Il mio nome è Shangai Joe (1972)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Mario Caiano

Writers:

Carlo Alberto Alfieri (writer)
Mario Caiano (screenplay)

Release Date:

January 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Western

Tagline:

One Man Stands Alone In His Fight For Justice

Plot:

A Chinese immigrant, recently arrived in America, fights to free Mexican slaves from their cruel master.

Plot Keywords:

Mexican | Cowboy | Texas | Fight | Stabbed In Stomach

Cast

Chen Lee	...	Shanghai Joe
Klaus Kinski	...	Scalper Jack
Gordon Mitchell	...	Burying Sam
Claudio Undari	...	Pedro, The Cannibal (as Robert Hundar)
Katsutoshi Mikuriya	...	Mikuja
Carla Romanelli	...	Cristina
Carla Mancini	...	Conchita
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Tricky
George Wang	...	Yang
Federico Boido	...	Slim (as Rick Boyd)
Piero Lulli	...	Spencer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrea Aureli	...	Sheriff Corrotto
Buxx Banner
Giorgio Bixio
Lars Bloch	...	Racist
Aldo Cecconi	...	Racist
Dante Cleri	...	Manuel, Barman
Alfonso de la Vega	...	Craig
Roberto Dell'Acqua	...	Smitty
Umberto D'Orsi	...	Poker player
Lorenzo Fineschi	...	Cowboy
Tito García	...	Jesus, Slave Trader
Veriano Genesi	...	Blacksmith
Luigi Antonio Guerra	...	Spencer Friend
Dante Maggio	...	Doctor
Enrico Marciani	...	Spencer Friend
Osiride Pevarello	...	False Teeth - Ranch Hand
Claudio Ruffini	...	Tricky's Partner
Giovanni Sabbatini	...	Old Man
Francisco Sanz	...	Cristina's Father
Angelo Susani	...	Stagecoach Driver
Sergio Testori	...	Ranch Hand
Pietro Torrisi	...	Ranch Hand
Franco Ukmar	...	Ranch Hand

Also Known As:

Mezzogiorno di fuoco per Han-Hao
My Name Is Shanghai Joe
Shanghai Joe (USA)
The Dragon Strikes Back (International: English title)
The Fighting Fists of Shangai Joe (International: English title)
To Kill or to Die

Runtime:

Germany:94 min (DVD version) | USA:98 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Norway:18 (video) (1982) | Finland:(Banned) (1976) | USA:R | West Germany:18

Company:

C.B.A. Produttori e Distributori Associati

Trivia:

The scene in which Gordon Mitchell's character sings "Chin-Chin Chinaman" while carrying a shovel was improvised on the spot by Mitchell. He also created the song.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Spaghetti West (2005) (V)

So much fun it should be illegal!

Immigrant Shanghai Joe (Chen Lee) moves from St. Francisco (sic) to Texas in 1882 in search of a life as a cowboy. Of course, he greets racism and adversity at every turn thanks to the local good ol' boys. Holy crap! I grabbed this film at random off a stack of DVDs and it was fun as hell. I'm not the biggest western fan (my filmdom shame) so I usually need an element to spice it up and throwing kung fu in there did the trick. This movie rarely slows down as Joe bounces from one battle to the next. The main crux has him on the run with a bounty on his head after he turns on a rancher using illegal immigrants. Top billed co- stars Gordon Mitchell and Klaus Kinski pop up as two bounty hunters and have about 5 minutes of screen time max. Director Mario Caiano gets the most out of the US locations (a widescreen copy is a must) and knows when to use slo-mo to great effect. He even throws in some surprisingly gory bits like a guy getting his eyeballs ripped out and a chest being punctured. Joe don't fool around! THE RETURN OF SHANGHAI JOE followed in 1975 with Kinski as a different character.