Manchurian Avenger

My review was written in April 1985 after a Times Square screening.

The 1985 return of theatrical Western releases begins inauspiciously with the goofy "Manchurian avenger", a martial arts cheapie shot in Colorado two years ago.

Bobby Kim, a diminutive, craggy-faced type, toplines as Joe, returning to his hometown to avenge the mureder of his father many years ago. Racism is rampant there, with both orientals and Mexicans victimized (there are no Indians in this picture).

With everyone trying to find some hidden gold, Joe protects an attractive young woman Booyong (Leila Hee) and teams up with the kindly bartender Harry (Bob Coulson) and outlaw Diego (Michael Stuart) to fight the evil Cheng (Y. Tsuchimoto) and his many henchmen.

Hurt by choppy editing (there apparently wasn't enough coverage of transition footage shot), pic becomes absurd during the frequent chop-socky scenes, in which it is contrived (unbelievably) that Kim can kick any number of baddies before they shoot him down with pistols or rifles. Second-billed martial arts champ, Bill (Superfoot) Wallace has no dialog and little screen time to demonstrate his own fancy footwork.

Rich Lerner's auburn-filtered visuals occasionally suggest a period look, but over-reliance by director Ed Warnick on wide angle and lwo angle shots is distracting and amateurish. Acting is weak, with everybody having different sorts of accents and Michael Stuart extremely hammy as a stereotyped Mexican bandito.

Final reel attempt at mystical fantasy (Cheng conjuring up the wind machine with hand gestures and Kamikaze disappearing after his defeat in a cloud of smoke) is pointless and lacks special effects.

Manchurian Avenger is a great little low budget kung-fu Western.. This movie has some fun one liners with a quirky cast of misfits and of course Bobby Kim.. made in Colorado in 1985 this film has a unique character that I couldn't help to love..

1982 is correct. I worked on the film. My family were extras and I worked as a 'gopher'. We were lucky enough to spend some time with a number of the actors. They were a great bunch to work with. It's a shame that the quality of the film is so poor, and I agree that it could have been a decent movie. The movie was filmed in Fairplay, Colorado in the museum, which is actually part of the original town. (Burro races are held annually there, by the way) Many of the townspeople were hired as extras as well. Bobby Kim was a very quiet man, but Cy and Gary were a hoot and Bill Wallace was incredible to watch work out at the high school's gym.

I had the chance to watch a newly released, digitally revamped version of this movie. The quality was excellent and the movie is very entertaining. The guy who had the movie said they are actually re-releasing the movie in this new digital format within the next couple months for DVDs. This movie reminds me of an older version of Shanghi Knights, i actually think they could have taking the idea from this movie and just updated it, of course with higher paid actors. There are some great action scenes and the lead Bobby Kim has some sick moves. I would look for this new version because it was definitely worth watching.

Just saw what I was told is a new release DVD of this action/adventure film that starred Bobby Kim and Superfoot Wallace. I recall "Superfoot" was the world champion full contact champ and Kim is a Tae Kwon Do master I have seen in other films. Good martial arts and some funny stuff from Diego who had to be the best bandit since Eli Wallach in Good, Bad and Ugly. The villain, who is threatening the hero's family has many, many henchmen that keep arriving and must be dispatched. Villain also has power over the wind and can summon supernatural fighters against Kim. Leila Hee is very beautiful as the damsel in distress and the scenery and sets are terrific. Pretty good for this genre and entertaining.