Bullet Points: Duel of the Tough
If you went by the opening credits of 1981’s Duel of the Tough, you wouldn’t think that Mike Wong was the star of the movie. But upon watching the movie you will clearly see that Mike Wong is in fact the star and a star with quite the head of hair on him. Is it Mike Wong’s real hair? Or is he wearing a wig? Thinking about that was part of the fun of watching Duel of the Tough…
- Tough Day at the Office: As the movie begins a Buddhist monk is traveling with some newly obtained scrolls he received from the monks at the Shaolin Temple… so it is more than a little curious when a group of toughs claiming to be disciples of Shaolin demand he turn over the scrolls. The impostors get the scrolls and the Buddhist monk finds himself running for his life and that’s when he happens upon a young Cantonese man name Wong (Mike Wong), who operates a ferry.
- Do Pay the Ferryman: The monk desperately runs into the water to catch up to the ferry as Wong was in the midst of transporting Chin (an obvious woman, who for the first chunk of the movie everyone believes is a man because she is wearing a hat) across the river. Wong helps the monk and when he hears the monk’s story, Wong makes it his business to recover the stolen scrolls for the monk, who at that point honestly believed he was double crossed by the Shaolin Temple, which is as unbelievable as anyone not realizing Chin (Carrie Lee Ying-Ying) was a woman, but Wong believes it too and plans on sneaking into the Shaolin Temple and ripping them off.
- Shaolin Temple Blues: Wong does as he planned getting his bell run in the process and sporting his white outfit with thin black stripes on the sleeves and pant legs. If there was ever a Mike Wong figure this is the outfit I’d want him to be wearing. One of the Shaolin monks catches Wong in the act and if one monk wasn’t enough, Wong soon finds himself at odds with an army of Shaolin monks until the Abbot shows up and clears up the whole mess, deducing it was former disgruntled monk Dai-Kang that orchestrated the stealing of the scriptures. The Abbot admires Wong’s desire to regain the scriptures and take out Dai-Kang, however the Abbot doesn’t feel Wong would stand a chance against Dai-Kang in a fight… since his own men failed at the task years ago. There’s no stopping Wong however who responds to the Abbot’s concerns with the line “Death is my destiny” and he gets going…
- When The Going Gets Tough: Bruce Cheung played the aforementioned main villain in the movie Dai-Kang. When Dai-Kang learns from his mole at the Shaolin Temple that the young Cantonese man, Wong, is on the way, he first kills the messenger (literally) then calls his inner circle together to delegate the task of taking out Wong to them since Wong is beneath him and not worth soiling his hands over. Dai-Kang’s inner circle, including his own daughter, guarantee that there’s no way Wong will accomplish his mission since he will have to pass through all their territories before he could even attempt the impossible and challenge Dai-Kang.
- Shakira Shakira: Chin, the women in disguise, finds herself in a fight at a restaurant and then crossing paths with Wong again, who is dealing with his first batch of Dai-Kang goons. The two make a good combination and Wong thinks they could become good friends. Chin isn’t interested at first but when they cross paths yet again, Chin finally relents and they become travel buddies. Wong can’t help but notice the way Chin’s hips sway when she climbs a hill… the hat might have fooled him, but the hips don’t lie! Chin has no choice to reveal her true identity now and we find out that Dai-Kang killed her entire family and that she is out for revenge… but then Chin disappears and this is when the movie goes off the rails.
- Expect the Unexpected: Wong looking for Chin, finds some “damsels in distress” who are in reality a trap set up by Dai-Kang’s daughter and her camp of beauties. To reward Wong for saving him, the ladies prepare a bath for Wong with the intention that this will be the last bath he ever takes courtesy of a booby trapped bath tub! Wong manages to outsmart the trap and eventually escapes, but not unscathed… This is about the point where Wong gets a wardrobe change that is an inverse of the outfit I described earlier. If Mike Wong ever had an action figure the black outfit with white stripes on the sleeves and pant legs would be the chase variant… Chin is back in the picture yet again and nurses the wounded Wong back to health. This is followed by a training montage and then once it looks like we are heading for the final showdown, Chin throws a monkey wrench in everything when she declares she doesn’t want to avenge her family anymore since she will surely die in the process. Chin, who didn’t even want to walk with Wong a few days ago, is now madly in love with him and wants to have his babies. Chin then proceeds to fuck all the power out of Wong’s body so now it appears that he won’t be able to fight Dai-Kang either… I did not see that coming. The next morning Wong pleads with Chin to give him his power back, arguing that he wants to keep his promise to the monk and regain the scriptures, but then he throws in a line about clearing his family’s name too, which was never addressed prior to that moment.
- Tuff Enuff: Cue the spaghetti western music because Chin gave Wong his power back and he is now on Dai-Kang’s doorstep first facing Dai-Kang’s right hand man, then some flying shrieking snakes and a foursome of goons in the dark, before FINALLY battling Dai-Kang himself (with some help from Chin, who obviously wanted to make sure her future baby’s daddy made it back alive)
Wow… I have talked in the past about watching a steady stream of these Kung Fu Theater classics on the regular (thanks Tubi!) and how it takes a really special one to stand out from the pack and Duel of the Tough is something special in my book, capturing just about everything that made the Kung Fu movies from the late 70s and early 80s so great.
Mike Wong (aka Mike Wong Lung or Wang Ryong) is tremendous here and it was nice to see him in his more natural state and not dressed up as an old man, a drunk or a drunk old man. Wong brings the personality and fighting skills that is essential in a movie like this and he really deserves top billing so he gets the credit he deserves for his work in this movie.
And for making it all the way to the end of this review you deserve these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Favorite Insult: “You bucket of bullshit!” – Dai-Kang
- AKA: Duel of the Tough is also known by the title Duel of Tao Toughs and Emperor of Kung Fu.
- Bastard Count: I counted a total of nine bastards in the movie, two of which were back to back.
