Il Mio Nome è Shanghai Joe

Shanghai Joe
The Dragon Strikes Back / My Name is Shanghai Joe / The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe / To Kill or to Tie / Mezzogiorno di Fuoco per Han-Hao / Karate Jack - Ich bin Euer Henker / Der Mann mit der Kugelpeitsche / Mein Name ist Karate Jack

Italy 1972
produced by
Renato Angiolini, Roberto Bessi for C.B.A., Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
directed by Mario Caiano
starring Chen Lee, Claudio Undari (as Robert Hundar), Klaus Kinski, Katsutoshi Mikuriya, Gordon Mitchell, Carla Romanelli, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Carla Mancini, Piero Lulli, George Wang, Federico Boido, Francisco Sanz, Umberto D'Orsi, Dante Maggio
written by Carlo Alberto Alfieri, Mario Caiano, Fabrizio Trifone Trecca, music by Bruno Nicolai

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Chen Ho (Chen Lee) has come to Texas to become a cowboy, however, nobody here seems too keen to take on a Chinese, so he finds himself consistently on the butt-end of cheap jokes, even if he always manages to teach those who play pranks on him a lesson. However, not succeeding to become a cowboy, he accepts a job in Spencer's (Piero Lulli) gang, illegally smuggling cattle from Mexico to Texas ... however, when he finds out the cattle is actually Mexican slaves, he is appalled, but when he sees his gang shooting dead the slaves because they have spotted the army nearby and want to get rid of the evidence, that's too much for Chen Ho, & he sides withthe slaves & defeats his colleagues ... even if he doesn't manage to save too many of the slaves.

However, Christina (Carla Romanelli), one of the slaves, is incredibly grateful to Chen Ho, & soon they become a couple & he agrees to bring her back to her Mexican village.

Spencer however is much less grateful, & he soon pins a price on Chen Ho's head, & every scum & bountyhunter in Texas is soon hunting for that Chinaman (among the bountyhunters are Robert Hundar, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Gordon Mitchell, and Klaus Kinski as Scalper Jack - the name says it all -, turning in an incredibly uncanny performance even by his standards). However, when they all fail to defeat Chen Ho, Spencer imports another of those Orientals, Japanese Samurai Mikuja (Katsutoshi Mikuriya) to bring him down ... but even Mikuja's dirty tricks can't defeat Chen Ho, and in the end, our Chinaman brings Christina home safely to her Mexican hometown and moves on, to fight more evil, elsewhere.

In the early 1970's, when the Spaghetti Western genre was in decline, but the Eastern/martial arts genre was on the rise, several Italian producers thought it to be a clever idea to merge the 2 genres for maximum box office appeal ... and Shanghai Joe was one of the first Eastern/Western hybrids.

The film is rather mediocre, featuring a so-so story & lame martial arts, but quite some graphic gore (in one scene, Chen Ho even pulls an eye out of the socket in graphic detail) and eccentric characters (especially Klaus Kinski's much too brief role as Scalper Jack), so yes, the film has its moments, but overall, it's far from great.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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