Midnight Screenings: Ozploitation! 2010 / The Man from Hong Kong / Australia 1975
Eighteen minutes of dialogue and 80 minutes of kung fu fighting, stunts, and car chases. In its day a revolutionary and thrilling action packed takeoff on Bond (conceived as a hyper violent provocation of the ratings commission) that laid the foundation for Australian stunt films.
Australia’s first genuine action film delivers an ostentatious takeoff on the Bond franchise where sophisticated panache and technical gizmos make way for brazen blows below the belt and hair-raising stunt escapades. A Hong Kong inspector arrives in Sydney, and while local hoods feel the heat of his kung fu mastery, Australian ladies can’t resist the warmth of his charms. The starring role of the rough-and-tumble inspector is taken by Hong Kong superstar Jimmy Wang Yu, and the main bad guy is portrayed by onetime James Bond George Lazenby. Director Brian Trenchard- Smith conceived the film as a radical work intended to push the limits of cinematic action and violence. The entire film contains less than 20 minutes of dialogue, with the remainder made up of endless melees, gritty stunts, and thrilling car chases. Initiated by Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest studio, the movie laid the foundation for Australia’s tradition of auto stunt films.
126 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Brian Trenchard-Smith
/ Screenplay Brian Trenchard-Smith
/ Dir. of Photography Russell Boyd
/ Music Noel Quinlan
/ Editor Ron Williams
/ Producer Raymond Chow, John Fraser
/ Production The Movie Company, Golden Harvest
/ Cast Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby, Ros Spiers, Rebecca Gilling, Roger Ward, Hugh Keays Byrne
/ Contact National Film and Sound Archive, The Movie Company Pty. Ltd.
Brian Trenchard-Smith (b. 1946, Great Britain) ushered in the era of Australian action films with his feature debut The Man from Hong Kong. He then worked with daredevil stuntman Grant Page on the movies Deathcheaters (1976) and Stunt Rock (1978), whose absurd stories were a mere pretext to parade the actor’s splendid death-defying escapades. In the following years, the director continued to specialize in action films while accepting a variety of subgenre variations. Thus he made Turkey Shoot (1982), a self-indulgently brutal mix of outlandish pulp elements, and BMX Bandits (1983), a playful kids’ flick featuring a pubescent Nicole Kidman in her first big role.
National Film and Sound Archive
McCoy Circuit, Acton, 2601, Canberra
Australia
E-mail: [email protected]
The Movie Company Pty. Ltd.
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Australia
E-mail: [email protected]
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Film Director / Producer
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