Having absolutely nothing to do with the (then) recently departed Bruce Lee, SHOWDOWN AT THE EQUATOR is instead one of umpteen-million different kung fu flicks that had a new title appended to try to hop on the Lee nostalgia train. In this instance, nothing in the dubbing was even altered – the print I saw simply had a new title crudely hacked in, with nothing whatsoever added to even suggest a connection to the supposedly eponymous star.
The plot instead centers around a Hong Kong cop using a job at a restaurant to infiltrate the Chinese underworld, so he can bust the offending gang from the inside. Naturally, he falls in love with the daughter of the restaurant owner, and their relationship is brought to a crisis when she sees him palling around with the gangsters that have been menacing her family, unaware of his secret mission.
What originally starts out as a pretty shabby and confusing production (the film seems to leap about a lot in terms of both time-line and motivation, a quality only exacerbated by the choppy print I saw) eventually rights itself with some decent fisticuffs and a legitimately exhilarating car-cum-foot chase in the finale, during which the ever reliable Lo Lieh pulls (as always) villain duties. The English dubbing is expectedly atrocious, and frequently leads to some true howlers, particularly in many of the interactions between the chief baddie and his beleaguered bald henchman, as well as in a fight between the protagonist a three hilariously ill- matched Caucasian opponents. It's no masterpiece, but after a really choppy outset the film eventually finds its footing and delivers a solid evening's entertainment, perfect for the bottom half of a double bill. Just don't go in expecting Bruce Lee.
