SLAUGHTER IN SAN FRANCISCO

Eureka Video UK Blu-ray Synopsis: San Francisco police officers Don Wong (Wong Tao) and John Sumner (Robert Jones) save a young woman (Sylvia Chang) from being assaulted by a gang of criminals. Unfortunately, all the crime in San Francisco is run by Chuck Slaughter (Chuck Norris), who doesn't take kindly to police interfering in his business. Wong is kicked off the force by his corrupt Captain, and Sumner is murdered by Slaughter's men. Using his powerhouse kung fu skills, Wong vows to clean up the streets and take down Slaughter once and for all! A gloriously trashy slice of gritty kung fu action, Slaughter In San Francisco was producer Raymond Chow's attempt to capitalise on Hong Kong cinema's sudden explosion of popularity in the West. Eureka Classics is proud to present Slaughter In San Francisco for the first time ever on Blu-ray from a new 2K restoration! (106 Mins)

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Shout Factory US Blu-ray Synopsis: A pair of San Francisco cops stop at nothing to clean up the streets - even if it means crossing the city's notorious crime lord, Chuck Slaughter (the iconic Chuck Norris)! (106 Mins)

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Joy Sales HK VCD Synopsis: An American Chinese, Huang, and a Black American, Blackie, are policemen in San Francisco. Huang is called the yellow faced tiger because of his advanced martial art and his hot temper. One day, Blackie is ambushed by thugs that he had offended in his duty. Huang, in an attempt to save his friend, kills one of the thugs. Because of this, he is dismissed by his superior, Newman. After serving sentence for a year, Huang still keeps in touch with Blackie. One night, while chasing some bank robbers, Blackie is killed in the backyard of a Chinese called Chu. The next morning, Newman arrests Chu, and forces him to sign his plea. Meanwhile, Huang starts investigating into Blackie's death, and finds that Newman is actually a member of the criminal gang. he kills Newman, and warns Chu's defending lawyer, but the boss of the gang has already murdered the lawyer... 

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Views: After his ex-partner is killed, a young Chinese-American cop goes after the thugs that killed him and uncovers a much bigger threat than he first imagined. The vengeful dragon soon finds himself up against the biggest drug lord of the city who just happens to have his boss, and most of the San Francisco police department, deep in his pocket. Now, without anyone to back him up, the yellow-faced tiger must do what he can to stand up against San Francisco's biggest gang – taking them down one by one, before he enters a fight to the death with the big boss!

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Following Bruce Lee's death in 1973, writer and director Lo Wei stuck around San Francisco after the superstar's funeral with the intention of visiting some potential locations for his latest production called Yellow Faced Tiger with the help of Golden Harvest producer Andre Morgan. While he had hoped to have the little dragon back as his leading man after directing Bruce in both The Big Boss and Fist Of Fury (making this their third collaboration for Golden Harvest studios), Wei and Raymond Chow were now on the lookout for a new star. Of course, Lo Wei was still considered to be one of Golden Harvest's biggest directors having already delivered the aforementioned Bruce Lee hits as well as films such as Jimmy Wang Yu's Seaman No.7, A Man Called Tiger, The Tattooed Dragon, and kung fu classics like The Comet Strikes, The Hurricane, Back Alley Princess and it's sequel, Chinatown Capers; a kung fu comedy which happened to have the first appearance of a young Don Wong Tao as a character known as the Yellow Faced Tiger. Interestingly, that same production was also shot and set in San Francisco with many believing that, understandably, both it and Yellow Faced Tiger were shot back-to-back by Lo Wei for Golden Harvest – thus introducing Don Wong's kung-fu cop character before giving him his first leading man role in this feature...

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Don was the son of George Wang, a popular actor who appeared alongside him in films such The Hot The Cool & The Vicious, The Battle For The Republic Of China, and Born To Be King, as well as appearing in films such as To Kill With Intrigue, Eat Man Drink Woman, and The Grandmaster. Although he had signed a three-picture deal with Golden Harvest, Don's time with the studio was cut short after he was blamed as the reason Yellow Faced Tiger had failed to light up the box office. Of course, Wong would very quickly go on to become a hugely successful kung fu star and a favourite of many martial-arts film fans with roles in classics such as The Secret Rivals, The Hot The Cool & The Vicious, Along Comes A Tiger, Eagle's Claw, Phantom Kung Fu, Shaolin Invincible Sticks, Drunken Tai Chi, and many more. But as exciting and impressive as Wong Tao is in his role here, kung fu film fans and the western market were more interested in his main nemesis – played with 70s class by martial arts champion Carlos Ray Norris; better known to the world as Chuck Norris!​ After a brief role in the 1969 spy comedy, The Wrecking Crew, that saw Bruce Lee choreograph some fight action on set, Chuck was brought to the attention of martial-arts movie fans when he appeared in Lee's box-office smash and directorial debut, Way Of The Dragon, as one of the main villains. While he hadn't yet fallen in love with the film world, Chuck agreed to play the antagonist once again for Golden Harvest in Yellow Faced Tiger – promised by its director and producers that it would only be released in Asia. But as the years passed and Chuck became known as one of Hollywood's biggest action stars with films such as Breaker! Breaker!, Good Guys Wear Black, A Force Of One, and The Octagon, Raymond Chow felt it was a good idea to play to Chuck's success and release Yellow Faced Tiger in the States, re-edited and re-titled as Slaughter In San Francisco – although also found a third title during its early VHS days as Karate Cop. Of course, it's only fair to note that Chuck was never happy about this move by Golden Harvest, and even went as far as to use legal force to stop the film from being shown or getting a general release in the United States.

