The 1970's was an era of extravagant hair dos and fashion senses that will test the contrast option on your television settings! It was also the time of the Kung Fu Boom and therefore the inevitable attempt of Hong Kong studios to attempt to cash in. Long before Jackie Chan made his first crack at international stardom, we got “Slaughter in San Francisco” aka “Yellow Faced Tiger” with Wong Tao in the lead and Lo Wei at the helm. Throw in Chuck Norris as the bad guy with the incredible chest hair and you have a movie that is pure 1974, released by Eureka Entertainment in their latest addition to their collection.
Cops Wong (Wong Tao) and John (Robert Jones) are best friends and partners on the force. An altercation with some bad guys leaves Wong removed from the police and working as a waiter. After a bank job escape results in the death of John, Wong vows to find those responsible. Sylvia (Sylvia Chang) finds her parents framed for the crime and tries to get the help of her boyfriend's brother Slaughter (Chuck Norris) to get them released. Slaughter however is a big shot and controls all the crime in the area and has a large part in the situation the others find themselves in. As Wong battles corruption from all sides, he must face off with Slaughter to get his revenge.
Robert Clouse would frequently get criticized for his repeated attempts to recapture the magic of “Enter the Dragon” and it's something that can be aimed at here with Lo Wei and his Bruce Lee films. Wong Tao, when he cuts loose at the climax, is unleashing the full Bruce Lee imitation war cries that were most likely required of him. It's unfortunate as then draws comparison to his late contemporary as opposed to giving him an identity of his own. Throw in “The Way of the Dragon” final boss in Chuck Norris as the lead bad buy here and the comparison is all the more noticeable and highlighting the movies exploitational roots.
The Early 1970's was also known for the Blaxploitation run of movies that put Black artists front and centre. “Enter the Dragon” picked up on this with the casting of Jim Kelly, but numerous other features would pair a Chinese martial artist with a Black co-star long before we ever got to see “Rush Hour” as they sought to maximize box office potential.
This actually serves to give us the core relationship of the feature. That of Wong Tao's Wong and Robert Jones's John. The buddy relationship they have is given enough time to be established so that once John gets taken out, we can understand Wong's desire for revenge. Whilst the flashbacks might be a bit syrupy, at least there is a context to it. This contrasts with Sylvia Chang's character that is very broadly sketched and never really comes to life as the potential love interest. Her character switches personality depending on the scenes and who they are with, and, whilst the script recognizes this, it doesn't make for an empathic character. Sadly, in the original language version “Yellow Faced Tiger” Wong refers often to John as Blackie. Although of its time, the language here has not aged well.
The narrative is stretched a bit thin for Wong's investigation which seems primarily involved with breaking into people's houses and apologizing after beating them up! So inevitably, the pace begins to flag about the halfway mark, and you find yourself waiting for the next punch up to kick in and wake you up. There's a bit of social commentary around protests and their gradual lack of effectiveness that is of interest but by and large it steers clear of anything directly pollical. Slaughter throws out some casual racism about liking Chinese workers because they are obedient just to make him a bit more hissable, but the highlight of the narrative is the brother's sudden summary of the whole scenario towards the end when it's clear they needed to wrap everything up in time for the final showdown. It's exposition at its most absurd and gloriously so.
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This showdown is worth a mention of its own. Let's start with the multi-ethnic gang of rent a mob bad guys doing the traditional stand in a group surrounding the hero and attacking one at a time. Add the fact that half of them clearly don't know what they are supposed to be doing! One appears to bear a striking similarity to Weird Al Yankovic and just changes position every few seconds before disappearing. Through all of this, Chuck Norris just sits on a chair eating an apple before deciding it's time to enter the fray, take off his robe and reveal the manliest set of chest hair seen in the 1970's! Like his appearance in “Way of the Dragon”, it's quite an eye opener to see him cut loose and move so freely given how restricted his later Hollywood movies would make him look. It's a great conclusion and only spoilt by the slightly comical bit in the fountain (entirely unintentional!) and worth the build up to.
“Slaughter in San Francisco” will never be considered high art and is what it says on the tin. It is an exploitation movie designed to capitalize on the Kung Fu Boom. Lo Wei was never a top-notch director but delivers the standard requirements expected. What you get is some decent kung fu mixed with 1970's fashions and the magnificence that is Chuck Norris's chest hair. What more could you want!
