La sombra del judoka contra el doctor Wong

La Sombra del Judoka Contra el doctor Wong, which is translated on my copy as The Shadow of Judo Verses Doctor Wong is prolific director Jesus Franco's late (1985) entry in the Bruce Lee exploitation market.

The plot has an Interpol agent named (what else?) Bruce trying to break up the drug exporting ring of Doctor Wong, a Fu Manchu style villain. In addition, the film throws in two CIA agents (one of them played by Lina Romay), a villainess named Small Eyes, who of course falls for Bruce, and some female martial artist barely glimpsed in a couple of scenes. This footage may have been taken from another film. It certainly has little bearing on any of the plot in this film.

I am sure some Franco fans will find some connection to other Jesus Franco films, but I can only go by what I see on my, admittedly, subpar copy. This martial arts movie has almost no martial arts. Characters drop in and out of the film at random. An Asian villain (played by Franco himself) goes on and on about his Oriental Wisdom without looking in any way shape or form Asian. Finally, the film is agonizingly tedious in the way that only carelessly slapped together films can be.

I read an interview with one of Jesus Franco's producers. He said he once caught Franco diverting some of the production money to make another film. When caught, Franco said he would give the producer the second film. The one catch, the producer noted, was that, "the film you get free from Franco is always lousy." I sure hope The Shadow of Judo Verses Doctor Wong was a freebie!