Overview: Chin Hao (Chen Lee/Myoshin Hayakawa), arrives in America looking for a better life, only to be faced with locals that don’t take kindly to outsiders.

Much to their surprise, Chin is not your average drifter as he rips his way through racist bad guys with his unstoppable fighting techniques.

After word of his skills spreads, he gets a job at a ranch only to find that the owner, Stanley Spencer, is a cattle smuggling slave trader who brutalizes Mexican farmers and anyone else who dares get in his way. Chin ramps up the violence as he stops at nothing to free the slaves and enact revenge on the sadistic Spencer.

Blu-ray Verdict: In truth, Shanghai Joe (aka The Fight Fists of Shanghai Joe) sounds like one of those awful genre bending films that repeatedly crop up over the years. However, upon further inspection, this kung-fu Spaghetti Western is actually pretty decent and has certain similarities with the television series Kung Fu (with David Carradine). It is also directed by Mario Caiano, who made a number of Spaghetti Westerns, and stars Chen Lee as the eponymous Shanghai Joe.

The story is straightforward, almost verging on the beautifully simplistic. Joe is a recent immigrant from China to San Francisco, where, in search of work, he heads to Texas. Here he gets on the wrong side of a powerful, racist rancher, Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli), after he witnesses the massacre of Mexican slave laborers.

This Western tries to say some interesting things about the West, and how Chinese immigrants helped do a lot of the dirty jobs that Whites wouldn’t do. Sadly, most of this is drowned under its comic book style and some pretty bad kung-fu. Yet it does have some good parts with most of the action scenes coming with Peckinpah-esque slow motion and exploding, bloody squids!

Some of the violence is pretty strong too, with Lee pulling a bad guy’s eyes out on screen, but due to its lighthearted mode, it never feels dark or repellent. In fact, it is all rather comic, lacking the seriousness of, say, Django Kill, If You Live, Shoot! (1967); which has such things stated upfront for its strong violence.

Acting wise, Chen Lee is probably as wooden as his martial arts, but Piero Lulli makes a mighty fine villain and Klaus Kinski’s virtually cameo-like role is highly memorable. The scene where the Mexicans are killed is well-directed, as are a number of other action scenes, sufficient enough to make sure that the Western is at least fast paced.

In closing, the film isn’t a massively brilliant piece of cinema, but as the Spaghetti Western genre went down the drains, it is refreshingly old fashioned in a way, occasionally recalling the past Golden Era of the late sixties that makes it worth checking out for the Spaghetti Western enthusiast (especially now, as it is on this veritably crystalline new Blu-ray set, that comes with a wonderful stand alone audio CD of the soundtrack!). [J.W.]

Special Features [Blu-ray + CD Set]:
2K restoration from the negative / 1080p presentation
English audio
Optional English SDH subtitles
Italian audio w/ English subtitles
Samurai Spirit: Interview with Master Katsutoshi Mikuriya
East Meets West: Italian Style - visual essay by film historian Eric Zaldivar
Commentary with film historian Mike Hauss from The Spaghetti Western Digest
Trailer
Poster (folded) - limited edition only
High quality slipcase - limited edition only
CD soundtrack - limited edition only
Limited to 1500 copies

Official Trailer

www.cauldron-films.com