Dragon's Infernal Showdown (1986)

Dragon's Showdown
The Yong-Gwon Martial Arts

Cast:

Dragon Lee is Lee Lung
Cheryl Meng is Shirley
Marty Lam
Martin Chui

What the box says:

As a young child, Lee Lung (Dragon Lee) watched as his parents were viciously murdered at the hands of the bandit lord Sek-King. To make matters worse, Sek-King kidnapped Lee's sister and brought her up as his own. With his family gone, Lee was raised and trained in martial arts under the supervision of a drunken master.

Years later, after Lee has mastered his skills, he sets off to take vengeance for the loss of his family. Accompanied by Siu-Ching, a neighbor girl who has fallen in love with him, Lee scours the countryside in pursuit of the bandits, destroying them one by one, and paving the way for his inevitable showdown with Sek-King.

Plot:

Some farmers refuse to give their land to the evil dudes who want it. They are to give it or else.

Iron bar bending fu ensues. The evil warlord wants the land and the farmers to work it for him.

The farmers run into the goons. They beat Chin Chi, a lead farmer, who grabs a sword. The fight is on. Chin Chi's wife rushes to him and is killed. Evil warlord wants the farmer's baby killed, too. The head goon refuses and will keep the child himself. The villains depart.

Chin Chi's sister takes his son off after seeing the murder. As the years pass, Lee Lung trains.

Lackeys surround Hat guy and demands his money. The guy with the wicked cool hat profusely beats them.

Shirley trains with Lee Lung. Hat Guy spies on them from a distance. Shirley's mom chews her out and tells Lee Lung that his aunt is very sick. He runs over bridges and past waterfalls to reach his aunt. Though she is dying, she still wants him to take revenge for the death of his parents. After the funeral, Lee Lung heads off and leaves Shirley behind.

A distance later, a dude picks a fight with Lee Lung. Eventually, the dude reveals himself to be Shirley and wants to go with him. I guess dude was a lady...

Hat Dude heads to the city.

In the city, Lee Lung learns the possible whereabouts of Ho Ching Tau. Just in case we didn't know it, Shirley loves Lee Lung. Local goons aren't fond of public displays of affection. Shirley starts a fight with the goons who display the better part of valor by running away.

Elsewhere, Lee's sister is training in the martial arts and impresses the leader. The evil warlord wends his men out to pick up the collection money.

Later, in a bar, Hat guy watches the goons and follows them out. He demands they give him the money. The fight is on and quickly over. Who can compete against anyone with such a mighty hat?

Lee Lung and Shirley see a number of ruffians pick on an old guy. They haven't found any clues about Ho Ching Tau.

The lackeys learn of a couple asking around for the leader by his old name.

The leader learns that the protection money was stolen. He learns that a man is asking around town for him by his old name.

Lee Lung trains Bruce Lee style. 2 guys pick a fight with him and are easily beaten.

As the goons search for Hat guy, he returns the money to the villagers.

Lee Lung runs into some goons and gets into a fight with them.

Elsewhere, Shirley has been caught by some other goons and gets into a fight with them. She is rescued by Hat Guy.

Leader's daughter heads into town.

Lee Lung and Shirley are hiding away from town. He heads into town to get her some clothes since the ones she is wearing have been torn.

Goons spy on Hat Guy and surround him. Daughter walks up and is insulted by Hat Guy's remarks about her father, evil warlord. Well, Hat guy easily dispatches the underlings who head off to follow Daughter.

Marketplace, Daughter buys some thread and offers some money to a beggar, Lee Lung, unaware of who he really is. He insults her and learns that she is the daughter of the evil overlord.

Leader's second in command must catch Hat Guy who walks in. Flashback, Hat Guy's father, Lee Ching Tai, was killed 20 years ago. The swordfight is on. Hat Guy is stabbed and barely escapes.

3 underlings search for the wounded Hat guy. Lee Lung walks by them who ask him about Hat Guy. The fight is on.

Lee Lung finds Hat Guy and takes him away. With Shirley, they tend to his wounds.

Leader is impressed by his second in command and rewards him.

The dying Hat Guy reveals the leader’s sword is magnetic Lee Lung is sure that the injured man will improve after getting his revenge.

