Black Belt Karate (1977)

Black Belt Karate was a Hong Kong-Indonesia joint production with a mixture of Hong Kong and Indonesian actors. Indonesia provided most of the settings, giving some new blood to the standard Hong Kong and Taiwanese kung fu fare. The movie itself could have used a transfusion of screen presence magnetism.

The movie began with a goofy character named Tommy arriving in Indonesia from Hong Kong looking for his uncle. He wanted to learn karate at his school, but upon arrival it turned out his uncle had moved and a restaurant had replaced the school. The restaurant owner hired him to wash dishes and do odd jobs. Tommy spent most of his time practicing karate moves and watching the demonstrations at the Golden Eagle martial arts school when he should have been working. He was fired from his job and began work as a cart driver where he bumped into a beautiful girl whose father just happened to own the Golden Eagle. He began work as a janitor at the Golden Eagle and ran afoul of Lamoz, the top coach, who had his eyes on Tan Wei, the master's daughter. After Lamoz put the beat down on Tommy, the comic relief was allowed to begin training. Master Sai believed Tommy was a diamond in the rough and would one day become a great karate expert. Billy Chong, who was only referred to as Second Brother, became good friends with Tommy.

Tommy improved and won a local tournament which resulted in the sore loser picking a fight with him later. After Tommy defeated him, it turned out the fight was against the Golden Eagle rules and Lamoz saw to it that Tommy was kicked out. After Lamoz revealed he wanted to marry Tan Wei so that he would inherit the Golden Eagle, Master Sai kicked him out. Lamoz began work at GA's rival school, the Dragon Martial Arts School. Master Sai became ill and asked Tommy to return. When Tommy was out on an errand, Lamoz brought the Dragon students to the Golden Eagle and terrorized the students and tore down their sign board. Master Sai sent Tommy to Hong Kong to further his studies.

In Hong Kong, Tommy met Bruce Leung as Hsieh Kwong, which set up the best fight in the movie as the two sparred. Tommy returned to Indonesia after finishing his training to find that Master Sai had died when he fought off Lamoz, after the creep tried to rape Tan Wei. The big showdown between Tommy and Lamoz was comically short and failed to give the catharsis the character and the audience deserved. The Dragon school called in a ringer, Lo Lieh, to kill Tommy. Despite Lo Lieh showing up in a fancy black and red cape, it didn't help him in the fight.

This film was an odd one. When the film began with Larry Lee doing a comic relief act, I kept waiting for Billy Chong to show up as the main character since he received top billing on the DVD. Instead, Lee with his less than leading man looks or acting ability was the star. Billy would have his chance soon enough in his movies that followed. Lee had above average martial arts skills and indeed did train in Goju Ryu karate. His moves and choreography were realistic enough in most instances. Bruce Leung also was credited with martial arts direction. I truly enjoyed watching Bruce and Larry spar, it was quick and showed off their kicking skills. With the exception of the final fight and Bruce Leung's fight with Chiang Tao, most of the fights were well above kung fu posing. I'm an unabashed Lo Lieh fan, but despite Lo Lieh being Indonesian, this movie could have used a more skilled karate fighter for the big finale. My dream casting would have been Kurata Yasuaki. As it was, the final fight was a let-down. Most of the fights after Tommy returned to Indonesia were of a lower quality than the earlier parts of the movie.

Black Belt Karate had plenty of fights for martial arts enthusiasts with talented bit players and stuntmen filling in the action. Even though it lacked that special narrative spark and charismatic acting that would have made it more memorable, the movie is still one to try for the different fight style and setting than most of the Hong Kong movies in this era had.

3/20/23

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