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While Wong and Norris are joined by a large number of US actors – many of whom were making their debut roles such as martial artist Daniel Ivan who does a great job as the corrupt police captain and Robert Jones as Wong's close friend and ex-partner – Hong Kong film fans are treated to the beauty of popular actress Sylvia Chang who had also just starred alongside Wong in the aforementioned Chinatown Capers. In fact, this was only her fourth film since entering the business only a year before with The Flying Tiger, The Tattooed Dragon, and aforementioned Lo Wei feature coming in before. Surprisingly, only four years after this, Sylvia would make her own directorial debut with Once Upon A Time, going on to write and direct 16 features through to 2022 including titles such as Passion, Mary From Beijing, Princess D, and Run Papa Run. Of course, the Taiwanese born actress has also racked up over 100 starring roles to date, appearing in films like Legend Of The Mountain, the Aces Go Places Series, A Rascal's Tale, Eat Man Drink Woman, Soursweet, Chicken & Duck Talk, Love Education, and many more. Equally impressive is prolific actor Erh Chun, star of 130 films of which he made across 2 decades. Chun stars as Sylvia's father and also doubles-up duties as the assistant director – a job he had previously done for Lo Wei on films such as Back Alley Princess, The Tattooed Dragon, Chinatown Capers, and Naughty Naughty, while actors such as Wong Sam, Ma Man Chun, and Tu Chia Cheng also appear throughout...

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Fight fans should also keep an eye out for a young Chin Yuet Sang and Lam Ching Ying, both of whom appear as thugs and also double-up as the films' fight directors. While they provide plenty of great action moments that lead to a fun showdown between the leads, it's clear that they were under orders to make Don Wong look as much as Bruce Lee as they could, when in action. Of course, Lam had been a long time stunt man for Bruce and worked with him on many of his films, so the influence is clear which – to some degree – probably makes this one of Golden Harvest's first Bruceplotation flicks. And while they may feel slightly chop-socky at times, the wide range of fight scenes are highly enjoyable for the most part, allowing Wong to show off his incredible kicking skills – even in his tight denim jeans.​ The film is nicely captured by cinematographer Cheung Yiu Cho, a DOP who also worked on Jackie Chan films such as Drunken Master 2, Project A, The Protector, Armour Of God, Police Story, Wheels On Meals, and more including Inspector Wears Skirts 4, Last Hurrah For Chivalry, The Dead & The Deadly, and White Storm, while the late and hugely talented Joseph Koo composes another fun score, as he has done for Lo Wei movies many times over the years. As it stands, Yellow Faced Tiger (or Slaughter In San Francisco) isn't as bad as many have made out over the last 50 years with the full original Chinese release proving to be a much better watch than the re-edited and re-dubbed version – confirmed even more so by this stunning 2K restoration from Eureka Video. So with that, I think it's only fair to say how much of an underrated director Lo Wei actually was – as well as an important figure of Hong Kong cinema and its major studios throughout the 1960s and 70s. While his work may often seem cliched by today's standards, Lo Wei knew how to entertain and, five decades later, the Slaughter Of The Yellow Faced Tiger In San Francisco still manages to do that – even if it is unintentional at times!

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Overall: Great fun and fight filled, Slaughter In San Francisco is a joy to watch and a great debut by the wonderful Don Wong Tao!

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Eureka Video Blu-ray Extras: 2K Restoration, Yellow Faced Tiger Hong Kong Theatrical Release, Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth (HK Cut), Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema (US Cut), Karate Cowboy: Talking Chuck featurette with Mike Leeder & Arne Venema, Film Locations & Interviews featurette, Trailers

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Shout Factory Blu-ray Extras: Alternate English Cut (88 Mins), Audio Commentary with Frank Djeng, Interview with Kim Newman, Trailers, Image Gallery

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Watch my unboxing video of the Eureka Video Blu-ray release HERE

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Watch my unboxing video of the Shout Factory release HERE

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Watch my video retrospective for this film HERE​

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