L'implacable Défi

source: Challenge of the Tiger

I like the West German dubbing title "The Death Fists of the Karate Tiger" much better for this KungFu knockout cascade, which was created in 1980 in a co-production between Hong Kong, Italy and the USA. Bruceploitation star Bruce Le consistently fights his way through an outrageous plot involving the formula for a super drug that makes people sterile. Oh right! From Malaga it goes via Hong Kong to Macao. At Brucele's side is senior schlawiner Richard Harrison, who, as a CIA agent, roams through all the beds and also likes to appear bare-chested outside of the bedroom. The two heroes have to deal with terrorists and a gang of criminals. As a result, Brucele in particular gets into fights with different opponents. Bolo Yeung, the Chinese Hercules, is crushed by Brad Harris as the super-cool bodyguard. In a particularly bizarre scene, the Czech heartthrob Josef Laufer doesn't belt out one of his schmaltzy songs, but lets his powerfully shaped chest muscles dance impressively, which is of course immediately punished by the good Brucele. Brad Harris's ultra-cool sunglasses are his undoing. But the brave Brucele gets an equal opponent in Jang Lee Hwang for the big final... A wonderful piece of trash fun for all fans of the Bruceploitation genre!

source: Challenge of the Tiger

The Late Great Dick Randall, who also produced the film, leads an all star cast in this international spy thriller. Dependable Richard Harrison is the womanizing CIA agent (Richard Cannon) who is ably assisted by agent (Huang) played by the diminutive Bruce Le as opposed to the original Bruce Lee. Huang is quite a karate fighter who is in the habit of beating up a legion of bad guys while Richart is scheming on the ladies and only fights when he must. The third member of the CIA team is pretty Sharon Shira (Anna). They are opposed by the ruthless Viet Cong led by surly Jeong-lee Hwang (Comrade Yang) and (Comrade Asian Girl) played by May Hung with an unfortunate unattractive hair do. The third group is a little less defined with multiple nationality's in the gang although they did through in a Sieg Heil so we would know they are definitely evil. This group is led by (The Boss) Tito Garcia and his partner in crime Dick Randall. Randall's character goes by the name of (Dick) to keep it simple I guess.. They have a fem fatal working for them the exotic (Maria) played by Nadiuska who was fine in the role but was probably better suited for her day job as a Super Model. Each of these forces were desperate to get their hand on the, you guest it, Secret Formula. Challenge of the Tiger is a solid "B" movie in any language as the plot roles right along with members of all three teams getting, how can we say, neutralized with regularity. The portrayal of violence is perfect with it not being to graphic. A big shout out to Brad Harris who played the Boss's henchman (Leopard) with a lot of menacing intensity. At 47 years old the former great Eurospy star still looked buffed at around 235 lbs or so. Unfortunately, he lost his test of strength to our hero the 115 lbs Huang because Huang knows Karate I guess. The film would rate a couple of points higher if it stuck to the cute * scenes, of which they are thankfully many, and dispensed with the simulated sex scenes that almost turned it into a soft core film which bogged it down a bit. The ending could have also been a bit more thought out to tie up a couple of loose ends, but all in all this one's a winner. Thank's Dick.

Cult Cuts Volume 51 (Return to the Video Store: Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting Part One) #1/4: Challenge of the Tiger (1980) (8/10): Absolute Trash and I Adore It. Challenge of the Tiger follows two agents, a smooth ladies man and our protagonist who is a Chinese Martial Artist as they are tasked with tracking down a new formula that a doctor made that can make any human being completely sterile after the doctor and his assistant were murdered and the formula went missing. That's pretty much it for the plot but it clearly isn't prioritizing plot when one of the heroes is a rich playboy who plays badminton with topless women while he has other topless women parade around his villa and the other is a Martial Artist who has his warrior stances and battle faces dialed up to eleven. Directed and Starring Bruce Le, not Bruce Lee, as well as starring Richard Harrison and Bolo Yeung who was also involved with Enter the Dragon, Boxer's Omen and Bloodsport and finally Jeong-lee Hwang from Drunken Master, Ninja in the Dragon's Den, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and the Invincible Armour this ridiculous Bruceploitation flick has a pretty solid cast going for it. I do have to say that even though the fights are pretty exaggerated our major players mentioned above, with the exception of Harrison, actually do demonstrate some solid fighting skills and there's some decent fight choreography in here. The score is pretty good too, which was also a bit of a surprise for me, although there was a pretty funny bit where the band playing for an upcoming parade I believe, started their tune sounding beat for beat like the fox logo theme before switching it up to avoid a lawsuit I believe. There is eye candy aplenty here, like it's shameless with the amount of * onscreen but it's still so dumb how they play badminton with their headlights flashing, it's just, why? Cause *, that's why. Now as I end this, I do want to say it is something that you must not use your brain cells to enjoy, but it's insane and it's just my kind of thing.

