The Angry Guest (4 Stars)

This film, made by Shaw Brothers in a 1972, is a direct sequel to "Duel of Fists". I didn't realise this until the film started and a recap of the first film was given during the opening credits. "I've seen all this before. What film was it? Ah, I've got it!"

The same characters appear in both films, but the subtitles are inconsistent. The English transliteration is different. Fan Chu in the first film has become Fan Ko, Wenlie in the first film has become Wen Lieh. That's just a minor annoyance. For the sake of consistency I'll use the transliterated versions from "Duel of Fists".

Wenlie has now relocated to Hong Kong, where he runs a martial arts school. The gangster Qiangren escapes from prison in Thailand, kills Wenlie's mother and kidnaps his girlfriend, Hu Yulan. It seems strange that Wenlie should have left his girlfriend behind, but never mind. Fan Ko and Wenlie travel to Bangkok to find Hu Yulan.

In the meantime, the organisation's big boss, Yamaguchi, has come to Bangkok from Tokyo to run operations himself, because he no longer trusts Qiangren. Yamaguchi is played by the film's director, Chang Cheh. He greets the two brothers and tells them he wants them to run his operations in Bangkok. He only wanted to hold Hu Yulan as an encouragement, it was never his wish to kill Wenlie's mother. He gives them 24 hours to think his offer over. To stop them trying to free Hu Yulan, he's sent her to Tokyo.

The distance is no hindrance. Fan Chu and Wenlie fly to Tokyo and free Hu Yulan. They take her back to Hong Kong. Yamaguchi is furious and sends a team of his best fighters to kill them. The battle begins.

"The Angry Guest" has a different style to "Duel of Fists". The music is loud and gaudy, like a 1960's spy story. This jarred at first, but I got used to it. I'm glad to say that the fighting is a lot more realistic, including David Chiang. Whatever criticism I made of him in the last film no longer applies. The film ends with a thrilling battle on a construction site, as shown in the lobby card above. Bulldozers roll around, men climb cranes, and the fists are flying. Excellent!

There's one thing I'm curious about. The German edition of the film is called "Zehn gelbe Fäuste für die Rache", i.e. "Ten yellow fists for revenge". If I can count properly, Fan Chu and Wenlie only have four fists between them.