Asia-Pol/Comments
From The Grindhouse Cinema Database
< Asia-PolRevision as of 11:54, 18 March 2009 by PopeyePete (talk | contribs) (New page: * Jimmy Wang Yu, with both hands still intact, stars as a secret agent in this highly entertaining camp adventure. His mission is to take down an organization smuggling gold from Hong Kong...)
Revision as of 11:54, 18 March 2009 by PopeyePete (talk | contribs) (New page: * Jimmy Wang Yu, with both hands still intact, stars as a secret agent in this highly entertaining camp adventure. His mission is to take down an organization smuggling gold from Hong Kong...)
- Jimmy Wang Yu, with both hands still intact, stars as a secret agent in this highly entertaining camp adventure. His mission is to take down an organization smuggling gold from Hong Kong to Japan. Taking place in both countries the film features a great multinational cast. The most notable actor aside Wang Yu is the legendary Japanese action star Jo Shishido as the head of the crime organization. Obviously a lot of influences have been taken from Nikkatsu’s stylish action and yakuza films. This is only natural as the pic is, in fact, a co-production between the Shaw Brothers and Nikkatsu studios, with most of the crew being Japanese. A lot has also been borrowed from the James Bond films. The sunsets, casinos, gadgets and femme fatales are all included. The storyline doesn’t always make perfect sense (perhaps because they originally made two versions of the film, one for Chinese market, and another one, with Shishido in the lead, for the Japanese audiences!!!) but that shouldn’t bother anyone. Wang Yu, playing a Japanese character for once (instead of beating them to death as usual) is perfect in the lead role. Also notice that despite the seemingly obvious connection to You Only Live Twice (1967) Asia-Pol was made already before. The Hong Kong release was in summer 1967, but the Japanese audiences saw the film already in 1966. --HungFist