This movie is one of many Bruceploitation movies starring Bruce Le as a secret agent along with his partner Dick Cannon. Yes, that's his name. The movie has with bad acting, bad plot, and the plot itself is conveyed very incoherently. Sub-plots come and go at will, characters make decisions that don't impact the plot at all, and characters are kidnapped for no reason. With all these problems you may be asking why I gave this a four and not a one? Well, that's because as bad as it is it's still a fun entertaining movie, with nudity and a plot that makes no sense. I would recommend this movie if you're looking for a good time.

CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER is a real hotch-potch of the film, an international collaboration with so many ingredients thrown into the brew that it looks fit to burst. At its heart, this is a typical Bruce Le movie, seeing the rip-off star battling his way through various thug gangs in his quest to destroy a criminal mastermind. Le directs as well as stars, and the subsequent kung fu scenes are as energetic as you could hope for. Yet there's more. One of the producers, Dick Randall – who also appears in an amusing cameo as a corrupt and greasy businessman – was notorious for making sex films, so CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER becomes one of the few kung fu sex film in existence! A second lead is written into the proceedings, one time Italian gladiator star Richard Harrison, who seems to be having outrageous fun as the hammy second-rate Roger Moore wannabe who adds comedy to the proceedings. The plot is wafer thin but nevertheless there are many, many entertaining moments packed in this film. The action ranges all over the world and one of the highlights is a fight in Spain between Bruce and a bull; it's as cheesily-edited and hilarious as you'd imagine and a real high. The action bits are quite good, well-filmed unlike the rest of the film. Bruce has plenty of notables to fight again including two hulking muscle men. One of them is Joe Laufer, whose poor acting and eventual beat-down is brilliance in itself; the second is none other than Brad Harris, a fellow Italian gladiator actor reduced to acting as a hulking heavy who never takes off his sunglasses. Harris' muscles probably have more screen time than anything else in the movie! Also popping up in a minor part is Bolo Yeung, who gets to run about in the dark before being taken out by the film's chief baddie, high-kicker Hwang Jang Lee. Lee is, as always, very good as the villain of the piece and shows off his skills in some well choreographed bouts. Former Shaw Brothers actor Chiang Tao also gets plenty of screen time as a tricky henchman. Many of the funny scenes are those that incorporate Richard Harrison's character. Harrison is cast in the James Bond mould, always looking to have some fun with the ladies. He's introduced in a series of sequences that have gone down in bad film history; these see him playing tennis with a string of topless women, all captured in loving slow motion. I can't express how funny these bits are; the outrageous music adds to the experience. Although he's hopeless as a fighter here – unlike in many of his other films – and doesn't get to take part in much of the kung fu bits, Harrison's nevertheless hilarious. For some reason he seems to be wearing eyeliner. We get to watch as he beds a series of mostly naked women, including the single-monikered German sex actress, Nadiuska. With all the sex and fighting going on, there's never a dull moment and the awful dubbing by British voice actors only adds to the cheesiness of the experience. This is a real so-bad-it's-good cult classic and one I'll never forget!

