Rival gangs in Los Angeles are always at odds with each other. Tony(Phillip Rhee) is in love with nemesis Chan's(James Lew) sister, Lily(Rosanna King). Tony's pal, Young(Jun Chong), came from China along with his mother who married a white man. Young is skilled at martial arts and equips himself quite well against street punks and gangs who wish to cause him harm. Young gets his boys mixed up with rich drug dealers as well(hired as "security" to make sure no problems interrupt a drug deal involving cocaine). Drug dealers aren't exactly happy campers when their coke money is stolen(which is what Young unwisely does in the heat of the moment)so two separate hit men, Yoshida Kim(Ken Nagayama;an assassin with a kitana sword from Osaka, Japan)and intense brute Kruger(Bill Wallace) from New York are hired to teach these kids a lesson. There's a sequence which reminded me of GAME OF DEATH where Young must go up floors in a building, combating hired thugs(including Kim and Kruger)on each loft, trying to find and save his friends, captured and beaten by Kruger who wants to know the location of the drug money. And after enduring this, poor Young still has to worry with Chan and his army! While Young doesn't fare so well against Chan(mommy is in the line of fire), Tony gets a chance to dual with his enemy to the death. The minor plot, what little there is, plays second fiddle to kung fu between numerous LA gangs, mostly against Young, Tony, and their group. The fight choreography can be a bit clumsy and rough-around-the-edges mainly due to the fact that Tony and Young are often in battles against inferior foes who mostly take a beating. No matter where Tony and Young go, it seems trouble follows them. And that's the point, isn't it? Put these two in as many combat situations as possible to provide the movie with excuses to have them duking it out with street scum to beat the crap out of. There are melodramatic moments a die hard action fan might cringe through(in particular, Tony's problems with his alcoholic mom), but the final twenty minutes delivers plenty of fisticuffs and bludgeoning with weapons. Brinke Stevens shows up in a cameo(unclothed, of course) as a drug-lord's plaything.
Review of L.A. Streetfighters
