The opening shot of The Man From Hong Kong is quite unforgettable. The tension slowly builds as a busload of tourists pull up at Uluru and one appears to do a drug deal, the drugs having been hidden in the forever inconspicuous pale-blue Conn Air Australia luggage bags. The awaiting police quickly intercept. What ensues is a martial arts fight scene literally on top of Uluru, complete with sweeping shots of the area, shocked tourists, cartoon style audio effects and a beautiful frame of the sacred rock formation with a car exploding in the foreground.

From here the film is relatively fast paced. The drug dealer belongs to a group of Cantonese martial art experts/criminals, headed by the gregarious Sydney money man Jack Wilton (George Lazenby, Australia’s very own James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and thus a Cantonese police officer is flown in. When Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) arrives on the scene, the typical fights, chases, deaths and love affairs begin with the two bumbling and crass Australian officers trying to catch up.

Coming early in writer/producer/director Brian Trenchard-Smith’s career, The Man From Hong Kong doesn’t fail to disappoint in the ‘Ozploitation’ category, nor in the ‘good cinema’ category. Cinematic elements shine through and Trenchard-Smith uses mise-en-sc?ne to marvellous effect. The clash of Western and Eastern culture is imminent in the film both on a character level as well as cultural level, which Trenchard-Smith represents through the physical space within the frame. Both Sydney and Hong Kong are major urban developments built around and encompassing water, and both have a proud culture and history attached to them.

The shots of Hong Kong are clustered, controlled and regimented; the hang glider spirals into a police training facility, Cantonese criminal’s run down narrow back allies in Sydney, jumping over fences and fighting in cramped kitchens. Sydney is open and free; the hang gliders could not be safer as they soar above the coastline. Australian police run through the main streets seeming to not even notice a back alley.

The tight camera angles used during the fight scenes are juxtaposed to the wide sweeping shots that work to include the bushland and water in the backdrop, leaving the shots open and spacious. This open space allows for cars to slip and slide across the road and into the untamed bushland before exploding into the open spaces around them. Ultimately Trenchard-Smith is using the element of physical space as more than that of contrasting the two cities but of contrasting the two cultures, in particular through the use of martial arts as an Eastern art form and the consequences that this has upon the characters who utilise it.

The Man From Hong Kong signifies the first Australian-Hong Kong co-production, coming two years after Bruce Lee’s death and in the midst of a global rise in martial arts films. Having been referenced heavily in Mark Hartley’s 2008 Not Quite Hollywood: The Untold Story of Ozploitation!, The Man From Hong Kong was not made without problems. Jimmy Wang Yu reportedly hated Australia and despised his on screen love Caroline Thorn, played by Rosalind Speirs. Wang Yu also injured himself in a hang gliding scene whilst George Lazenby was unable to remove his burning jacket fast enough and sustained burns to his hands, with said scene played out in slow-mo for the viewer. The car chases were filmed on open roads without permission, with these gonzo stunts adding to the intensity and drama encapsulated in The Man From Hong Kong.

Review by Eleanor Colla

Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Screenwriter: Brian Trencahrd-Smith
Cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, George Lazenby, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Ros Spiers, Grant Page, Rebecca Gilling, Frank Thring, Hung Kam Po