Low Blow

Leo Fong returns for more!

As stated in the last entry, Director Frank Harris started his career as movie maker with Kill Point in 1984, and for a first timer that movie was not what you could define as a must watch action packed flick but, as with his characters, Harris didn't give up so easily, so he went for another round of action packed movies and in 1986 he returned to join forces with Leo Fong to give us a Low Blow. 

So, the story leads us to our man, a guy by the name of Joe Wong (Leo Fong your n°1 guy) is a private investigator, and he has a unique way of doing his job. He's behind on all his bills, his office is a pig sty, and all he really wants to do is go to his favorite eatery and have some chicken feet soup. He and his perky partner Diane (Stevenett) are barely staying afloat. One day John Templeton (Donahue), walks into Wong's office and hires him to find his daughter Karen (Bowling) who has gone missing. Despite Wong's warning that he "is expensive", much like Rod Armstrong, Donahue gives him the money and Wong is on his way.

It turns out Karen has been brainwashed by the “Universal Enlightenment cult” and is spending most days farming at their compound called Unity Village. The leader of this mysterious cult is one Yarakunda (Mitchell) and his "sister-wife" Karma (Busia). Since this secretive organization doesn't take kindly to outsiders, meaning there are plenty of armed guards, Wong goes to the local pit fighting circuit to hire some recruits to help him invade the cult and save Karen. Of all the ninjas, women, Chicanos and fat guys that all fight each other, he chooses a guy named Fuzzy  and some others and then they all go to complete the mission. Using just their martial arts abilities and their wiles, will they succeed?  Here the usual gang of troublemakers, reunite once more for another round of wacky, dumb fun. Despite the common low-budget pitfalls of bad film quality, choppy editing, and major issues with what must have been a script at one point, Low Blow remains "Low Brow" entertainment. Fong plays the goofy P.I. with some serious car troubles with nothing but flatly delivered catchphrases.

Action never fails!

Our Lady.

Cool Sith Lord.

Our hero.

The main issue of Low Blow is you can't hear anything. The sound quality is so amazingly bad, the entire movie is unhearable. It doesn't help that Fong never speaks above a whisper, and he has some accent. But what we could hear is funny. And when he's attacking the bad guys' car with a chainsaw, he always remembers his safety goggles. Cameron Mitchell, as the Jonestown-inspired guru, wearing a black hooded cloak and sunglasses, never stands up in the movie and appears drunk. It's a more laid-back Cam performance, especially in comparison to his bad guy role in Killpoint. Also as counterpoint to Killpoint, Stack Pierce here is fairly underused as Corky. Yes, his name is Corky. But we can't forget an early appearance of Billy Blanks as a camp guard that fights Joe Wong. Unfortunately, the climax of the movie takes place at night and the filmmakers forgot to turn on any lights, so we can't see what transpires very well.The introduction of the punch/pit fighting adds a lot of color and flavor to the proceedings, and the addition of Fuzzy to the national consciousness was surely a good thing, though he lacks the joie de vivre of a Jack S. Daniels or a Bear.

Hurricane Kick!

Finish Him!

Sponsored by Adidas.

Anti-stress action!

Sonya Blade?

Who's yo daddy?

Also of note is the pretty cool piece of artwork they did for the movie poster, but, this person you see is not in the film. They invented him for the VHS box art. What, was a picture of Leo Fong not good enough? That's shameful. But at least we can now see what it would look like if your fist was basically the size of your head.Yes, the movie is inept on almost every level, and the attempts at humor are...attempts at humor, but Low Blow proves ineptness isn't always a bad thing - it can be pretty entertaining if you are in the right mood. 'Blow isn't as bad as some say it is (although some technical aspects certainly are, but so what).

If you need more Fong in your life, a good place to continue your obsession would be Low Blow. 

Here's the movie trailer:

Our hero and his rage against a car:

Leo Fong's Fatality!

Where to find such gems? easy! they have been made available on the recently released "Explosive Cinema" 12 movie pack by Millcreek Entertainment.