When a super-secret new drug hits the market that will kill all the sperm in the male body, bad guys the world over want to get their hands on the formula so they can use it to take over the world. Unluckily for them, two of the best CIA agents in human history are prepared to go to any lengths to stop them: Huang Lung (Le), who, naturally, is a great Martial Arts master, and Richard Cannon (Harrison), who is the ultimate ladies man. But he's going to have to put his rampant womanizing on hold so he can join Lung. Traveling from Spain to Hong Kong to get justice and prevent the formula from getting into the wrong hands, can this odd couple do it? We're big fans of Ninja Strikes Back (1982), which is kind of like a companion film to Challenge of the Tiger, in the sense that they are both Dick Randall productions, both star Bruce Le, and are both clinically insane. While we happen to prefer NSB a little more, there's plenty of pleasure to behold within COTT. You've got to love the 80's, a time when if you weren't an Asian gentleman with a Johnny Ramone haircut doing Martial Arts moves wearing tight flared jeans and a white sportcoat or Lacoste jacket, you just weren't cool. By those standards, Bruce Le is the height of awesomeness, doing what he does best, and even co-directing the movie. And lest we forget Richard Harrison stretching his acting chops as Richard Cannon. At least this movie is relatively coherent as opposed to his Godfrey Ho appearances. As the last word in suavitude, Cannon, inexplicably for a CIA agent, has a compound filled with topless chicks that do activities with him such as play tennis and go swimming. This guy puts Hugh Hefner to shame. Well, even more shame. Also in the cast is one Brad Harris, who plays a bodyguard named Leopard. He resembles The Stabilizer's Peter O'Brian, and has some killer shades. Bolo Yeung is also on board, playing a character named Comrade Ban, but every time he's addressed in the movie, it sounds like they're calling him "Conrad Bain". Wouldn't Bolo acting as the father on Diff'rent Strokes be amazing? Now that really would be a different stroke. Also there's some seemingly stolen footage of Jack Klugman and Jane Seymour thrown in. Klugman is seen talking to Bruce Le. What could they have been talking about? Even though he didn't seem to be aware that he was being filmed, Klugman should have had a bigger role in Challenge of the Tiger. The music is excellent, a winning kind of soul-funk that complements the on screen action well. There are even unabashed ripoffs of Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay" and Isaac Hayes' "Hung Up On My Baby". The fact that there was no legal action that we know of is a testament to the freedom of the run-and-gun 80's. The 80's were just better than now. They just were. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. Exhibit A in our court case: Challenge of the Tiger. (Exhibit B would be all the 80's slasher movies). Richard Cannon's lovin' the ladies would probably be classified as "sex addiction" today. Need we go on? This movie is just fun, funny enjoyable fun. Repetitive? Yes. Fun? Undoubtedly. Just check out the scene that gives TRUE meaning to the word "Bullfighting". Seeing as the Mondo Macabro DVD is paired with the legendary Weng Weng vehicle For Your Height Only (1981), there's no reason not to own that fine disc.

After two scientists are killed and their formula--which can cause infertility for entire male populations--is stolen by a neo-nazi organization, two CIA agents by the names of "Huang Lung" (Bruce Le) and "Richard Cannon" (Richard Harrison) are sent to Spain to retrieve it from a woman named "Maria" (Nadiuska) who has it in her possession. Unfortunately, she manages to outwit them and so they then have to proceed to Hong Kong before she can give it to her superiors who intend to sell it on the black market. To further complicate things, the Vietnamese government also wants to get their hands on this formula and so they send a agents after it and the CIA agents as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie had the potential for being a solid "secret agent/martial arts film" in that it had a decent overall plot and some nice locations to back it up. It also had some fairly attractive actresses in May Hong (as the female Vietnamese agent), Sharon Shira (as "Anna") and the aforementioned Nadiuska to further brighten the scenery. Unfortunately, the overall production values were extremely low-budget, the scripts were laughably bad, and the scenes were much too disorganized and convoluted to merit any rating higher than what I have given. Below average.

Bruce Le (that's not a typo) stars in an action film, with a script by Bruce Le and Poon Fan. If you're not laughing yet, keep right on walking. There's nothing more to see here. Still reading? Awesome: Fast cars, faster women, a stereotyped asexual martial artist starring along side a sex-addicted American super-agent named Richard Cannon. Seriously. The first time you see him, he's playing tennis against two topless women. Simultaneously. Did I say action film? It's a softcore adult film. With kung fu. And Chong Li from "Bloodsport." The acting is non-existent, the dubbing is awful, and the plot has something to do with a formula that can make a man sterile, able to have all the sex he wants with no repercussions. Is that good or bad? I'm not sure. Neither is the movie. THERE IS NO DOWNSIDE HERE. I saw this on accident, as it came as part of a double feature with "For Y'ur Height Only," starring 2'9" Filipino action superstar Weng Weng. For once, this was a double-feature with everything. And I think this movie was actually the better of the two. Judge for yourself, won't you? You'll be glad you did.