A Man Called Tiger

This 1973 action flick is set in Japan (although entirely filmed in Hong Kong) with a cast from… Hong Kong… Japan… and even Taiwan. Sounds odd? Wait until you see the film!

Directed by Lo Wei, the man behind the Bruce Lee box office smash ‘Fist of Fury’ among others, A MAN CALLED TIGER initially was meant to be a feature for Lee as well, however, when Wei and Lee stopped seeing eye to eye, the leading role went to Hong Kong-Taiwanese actor Jimmy Wang Yu, who here portrays Chin Fu – a young man and skilled martial arts expert who arrives in Japan to investigate the apparent suicide of his father, although Chin is convinced that he was murdered.

Kicking off with various scenarios during which Chin not only demonstrates his fighting skills but also his sense of justice (just watch how he handles a group of thugs who refuse to pay for their bowls of noodles) and you’ll know that this is one tiger you don’t mess with! He never misses a chance to point out that he’s from China and that he can fight like a tiger… oh yes, he can indeed! Next up we’re in a bar where a young singer by the name of Keiko (Maria Yi) performs some schmaltzy songs (similar to the one she sings during the opening credits) and afterwards asks some of the customers whether they have seen a man who looks like the man in a photo she shows them – the man in question is her father and obviously, he’s missing. She makes the acquaintance of Chin who sits at one of the tables and points out to Keiko that her songs are too sad for someone of her age. When she proceeds to sing a happy song, smilingly adding that she won’t even charge him, she is interrupted by a gang of thugs who burst in and give her a hard time over the fact that she hasn’t paid them for being allowed to perform in the club. Suffice to say, Chin jumps to the rescue and another huge fight breaks out. Interestingly, this particular gang’s leader, Lin Mu (Han Ying-chieh) is also Chinese and impressed with Chin’s martial arts skills, although Lin Mu and his men are of course connected to the local Yakuza under Yamamoto (Tien Feng) and Chin sees his chance to infiltrate Tokyo’s underworld.

Pretending to be a proper badass (somehow, he is), he agrees to work for the gang as their ‘collector’, that is to say he goes around intimidating people and beating them up if they don’t pay up, though this is not about protection rackets but about bar owners, restaurant owners and what have you being forced to cough up money or their establishments will be destroyed. It is during one such altercation that Chin meets fellow Chinaman Liu Han Ming (James Tien) and although Chin initially is the ruffian and smashes up Liu’s eatery (after having smashed his face), he later makes amends for his behaviour and sends Keiko as a courier to hand Liu money, so he can pay for the damage done to his eatery. Later still, both Chin and Liu join forces in their quest to infiltrate the Yakuza further. As the quest proceeds, our anti-hero encounters Ayako (Kawai Okada) who is clearly smitten and crime boss Shimizu Shobon’s secretary (Reiko Kasahara) who knows more than she lets on about the death of Chin’s father.

What’s bewildering is that all these dames seem to develop a thing for Chin when in reality, he isn’t a nice person at all and actually not that good looking either. One wonders indeed what they all see in him. There are some ace action sequences which will delight genre fans, for example a fight inside a moving cable car above water and of course, the climax which begins innocently enough around a gambling table and ends with a mega fight involving hatchets – the brutality here is gobsmacking and hell knows how it was choreographed.

A MAN CALLED TIGER is presented on Blu-ray from a brand-new 2K restoration, with the first print run limited to 2000 copies only and presented in an exclusive O-card slipcase with reversible poster and collector’s booklet. Additional bonus features include various audio options, audio commentaries, trailer, plus the original Hong Kong theatrical cut and the rarely seen extended export version.