Xue yu

I have to say I know of lots of Kung Fu Cult films and I've never even heard of this one until RARESCOPE bought it from the star/producer of Along Comes a Tiger, Wang Tao! It is a remake of the classic western "Once Upon a Time in the West" and features several of the same elements but overall it very unique. It features lots of fights at breakneck speeds. Some of the other HK legends in the film include Philip Ko and Tung Wei (the famous "Kick Me" kid from Enter the Dragon). Another element I liked was the fact that Wang Tao's character Sacred Cloud didn't speak at all (so you don't have to worry about the usual "You killed my father prepare to die!"). Overall I felt Along Comes a Tiger doesn't follow the usual formula of Chop Socky films and proves to be a diamond in the rough. TWO THUMBS WAY UP!

Make sure to buy the RARESCOPE DVD release that features a commentary and several other special features, including an anamorphic widescreen presentation.

The movie starts with minimal dialog. A young boy tries to keep his father from hanging but he is too small. He grows up quickly to be Don Wong, the strong silent type. The bad guy enters, tosses children around and kills men with one strike. Until he meets Don, that is. The chief of the Black Dragon Sect is not pleased.

To the casino, where children can watch at the dice table, along with Don. Some guy enters and the casino closes. Doris is warned that a man is after her. Next is a weird scene with girls and fuzzy fans dancing. The kid from the casino follows Don. The smoker from the casino tells Don they have a common enemy. Don is still not speaking. Doris fights him with her fuzzy feather fans. She never had a chance to win then she kills herself and there is no explanation.

Smoker offers to take over the business of killing. The kid urges Don not to kill anymore and wants to learn kung fu. Before smoker is killed, he tells Don he was sent by the government to kill the Black Dragon clan and urges Don to continue the mission.

I think I first watched this movie back in 2013. I wrote a review in 2016 but failed to post it here for reasons unknown. I have the Rarescope DVD and another copy as a digital file that plays with English dub and hard coded English subtitles in a widescreen (yet seems a tad small) format.

Another reviewer here mentioned the DVD has an audio commentary. I doubt I listened to that commentary the other times I watched this movie. So now I have something to do!. First, I finish here by rating this movie just average for the year and genre and can recommend it only for hard core fans.

Produced by star Wong Tao and his father, Along Comes The Tiger is their tribute to Sergio Leone's infamous Once Upon A Time In The West. Wong's father had actually been quite a popular actor in Italian cinema from the 1960's through to the 80's, as well as starring in a number of Chinese productions, so I guess his love of Italian movies was a big influence in getting this going.

While Wu Ma has never been the strongest director, he still delivers a decent kung-fu adventure (or should I say Western?), that hardly wow's at all, but still entertains as it borrows a few elements from its Italian counterpart, but still provides enough of its own ideas to keep things different!

As a big fan of Wong Tao, I found it cool that his character didn't speak, allowing for a new approach from his usual chop-socky roles and creating a more, mysterious hero. He gets to trade kicks with a young Philip Ko (in his 17th movie of that year), and teams up with famed HK fight director, Stephen Tung Wei, to take on a number of interesting adversaries.

The fights in Along Comes The Tiger are directed by the fantastic Tommy Lee who worked with Wong Tao on the classic, Secret Rivals, Eagles Claw, and The Hot, The Cool & The Vicious. While they certainly aren't his best, they still entertain and have some great moves from Tao especially, with director Wu Ma getting in on the action in a one-on-one with our silent hero...

At the end of the day, this is a film about revenge, leading to a nice and lengthy one-on-one between Tao and Tommy Lee!

Overall: A good cast and decent fights make this an above average flick that's worth at least one watch!

ALONG COMES THE TIGER is a sprawling, low rent martial arts epic from Taiwan, starring the one and only Don Wong (aka Wong Tao). I had no idea that Wong's father, George Wang, was an actor in Italian cinema, an experience which gave him some love and knowledge of spaghetti films which by all accounts is why he produced this movie, conceived as a loose remake of the Sergio Leone western classic ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

Sadly the similarities between the two films are very few and sometimes it feels like ALONG COMES THE TIGER doesn't have a plot at all. It just kind of ambles along, introducing lots of different characters and having them either team up or fight to the death. The direction was by popular Hong Kong personality Wu Ma, who also cameos, but it's not one of his better efforts. I've never really warmed to Don Wong as an actor or martial artist and he doesn't shine here either.

The movie features Phillip Ko in an early role before it moves on to various shenanigans surrounding a corrupt casino run by a pack of murderous female fighters. Their fighting styles involves some weird pom-pom/fan hybrids which have to be seen to be believed. It's a very cheap film with a lot of wandering around in the dusty countryside and some annoying humour from an annoying kid. Wong plays a mute character so at least you don't have to worry about his bad dubbing. The fights are unspectacular and the film as a whole rather forgettable.