Tigers at the Top (1975) User Reviews

I couldn't see the hypnotic fist as special

[ckormos1 · 5/10 · 4 February 2020]

It starts with a one man escort service taking a bag of gold for delivery. The bad guys, as expected, know all about it and want to steal it. Actually, it's personal. Wei Long (only movie ever) is the main bad guy and he knows "hypnotic fist". That is the low point of the movie.

My copy is a digital file that plays as wide screen on a HDTV and is English dubbed. That has me asking questions I know will not be answered. These movies exist today mostly because they were released as VHS tapes during the movie rental boom. VHS format does not support wide screen. How does a digital wide screen English dubbed version of this movie even exist? Why does this movie exist in this condition when other movies of the same time made by top production companies and starring top names are available only as multi-generational VHS copies?

The fights are all hand to hand. No weapons or props are used. There is nothing special about the fight choreography and no amazing moves. The villain's hypnotic fist is overcome without much difficulty in the final fight. I rate it simply average for the year and genre.

Makes less sense than usual

[lotekguy-1 · 3/10 · 20 October 2022]

On the plus side, there are many solid fights that are all fists and feet, with only occasional wire-assisted leaping of tall buildings in a single bound. Oops. Mixed my genres there. The cast is full of players who look, act and handle themselves in combat suitably for their roles.

The plot is fuzzed by one dude hanging around the margins of the action, periodically helping the three protagonists from the shadows for reasons that I missed, or no one bothered to explain in the script.

The second flaw is that hypnotic kung fu gimmick that's so absurd it belongs in a spoof, not a "serious" crime story. We've seen flying guillotines and other fanciful weapons, but this pitch requires a ridiculously long windup just to result in a silly execution.

Finally, there's nothing heroic about three leads having to gang up on the villain for the climactic fight, especially after one of them almost beat the guy by himself earlier in the movie.

Really lame ending for what had been a generally adequate offering from the era.

The complete package...

[poe-48833 · 10/10 · 6 January 2016]

In TIGERS AT THE TOP, the righteous Chin Yu is charged with getting a saddlebag of gold safely to its destination (which MAY have been disclosed, but slipped past me). En route, he is set upon by thieves- members of the Green Dragon Gym, which is run by the vicious Lo Chi Chow, master of "Hypnotic Kung Fu" (which consists of green-tinted sequences in which Chow moves his hands in a "hypnotic" pattern not unlike the "mesmerizing" after-image sequence in Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY; this time done with mirrors). The gang backs off when they get a taste of Yu's Kung Fu. He then receives a message telling him to meet Wu in a park- where he's ambushed, of course. Ma and his sister, Miss Ying, help Yu fight off the gang. Chow eventually overcomes Yu, using his "Hypnotic Kung Fu" (in a sequence which features a really well-made dummy that Chow twirls over his head- another throwback to FIST OF FURY). Ma and Miss Ying nurse Yu quickly back to health and Yu escapes town on horseback. Or DOES he...? TIGERS AT THE TOP features action galore, some solid performances, and outstanding direction in service of some very straightforward storytelling. Worth a look.