A Man Called Tiger (1973) A Vanity Project that lives up to the Hype? (Review)

In 1970 two former Shaw Brothers executives, Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho, started their own production company – Golden Harvest. While their early films were reasonably successful, it wasn’t until a certain Bruce Lee released The Big Boss that the studio was really put on the map. In a weird way, they had their former employers to thank for this golden goose as, shortly before he signed with Golden Harvest, Bruce Lee had turned down an offer with Shaw Brothers due to them only offering him a standard (i.e. minimum wage) contract. 

The rise of Golden Harvest changed everything, and in a little over a decade they would become the dominant production company in Hong Kong, soon outshining their main rival – a company that had been stuck in time since the early ’70s. Before any of that would play out though, and right at the height of Bruce Lee Mania, Golden Harvest managed to get another star involved – one that had helped make Shaw Brothers who they were at the time. This man not only changed the fate of a company, but redefined an entire genre – only to do reinvent again it just a few years later. His name was Jimmy Wang Yu and despite having spent a few years in the Taiwanese wilderness, he was back and he was about to unleash HELL.

Alright, so maybe “HELL” is the wrong word, but having spent time away from the shores of Hong Kong, making classy features like Zatoichi Vs The One-Armed Swordsman (1971), which is a wonderful movie where both Shintaro Katsu and Jimmy Wang Yu come out looking brilliant, despite the dangers of it being just another cash grab crossover. During that time he also made his own take on the singular limbed hero in The One-Armed Boxer (1972), but his return to Hong Kong was his chance to show that he was versatile and hip to modern pictures. Of course, thanks to Bruce Lee there was no longer a need to wear a wig and fly around the screen with a sword – these were modern times and he was just the kind of man to embrace them.

A Man Called Tiger is one of those movies that feels like a bit of a vanity project, but also manages to live up to its hype. Jimmy Wang Yu plays Chin Fu and he’s Chinese – which we know because he tells the audience several times throughout the opening segments, in between kicking in heads and taking names. Now that might seem over-exaggerated because it is, but what an opening it is too. There’s no context as to why he’s doing what he’s doing, but he’s doing it anyway, and damn, does he looks fine doing it (even if he does look like a twelve year old boy). Things soon settle down and an actual plot becomes clear, one that takes our penniless Chin Fu and has him rise through the ranks of the Japanese underworld. Along the way he meets a singer in search of his father, a former acquaintance from China who owes money to Chin Fu’s employer, and a landlady that … well, let’s just say she thinks quite a lot of our baby faced hero (and she’s not the only one, not by a long shot).

I think it was Quentin Tarantino who said something recently about how nowadays plots are based on premises, but many movies from the ’50s to the ’80s let the plot unfold in front of the audience, never being sure quite where the story would go next. A Man Called Tiger absolutely falls into that latter category, and with everything from fights with rival gangs to what can only be described as “Dice-Fu”, it weaves a lot of different threads into a wonderfully bizarre tapestry that should be hideous, but somehow manages to be a beautiful mess.

Eureka Entertainment once again deliver the goods as the picture quality is quite excellent, and it has extra features aplenty – including another wonderful commentary from Frank Djeng. If there was one complaint, the copy I received seemed to have some sound issues, but I’m sure that they will either be sorted by the time it’s released, or these were the materials they were handed and they did the best they could. Either way, it does need to be made clear at this point as that was what was heard.

Still, even with some sound issues A Man Called Tiger is a Friday night type movie, one that could be put on with a beer and a pizza and let the worries of the world wash away. Who doesn’t need a bit of that in their lives?

Ben’s Archive – A Man Called Tiger (1973)