The Lizard
Reviewed by YTSL
In the original trailer of this 1972 Shaw Brothers
production, the fact gets triumphantly heralded re that which has a masked
do-gooder as its center featuring then teen idol Connie Chan Po-Chu’s first
movie appearance in two years. Unfortunately for that charismatic
lady’s fans (who, post her maiden sighting of this leading actress by way
of the Hong Kong Film Archive’s screening of “She’s So Brave” in the summer
of 2002, might be said to include this reviewer), this Celestial Pictures
re-release also ended up being the final film of a still much adored individual
who decided to retire from acting at the grand old age of twenty five years.
Although the original trailer additionally makes
it seem like Connie Chan’s Xiao Ju character could be the generally entertaining
offering’s “rob from the rich (and often foreign) to give to the (usually
Chinese) poor” principal personality, it soon becomes clear enough that
-- for all of her possessing fairly formidable martial arts abilities (and
being involved in all three of this effort’s three main set pieces) --
she is but THE LIZARD’s primary female admirer and love interest.
Something else that might be best for people to realize in advance is that
at least one, maybe two, of this period action work’s other cast members
also have more screen time than its first billed actress; and that both
the Everyman looking -- and sometimes representing -- Yueh Hua and the
archetypally villainous Lo Lieh turn out to be good dramatic plus action
foils for each other.
As I see it, one of the problems with filmic offerings
that have a masked personality as its central figure is how to make it
seem plausible for those who know the character when (s)he’s unmasked to
be patently unable to recognize the person even when (s)he is in a not
all that heavily disguised form. The makers of THE LIZARD look to
have, at least initially, sought to account for how this could be in their
picture by suggesting that the offering’s titular character hardly ever
gets seen by anyone, including the local hero’s deserving victims as well
as the area constabulary (who come across as almost entirely composed of
bumbling and/or corrupt personnel). Consequently, even this individual’s
specific gender, never mind general physical build, appeared to be a mystery
to the majority of the populace -- one which, BTW, includes characters
played by a guest-starring Wu Ma and Lydia Shum -- for a time.
Another way which this relatively linearly structured
effort’s makers sought to obscure the identity of the titular personality
from friends plus admirers as well as foe is by providing the movie’s protagonist
with an unassuming seeming everyday personality (that prompted a chum to
(prematurely) proclaim to the individual concerned that “I’m a dinosaur
if you’re THE LIZARD”!). At the same time, even those have seen this
offering’s likeable leading man in just a handful of Celestial re-releases
-- like myself -- may well have little difficulty realizing, and post getting
a few choice glimpses of his half-obscured face early on in the movie,
that Yueh Hua it was whose Cheng Long Ge (AKA Brother Dumb!) character
had chosen to lead a risky Robin Hood or Iron Monkey type double life.
In any event, at the stage in that which probably
ought to be looked upon as only a minor Chor Yuen helmed cum scripted effort
whereby Lo Lieh’s crooked Chief Investigating Officer Chen Can sought to
trap, capture and get THE LIZARD out of his hair once and for all, the
more covert portion of idealistic hero’s identity already was known by
his feisty lady love. After the no longer always stuttering Mr. Cheng
gets put behind bars, Xiao Ju reveals his secret to her actually not as
clever as he thinks he is grandfather (Mr. Yo, AKA Chin Biao Tien) and
another friend cum junior member of the much criticized local constabulary
as a prelude to enlisting their assistance in springing him out of jail.
Initially, this triumvirate’s plans -- one which
involves the spiriting away of a treasured item from the Japanese consul’s
residence to the gambling den operated by Chen Can’s main lackey (a sleazy
individual known as Mr. King who also holds the official position of translator
in a society that is, pointedly(?), shown to not be solely made up of ethnic
Chinese) -- looked to have been carried out without any hitches.
As the subsequently freed Mr. Cheng quickly suspected though, further complications
and problems would ensue from it. Consequently, THE LIZARD’s viewers
get treated to at least one more one-on-one confrontation between Yueh
Hua and Lo Lieh’s characters plus an appropriately climactic battle in
a picturesque setting involving the movie’s key supporting as well as main
personalities.
My rating for this film: 7.