of indistinguishable bad guys, who all seemed to have their own agenda and weren’t necessarily tied in to our main villain Jimmy (Louis Neglia). I imagine this was done for two reasons… to get over that things were rough in the wild west and to jam as many fight scenes into the movie as possible. I am not going to complain about a kung fu movie having too many fight scenes, but I would have liked a little more structure where the forces of evil are concerned. It would have made Shao Chong and Tom’s final battle with Jimmy mean more and not make that fight seem like just another fight in a movie filled with fights.
I was happy to see that Carl Scott’s character managed to make it to the end of the film (unlike his disappointing early exit in Soul Brothers of Kung Fu). But in my opinion there was not enough interaction with Billy Chong and Carl Scott through out the film… which could have been easily achieved if it was Shao Chong who taught Tom to fight instead of Dr. Ko… Ko did his part, he nursed Tom back to health. After that we really didn’t need to see Dr. Ko anymore.
One thing I do think we really need to see… some Bonus Bullet Points!
- AKA: Sun Dragon is also known as A Hard Way to Die.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Billy Chong shoot a billiard ball into a man’s mouth, then Sun Dragon is the movie for you.
- Memorable Quote: “You dare to mess around with a girl in broad daylight!?”
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Billy Chong put a man to sleep by reading to him, then Sun Dragon is the movie for you.
