He Lan Du ren tou

Atrociously unwatchable martial arts mishmash about rival gangs of Hong Kong criminals operating in Amsterdam. Two of their members get into a fierce competition because they want the same woman, but later they join forces when they discover that their bosses have betrayed them. "The Amsterdam Connection" escapes the lowest possible rating only thanks to a few decent fight scenes, and to the location shooting in Amsterdam and, later, Paris. Apparently most of the production money went there, and everybody forgot to commission a script! The dubbing is terrible and there are stolen parts from the "Rocky", "Once Upon A Time In The West", etc. music scores on the soundtrack. Bolo Yeung has a secondary role, and is only involved in the last fight. He also suffers from the worst dubbing in the film. Apart from the novelty of seeing him fight with the Eiffel Tower and the Sequana river as backgrounds, this film should be avoided at all costs.

It opens with Bolo and Jason exchanging techniques at a martial arts school. The opening credits take us to the Netherlands. Enjoy the scenery because that's about the only entertainment value of this stinker. These "European Vacation" movies were popular in this genre during the 1970s. I can't think of a single one that was not a stinker. The typical reason was forgetting to pack a script. This one must have had a script because all they do is talk for the first 40 minutes. The gratuitous nudity can be found at about 26 minutes. The first fight is a typical brawl like thousands of others. The second is another but indoors. The third returns outdoors. If you have seen one you have seen them all.

The scene then goes to Paris. After a few views of the city our guys end up on the quai de la Tournelle area across the river from Notre Dame. This was where Duncan McCleod parked his barge in the "Highlander" television series. Instead of a barge there was a pile of bricks dropped there when this was filmed. Bolo fights first but as we all know, Bolo always loses.

Why does it seem the worse the movie the better the available copy? My copy is a digital file that plays as wide screen and is English dubbed. The quality is as good as DVD but not Bluray.