Shanghaï Joe

In 1882, spunky Chinese man Shanghai Joe hops atop a stagecoach from San Francisco (subtitle says St. Francisco!) to Texas in order to become a cowboy and ends up having to defend himself against a seemingly endless stream of trash-talking rednecks.

Soon Joe runs afoul of a group of nasty human smugglers who send four colorful hired killers to do him in, including Gordon Mitchell, a cannibal, and scalp-collector Klaus Kinski!

Coming out on the heels of the hit television show "Kung Fu", The Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe is a lot better than it's Italian knock-off status would suggest.

It's almost all non-stop action with loads of flying fists and flying lead. Blood, a bit of gore, and a great Ennio Morricone sounding score by Bruno Nicolai all fit the comic book nature of the film quite nicely!

In the title role, Chen Lee is really good and should have been in more movies than he was.

Shanghai Joe is a Chinese martial arts master who somehow finds himself in the racist Old West. Of course, Joe is pushed to his breaking point by them racist white folk, so he starts kicking honky ass left and right. Fast-paced and incredibly violent, 'The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe' is the kind of mindless entertainment that Spaghetti Western fans love. Klaus Kinski shows up to get his ass handed to him and add some star power to the proceedings...well, star power in our minds. Bruno Nicolai rips off his score to 'Have a Good Funeral, My Friend' but it's so good you won't care.

Shanghai Joe is just a regular Chinese guy who has moved to America to get a good job and live the dream. Sadly for Joe everyone he comes across is a racist moron who don't want Joe to get anywhere. Sadly for them Joe tends to lose his rag and beat everyone who crosses him into submission.

This film is a lot of fun. A lot of fun. For the first half of the film Joe just goes from job to job being harassed and doling out justice, but then he crosses the wrong guy (a slave trader) and from then on the heat is on, in the form of ugly Gordon Mitchell and uglier Klaus Kinski! Basically just one action set piece after another, this film does not disappoint. Its a nice merging of spaghetti western and martial arts and Mario Caiano isn't daft, as he gives us loads of both in an overtly violent way.

Honestly, for a spaghetti western this one is really high on violence. Wrists are broken and bones protrude, folk are drowned in boiling water, hands are cut off, torsos punctured by fists and Joe even manually removes a guy's eyeball! Entertaining stuff.

I had this in my collection for years and now wish I'd watched it sooner. It's on YouTube if you don't own it.

Also - Joe screams Eeeeeaaaaeeaagh before braining someone. Watch out for that.

(54%) A film that shows "good" old boy cowboys in maybe the worst light possible as nearly every person featured bar a few Mexican characters are portrayed as huge and total b#stards. The guy that carts main character Joe to Texas is a git, the barman he meets is a turd, while everyone else is if anything even worse. This may not look up to much on the outset, but for a lowish budgeted 70's martial arts spaghetti western hybrid I enjoyed its simple charm. This is a little rough around the edges, though it moves along at a good pace with never really a dull moment throughout. There's plenty of fights, lots bad guys getting what they deserve, a sweet romantic sub-plot, and best of all: it's fun to watch.

Minor, enjoyable and surprisingly violent Spaghetti Western, one of a clutch of such efforts embellished with an Oriental touch in the form of a martial-arts exponent hero (as can be gathered from the title). The film was enough of a success to boast a sequel – THE RETURN OF SHANGAI JOE (1975).

Chen Lee is the typical meek Oriental who becomes deadly when provoked; we're given plenty of opportunity to see him at work here, particularly after he falls foul of a slave trader. The latter despatches four ruthless assassins to exterminate the Chinaman – three of whom are played by well-known actors and popular Euro-Cult figures of the era: Gordon Mitchell, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart and Klaus Kinski, the other by Robert Hundar (ill-fated hero of CUT-THROATS NINE [1972], which actually preceded this viewing!). Kinski receives second-billing but his contribution lasts all of 7 minutes (and he only turns up 68 minutes into the film!).

Eventually, we learn that the title character is one of only two masters of a specific martial arts technique – so, naturally, the boss eventually calls on his equal to fight the hero! The most violent moments occur when Joe gouges the eye of one of the hired killers – a scene which surely must have inspired Quentin Tarantino for his KILL BILL (2003/4) saga – and the confrontation between the two Orientals, which involves dismembered limbs and busted torsos! As usual for films of this genre, the music score is a notable asset which is here provided by Bruno Nicolai.