Foxbat

                                                       
Director: Leung Po-chi
Year:  1977
Rating: 6.5
I was pleased to come across another film directed by Leung Po-chi. He has had an interesting career. Brought up in London to Taiwanese parents, he didn't move to Hong Kong till he joined TVB in 1967 where he produced a number of TV shows. In 1976 he directed his first film - one of the most noteworthy films in what is termed the New Wave. Jumping Ash was a big hit which probably got him the go-ahead for this International film. After this he made a couple terrific slasher films, He Lives by Night and The Island, as well as Hong Kong, 1941 starring Chow Yun-fat. But he has also made films in the West of lesser quality - Out of Reach with Steven Seagal, The Detonator with Wesley Snipes and a Spenser film with Joe Mantegna.



For only his second film with a mixed cast, a complicated story and shot in English, he does a fine job. There are a bunch of well-known HK actors but also a few from America. It was produced by Bang! Bang! Films but distributed by Golden Harvest. The screen play came from Terence Young, director of three of the best Bond films, Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball. How this all came together is a mystery to me. It is a spy film that doesn't really make a lot of sense and I still don't really get it. But I still enjoyed it.



A Russian pilot defects with a plane that can evade radar and lands it in Japan. Everyone wants a look and the Russians want it back. The story quickly moves to Hong Kong, but not before Saxon played by Henry Silva is attacked by a sumo wrestler in a great scene. Saxon is a C.I.A. agent but on the outs with them. He uses his fake eye camera to take pictures of the blueprints of the plane and puts them up for auction - hiding the microfilm in a piece of candy. The Russians send the psychotic Vod and his men to get the blueprints. He is played by the urbane Roy Chiao and two of his men are Melvin Wong and Philip Chan. You may also recognize Yuen Wah as a servant.



It all gets very confusing when a cook (James Yi Lui) accidentally swallows the candy and everyone chases after him. I am not sure if it is Lui or the dubbing, but he is enormously irritating. The chase goes all over Hong Kong. Some nice location shooting and a terrific three way car chase that ends with a car going through a double decker bus. Two other C.I.A. agents are on hand - one played by  Rik Van Nutter (Felix Leiter in Thunderball) and Vonetta McGee who is deadly with a razor sharp necklace. I am still not sure who if anyone was the good guy in the film.