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| Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog is a very silly movie! |
Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog is a martial arts comedy movie released in Hong Kong in 1978, and stars Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-wing, Dean Shek, Meg Lam Kin-Ming, Lee Hoi-Sang, Mars, and Karl Maka. The movie was directed by Karl Maka, with martial arts directed by Sammo Hung and Lau Kar-wing.
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| Sammo Hung (left) as Crazy Frog, and Lau Kar-wing (right) as Dirty Tiger. |
In Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog, Dirty Tiger (played by Lau-Kar-wing) is hired to find Crazy Frog (played by Sammo Hung), who has gone missing. Dirty Tiger finds him, and finds out that Crazy Frog is in possession of the Invincible Armor, a chain-link vest that makes the wearer impervious to weapon and physical strikes. Dirty Tiger then decides to try to trick Crazy Frog into giving him the Invincible Armor. They team up to scam people into giving them money for the Invincible Armor, but soon Crazy Frog loses possession of it, and eventually all the shady martial artists in the town want it! The Invincible Armor changes hands multiple times, and Dirty Tiger and Crazy Frog have to track it down (fighting everyone they face) and assert their ownership over it...
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| Dean Shek (left) and Meg Lam Kin-Ming (right) are just two of the shady people who want the Invincible Armor. |
Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog is mainly a zany comedy (slapstick, if you want to get technical). There is a lot of silly comedy in this! From what I have learned over the years, Hong Kong film goers enjoy broad comedy and clever wordplay. This movie is full of that! I like the movie, and enjoy the comedy for the most part, but others really dislike the comedy in this. Just remember, comedy is subjective. You may think it is funny, you may not. To me, Sammo Hung is hilarious in Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog. He is a bit dimwitted, so he keeps getting put in bad situations that he comedically has to deal with. Sammo's facial expressions are the best part of the movie (besides the fight scenes). He makes such funny faces in this, even his ears will make you laugh!
The plot is basic, really. It's all the twists and turns of who has the Invincible Armor, and all the tricks used to get it that make the movie interesting. Even though Dirty Tiger and Crazy Frog are not really pure good guys (they are con men, basically), you really root for them to get the Invincible Armor back. Well, I hoped Crazy Frog got the armor back, Dirty Tiger not so much.
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| The fight scenes get real good at the end! |
The fight scenes in Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog are a mixed bag. In the early parts of the movie, or more accurately, the whole movie until the final two or three fights, the fights are kind of basic. This is not a bad thing, as there is still some awesome choreography and martial arts displayed. Sammo Hung has an especially awe-inspiring fight scene early on. The way it's shot, you think it is a stunt double until he turns around and shows his face. This scene will be a surprise if you've never seen Sammo Hung in action before. There is a lot of comedy in the fights, there isn't really any bloodthirsty violence in this movie. The best fights are at the end (of course). These fights have more of that intricate and hard-hitting choreography that we've come to expect from a Sammo Hung movie. Lau Kar-wing (who is the brother of legendary Shaw Brothers movie director Lau Kar-leung) also shows his expert martial arts skills in this. He is so good, and I feel he is underrated as a martial arts movie actor. He and Sammo choreographed Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog together, and they did a great job, I feel. It is also cool to see where Sammo's choreography was at this point in his career.
This movie has a bunch of martial arts movie stars playing the henchmen in this. Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-ying, Chin Yuet-sang, Chung Fat, Fung Hak-on, Hsiao Ho, Mang Hoi, and Peter Chan Lung, among many more appear in this movie!
In conclusion, Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog is a very silly movie with some nice fight scenes. You can tell this is a Karl Maka film, as it feels totally different from the movies Sammo Hung has starred in either directed by himself or by Yuen Woo-ping or Jackie Chan. Some might find it too silly, or not funny at all. Just check it out for yourself! I found the movie very entertaining, with Sammo's performance and the final fight scenes as the standouts. Once again, it is interesting to see Sammo Hung's work before he became one of Hong Kong's top actors/directors.
Reviewed by David Williams
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