Xia nan yang

"The Black Dragon" is good goofy fun from that era in martial arts cinema when everybody wanted to cash in on the great success of "Enter the Dragon". This is obviously low budget, and is pretty crude, but it's lively and funny. The violence is potent enough to give the film a true visceral feel, and the characters are all quite easy to watch.

Jason Piao Pai plays Tai-Lin, a muscular hero who leaves his life as farmhand to seek fame and fortune in the Philippines. He befriends Siao-Mao (Ruel Vernal), a lowly street rat, and goes to work on the docks. He realizes that he is working for a crime organization that is smuggling opium, so he teams up with other local martial artists to teach his crooked boss and his cronies a lesson.

If you seek this out as a fan of four time world champion Ron Van Clief, be warned that he doesn't have much screen time. He's one of the other aforementioned martial artists; at first, he just seems like a troublemaker, but then you realize that he has an agenda. Ron is solid at kicking ass, but this really is Jasons' film, and he carries it quite well.

Of course, if you're watching the edited, dubbed North American release, there's a lot of entertainment value in the ridiculous performers doing the English language dialogue. These people are priceless. And the music is likewise a real hoot, as the filmmakers appropriate other scores, like the memorable 'Young and the Restless' theme and even Morricones' soundtrack for "Once Upon a Time in the West"!

A must for people who adore the cheesier side of chop-socky cinema.

Six out of 10.