ALONG COMES THE TIGER is a sprawling, low rent martial arts epic from Taiwan, starring the one and only Don Wong (aka Wong Tao). I had no idea that Wong's father, George Wang, was an actor in Italian cinema, an experience which gave him some love and knowledge of spaghetti films which by all accounts is why he produced this movie, conceived as a loose remake of the Sergio Leone western classic ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.
Sadly the similarities between the two films are very few and sometimes it feels like ALONG COMES THE TIGER doesn't have a plot at all. It just kind of ambles along, introducing lots of different characters and having them either team up or fight to the death. The direction was by popular Hong Kong personality Wu Ma, who also cameos, but it's not one of his better efforts. I've never really warmed to Don Wong as an actor or martial artist and he doesn't shine here either.
The movie features Phillip Ko in an early role before it moves on to various shenanigans surrounding a corrupt casino run by a pack of murderous female fighters. Their fighting styles involves some weird pom-pom/fan hybrids which have to be seen to be believed. It's a very cheap film with a lot of wandering around in the dusty countryside and some annoying humour from an annoying kid. Wong plays a mute character so at least you don't have to worry about his bad dubbing. The fights are unspectacular and the film as a whole rather forgettable.
