Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Ger van Gent
Blood street is a wonderful movie with delicate dialogues and an intriguing plot about a group of people that just don't seem to get along very well; the conflict is solved in a very surprising way! Leo Fong is a great actor; unfortunately he hasn't won any Academy Awards or Golden Globes but who knows ... maybe the Hollywood establishment will come to their senses and recognize the pure and sincere creative genius of this amazing actor. Leo is almost 90 years old and still kicking the living daylights out of his enemies ... this alone should convince the Oscars and GG members of jury to see Leo Fong for who he really is ... one of the best actors in the World!
Comeuppance Reviews
Starting, inexplicably, with a Star Wars-style crawl of text going up the screen informing us of the ever-important back story (and where "San Francisco" is misspelled), we are then re-introduced to P.I. extraordinaire Joe Wong (Fong), last seen in Low Blow (1986). The trouble begins when Vanna MacDonald (Paige) walks into Wong's office and asks him to find her missing husband. Thus, Wong begins an odyssey into the criminal underworld to find Aldo MacDonald, the gangster with the funny bug-eyes. The father-son team of Solomon (Pierce) and Bones (Jeffreys) work as Aldo's muscle, and lest we forget Malcolm Boyd (Norton) a kickboxer/gangster who stages illegal cage fighting matches in his living room. Teaming up once again with Woody Farmer (the guy who played "Fuzzy" in Low Blow) and his accountant (or perhaps his lawyer) Mark, can Wong avoid an oncoming gang war, dirty cops, many bullets, and a rock-bottom budget in order to get to the truth? Leo Fong is back! He's got a new car, a new hat, and a new attitude. Also, the hat may contain magical properties.In this lesser-seen sequel to the aforementioned Low Blow, Leo Fong, who starred in, wrote, and directed the film, gets to indulge all his Sam Spade-like film noir fantasies, putting himself in the driver's seat alongside some of his buddies like Stack Pierce (and Director of Photography Frank Harris, but surprisingly no Cam Mitchell), drowning it all in a moody sax soundtrack. One character even calls him "a cross between Bruce Lee, Philip Marlowe and a Catholic priest". I guess that's the beauty of writing a starring role for yourself. His flat delivery and brutal martial arts moves remain unchanged, and this time it's topped off with a voice-over by Fong himself, containing many groan-inducing single-entendres. But at least you can hear and see everything this time around, despite the bad video quality and junky overall feel.One of the villains' names is Aldo MacDonald, but it sounds like Fong is calling him "Old MacDonald". Many other characters have funny voices, and Chuck Jeffreys MUST be related in some way to Eddie Murphy. Fong has really ramped up the brutality this time around, and, because it is Fong, sadism has never been so funny. Blood Street is also fairly nonsensical: right in the middle of Joe Wong's journey, we see a title card that says "Four Years Earlier" and we go back in time to basically another plot where he's chasing down this dude in Mexico. Add to that the fact that the plot has more twists and turns than Lombard street in Fong's beloved San Francisco, and you have another mind-bending (or perhaps numbing) Fongtabulous experience.The S.F. locations are a highlight of the film, and another great facet of Blood Street is that it is filled with dialogue and racial slurs you would never hear today. Fong is the most lovable wooden thing since the Nutcracker and you can't help but admire the guy and his work, defying the rules of budgets, acting, technical ability and even filmmaking itself to produce a highly entertaining product strictly meant to delight his fans. And it works.Released on VHS in the U.S. on the small KB Releasing label (does anyone out there know anything about them?), the running time stated on the box is 88 minutes, but in fact is is a brief 79.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
adamjames1
Leo Fong is the King of American Kung Fu Movies and Guerrilla Film Making and he always delivers. Watching this movie is an indulgent taste of uninhibited and truly independent film making and the action scenes are shot with the classic techniques and without wires and special effects.It's amazing that Leo Fong never sold out to the studio driven industry and ending up playing a serious of "character" parts, and instead he's held firm to his visions and created excellent, independent films for four decades.If you think about it, he's an action star in his senior years who writes, directs and produces his own films - he's the Clint Eastwood of the independent film industry. He's also a pioneer of minority film making and guerrilla film making and he's increasing being recognized for his contribution to the history of cinema.
Bill
I saw this film a few years ago and the main reason for getting it was due to the fact that Leo Fong and Stack Pierce were in another film together. I was expecting to see Cameron Mitchell pop up somewhere but it didn't happen.Leo Fong again reprises his role as PI and he's not to bad in this one. I think that Leo Fong displays here some of his acting ability , or is it just charisma ? Well whatever it is Leo Fong is good ! Some great action scenes from him and the one with him beating up some guys in the bar is great ! The story isn't bad and with the way it comes off , the movie is quite enjoyable. Stack Pierce of course is great as Solomon and he's always convincing. I'll pick up the DVD of this one as its always good to catch again.
