Mediabook Synopsis: Chung, son of the industrialist Tom, has fallen in love with gambling. His bad reputation and high gambling debts prompt Chung's father to fire him from the company. But the group owner has other concerns. Some of the executives fell victim to a conspiracy and were mercilessly assassinated. Tom hires his right-hand man Chi to convict those behind these assassination attempts. What Tom doesn't know is that by this time a professional assassin is already set on him. That same night, Tom dies in the killer's hail of bullets. While Chi makes all the preparations to take over the management of the company. Chun swore merciless revenge at his father's grave. (82 Mins)

 

Views: A wealthy and corrupt business tycoon is murdered by his closest aid, Cheng – an influential member of the feared International Criminal Group. After he takes over all the businesses and properties, Tang's son Champ starts to smell a rat and sets out to find his fathers killer. But Cheng is always one step ahead and does what he can to stop Champ, which includes having him framed for attempted murder and put in jail. Two years later, once he released from prison, Champ continues to search for the truth which leads to many fights at the risk of his own life!

 

Originally called The First Exposure before it joined the IFD catalogue, Super Dragon's Dynamo is a dark crime thriller that has some pretty decent moments of action, cinematography, and acting, yet still veers clear of ever becoming a true classic of the genre. Oozing the feel of many Hong Kong exploitation films from the late 1970s to early 80s, the film looks pretty good in this widescreen release with clear picture quality and strong colour. While this better version only comes with the German or English dub, it was nice of the distributors to include a lesser quality version of the original Mandarin language film (The First Exposure) on the same disc which runs for about 4 minutes longer – although without English subtitles unfortunately. This would be the last directorial effort of Chung Ching Woon (also known as Joseph Tsung), who made his debut with fun Triumph Of Two Kung Fu Arts starring Michael Chan Wai Man in 1977. In between he would direct The Great Cheat which starred Angela Mao Ying, Champ Wang, and a number of other actors from this; as did his 3rd feature, The Stunning Gambling, albeit without the latter star. It's not that Chung does a terrible job directing, but he never seems to bring anything overly exciting to Super Dynamo and while the film itself isn't a complete disaster, modern viewers may tire of its slower pace – although I hardly found it off-putting. In between the lengthy melodrama and gambling scenes, there are a number of fun fight scenes to keep things moving courtesy of Hong Kong movie veteran Blacky Ko Shou Liang. One memorably gross scene has two men attacking a woman in a dark alley. One guy tries to turn her on by removing his right eye and swallowing it, then insists that he can move his left eye with his teeth before he spits out a jaw-full of dentures. Oddly enough, once our hero arrives and starts kicking ass, his eye are teeth are back in place no problem! Starting his acting career as an extra in the early 70s, Ko went on to star in over 180 films including hits like One-Armed Boxer, The Deadly Silver Spear, Wheels On Meals, City Kids '89, Curry & Pepper, Crime Story, My Father Is A Hero, Black Rose 2, God Of Gamblers Return and many more. The late 70s would see him double-up as an action-choreographer where he would work on films such as The Boxers Adventure, Shanghai Massacre, Days Of Being Dumb, A Better Tomorrow, Legend Of Wisely, and The Last Blood, as well as moving into vehicle stunts for many Hong Kong titles. In 1990, Blacky Ko would make his directorial debut with Whampoa Blues starring Max Mok and the fantastic Curry & Pepper with Jacky Cheung and Chow Sing Chi. His final project would be Life Express of which he would also co-star alongside Richie Ren, before his death in 2003...

 

Taiwanese star Champ Wang Kuan Hsiung became a popular kung-fu star in the early 70s after making his debut in Chao Chow Guy, alongside the equally popular Roc Tien and aforementioned Blacky Ko. For the next 2 decades, Wang would go on to star in almost 80 films which included titles such as Iron Ox: The Tigers Killer, One Arm Chivalry Fights Against One Arm Chivalry, Lady Constables, Shaolin Heroes, Devil Killer, Pink Force Commando, The King Of Gambler 1 & 2, and The Killer From China. He would also direct two films, both of which he also starred in, with Seven Steps To Showdown and Yellow Skin – eventually bringing his film career to and end in the early 90s. While he wasn't the most handsome star of his era, or the most physically impressive, Champ Wang still made enough of an impression to keep his filmography going and does a fine job as the revenge-seeking son in Super Dynamo. He is joined by a host of familiar faces including Sherman Chow Shiu Dung – a Leslie Cheung lookalike who is recognisable from films such as Seven Magnificent Kung Fu Kids, Monkey War, Demon Strike, and The Story Of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. The lovely Suet Lee stars as the woman caught between them both, playing the sister to the former and lover of the latter. Also known as Sidney Yim, Lee would also make a bigger splash the same year as Jackie Chan's love interest in his kung-fu comedy, Dragon Lord. The legendary Danny Lee pops up as a double-crossing lawyer, although it's hardly the greatest role of his career, and stars such as Paul Chang, Lau Dan, Wang Sun, Tin Ching, Shih Chung Tien, Chin Po, Wang Hsieh, and Wang Yu film regular Lung Fei also appear throughout.

 

Perhaps overshadowed by the amount of bigger budgeted and more polished productions coming out of Hong Kong at the same time, Super Dynamo (and it's many titles) still makes for an interesting watch – if not at least once – and wraps things up with an exciting enough finale that makes its short running time of 82 minutes, manageable. That said, there are plenty of other amazing titles I would put ahead of this one before ever getting back to it again – but it wasn't a complete waste of money and time!

 

Overall: Dated and slow at times, Super Dynamo still has a little something to give to save its viewers losing interest!

 

Mediabook Extras: Original Film Version of The First Exposure, Alternate German Opening, Photo Gallery, Trailer (plus a Bonus Disc featuring War City: Die To Win)