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Working for Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) undercover as big time drugdealers,
the Kung Fu-trained Johnson Brothers (Albert Popwell, Caro Kenyatta) try to set
up a drugdeal with Mr Chen (Chan Shen), only to get into some kind of turf war
between him & his goons & the Dragon Lady (Stella Stevens) & her
henchies, & soon they end up as the Dragon Lady's prisoners/guests of
honour.
Cleo, worried stiff about the whereabouts of her employees goes to Hong Kong
herself, & despite the reservations of her boss Stanley (Norman Fell)
decides to take up investigations on her own, but soon realizes she might have
taken too large a bite to chew on ... when she recieves unexpected help from
Mai Ling (Tanny Tien Ni), a local private detective experienced in martial arts
& with a large collection of guns, who readily jumps in to help her.
The 2 of them - along with Mai Ling's colleagues - go out of their way to
find Chen, all under the watchful eye of the Dragon Lady, who doesn't like
someone spying around in her turf one bit, & who makes unsuccessful
attempts at both Cleo's & Mai Ling's lives. In the end, when Cleo & Mai
Ling find Chen, he is already dead, killed by the Dragon Lady's goons ... but
they find a clue leading to the Dragon Lady's Casino of Gold in Macao, which
they enter as guests, only for Cleo to soon become the Dragon Ladys prisoner,
who has of course since found out Cleo & the Kung Fu Brothers are in
league. But Mai Ling hasn't forgotten her posse at home, & they soon storm
the casino & lay it to rubble, with all kinds of guns, motorbikes &
even their bare hands ... & the Dragon Lady - Cleo has to kill her in a
fierce & brutal fight ...
To blend blaxploitation & Eastern (martial arts) cinema in an US/Hong
Kong coproduction does look a good idea on paper, since added to the
blaxploitation ruggedness, you get exotic settings (of Hong Kong & Macao),
and actors & crew experienced in stageing martial arts, which sounds like
the perfect requirements for an action movie ... The finished product however
falls a few meters short of its promises: The exotic locales have at best
travelogue quality & the martial arts are considerably toned down (mainly,
it seems, to the fact that Tamara Dobson can't perform any). All isn't helped
either by the very silly plot, inadequate acting by Dobson & the Kung
Fu Brothers Popwell & Kenyatta(who don't do any martial arts either), and
very stupid & stilted dialogue - especially the exchanges between Dobson
& Tanny Tien Ni are abysmal.
The finale, in which a whole casino is thrashed by any means possible does
at least provide some innocent fun, though.
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