Lee Lung is laying the smack down on the goons. Second in command gets his magnetic sword to attack Lee Lung who must contend with the goons also. Well, Lee Lung defeats second in command who reveals where evil warlord and his sister is.

Shirley takes Lee Lung back to Hat Guy who has already died.

Warlord learns that his second in command was killed by Lee Lung. He has some goons take Daughter away to hide her.

Lee Lung has Shirley to stay with Hat Guy's body.

Warlord's house is empty except for some goons that spring up to surprise Lee Lung who is going Bruce Lee on them.

Warlord finally appears. Warlord versus Lee Lung. Goons get in and attack Lee Lung. It is down to Lee Lung versus evil warlord. Things aren't going well until Shirley arrives with some magnetic disks. Lee Lung and Shirley start beating the evil warlord like he owed them money. Finally, warlord collapses over dead.

Lee Lung, his sisters, and Shirley head off.

What I say:

B-movie martial arts movies are a special genre. After the death of Bruce Lee, practically every martial artist tried to get into movies as the successor of the far more popular and talented Bruce Lee. If not at least, the number of actors that were touted as the successor of Bruce Lee like Dragon Lee, Bruce Li, etc has to be calculated using a formula like B_ruce = E * 2^L * c where B stands for the number of Bruce Lee wannabee actors, where E stands for the coefficient of Bruce Lee that can be found easily enough in a physics book, where L stands for the number of spellings of Lee such as Le, Li, etc, where c is the speed of light...

Godfrey Ho. We may not have met even once. Your movies are unforgettable no matter how hard one tries to forget: like Catman in Boxer's Blow and Catman in Letah Track have etched their way into my head like those little worms that crawl into your ears from Star Trek 2: the Wrath of Khan. Excluding the insanity, they are never boring. I should consider anyone who developed the gold lame′ ninja suit movie and gave Richard Harrison more movie credits from ninjas movies than anything else their proper respect.

Normally, I don't like mentioning the dubbing on general principle. The actors or the production have no say in it. Sell the distribution rights and halfway across the world a new version has the evil overlord with the voice of a 6-year old that whining for an ice cream cone. However, when the dubbing is funny enough. It has to be mentioned like the Japanese dockworkers in Gamera Vs Monster X that sounded like they could bea cabbie on the streets of New York City. In Dragon's Infernal Showdown, dubbing has quite a few British and Australian accented voice actors.

We have the guy who seeks to avenge his parent's death. Check. Evil overlord. Check. Hot kung fu babe, not necessarily a requirement but greatly appreciated. Old guy picked on by villainous goons. Check... Several random fights. Check. At least one fight that is just for training. a definite requirement. This seems to be a retread of practically any kung fu movie form this time.

First off, the lack of names in a movie makes it hard to follow. This isn't like say, any of the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, where as soon as we see the Man with No Name, think "Hey! Clint Eastwood!!" Most of the characters in Dragon's Infernal Showdown have no names which make them hard to identify. Groups of the villains men are just identified as lackey, minions, underlings, etc...The hero's kidnapped sister wasn't given a name that I remembered. The same goes for Hat guy.

Some movies are easier to write about or more accurately easier to ramble on about topics that have absoilutely no connection with the movie. I can't say that this movie is so profound you must pwatch it or study every scene to learn the subtle aspects hidden through each scene. That is what a critic would do. I am a reviewer more concerned with other things. Does this movie have kung fu action? Maybe not like in Duel to the Death or 36 Shaolin Beads.

Quotable Dialogue
"Our only purpose is to make as much money as possible."
"Please let me find the ruthless killers that murdered my family that I might take revenge on them."
"Where's your protection money?"
"That's my chicken."
"Are you an imbecile?"
"We have more interesting methods of dealing with girls."
"I'm gonna use this money to buy women's clothes."
Morals of the Story
Just saying you own the land gives you right of eminent domain.
Swords make whooshing noises.
Belt buckles light up.
Hats have rear view mirrors.
Many Chinese people have Australian accents.
Swords can easily be broken.
Hitting armpits with a staff causes giggling.
Magnets are commonly used in martial arts fights.