The Tongfather (1974) User Reviews

Hard Core "Old School" Tale of Gangsters and Kung Fu Mayhem

[lemon_magic · 6/10 · 9 February 2008]

I saw this film under the title "Hands Of Death" in the recent "Martial Arts Classic 50 pack" collection. It's no masterpiece by any means - there is no character development to speak of, and the plot is a very straightforward tale of good guys beating up bad guys. But it is pretty darn good for what it is : pure "grind house" chop sockey.

"Roc" Tien stars in this and directs it as well. He plays a lawman assigned to break up an opium ring (along with his partner) by any means necessary. In this case, this entails a point-to-point fight-and-destroy scenario where Roc and the partner walk into various bad guys' places and kill them in hand-to-hand combat. These fight scenes are solid, free from filler and fluff, and uncompromisingly brutal.

People don't really "act" in a movie like this so much as they get their lines out and pose for the camera. But the performances are effective and the cast is very uniform in quality - even with the English dubbing, there really isn't a clinker in the cast, and director Roc knows how to keep things moving along.

I don't think a movie like this will win any converts to kung fu flicks as a source of entertainment, but to casual fans of the genre such as myself, it's solid - the kind of experience you look to grind house films for. This movie was easily in the top 10 of the 50 movies in the collection, and I'm glad I saw it. I wouldn't hesitate to take the time to watch another movie directed by or featuring Tien.

Cheaply-made, but violent

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 25 August 2017]

THE TONGFATHER is a familiar, low budget Taiwanese kung fu story in which a Chinese hero goes up against Japanese imperialist troops and wipes them out, one at a time. The usual debt of inspiration is paid to the Bruce Lee flick FIST OF FURY, while youthful hero Tien Peng manages to write and direct the picture as well as starring. The choreography is poor but there's a wealth of violent incident here, accompanied by an incessantly funky soundtrack, so fair-minded fans are likely to be engaged regardless.

Standard kung fu action

[Red-Barracuda · 5/10 · 10 August 2015]

A secret agent is assigned a mission to track down a major drug lord, after the previous government man assigned to the case winds up being murdered.

Hands of Death is a kung fu flick that ticks all of the usual boxes. There are lots of martial arts fights and much heavily dubbed dialogue. The story is pretty basic but this goes with the territory, as this is an action film pure and simple. There wasn't much in it that really stood out for me, aside from an unusual scene where one of the crime bosses breaks his own legs as a means of atoning for the bad behaviour of one of his own men, in an extreme honour ritual for the benefit of one of his rival crime lords. Also of note was the repeated, and almost certainly unauthorised, use of The Temptations song 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone' as an integral part of the soundtrack.

You have the right to remain dead.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 31 January 2018]

The Tongfather isn't a particularly great martial arts movie: the plot - a pair of special agents attempt to smash an opium ring - is instantly forgettable and the fighting fairly routine, at least until the more rousing final showdown. But what makes the film remarkable is its anti-hero (played by the film's director Roc Tien), a lawman who makes Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry seem positively liberal in his approach. Rather than arrest or interrogate the bad guys, the guy simply kills everyone in his path, making The Tongfather a surprisingly brutal watch.

On the way to the inevitable fight against the big boss, we are also treated to the sight of an opium dealer breaking his own leg to compensate for his behaviour, a Japanese guard who orders passing people to become human chairs, and what I can only describe as a 'nipple twist of death' (which would make a great title for a kung fu film!). Also keep an ear out for the repeated use of 'Papa Was A Rollin' Stone' on the soundtrack (no royalties paid, I suspect).

No, really--he says it comes in heavy!

[JohnSeal · 3/10 · 14 December 2008]

"Here's some money. You'll find that it comes in heavy." That's just the first of many immortal lines of dubbed dialogue featured in The Tongfather, a mistitled blend of the kung fu and hard-boiled genres. Like most American home video renderings of Asian action flicks, the image presented on King Bee's NTSC video is horribly pan and scanned and far too dark. (I haven't seen the print offered as part of Mill Creek's 50 Kung Fu Movies set, but it's probably not much better.) At least the voice actors utilized here were not the usual crew of Aussies, and there's no wretched comedy relief. In fact, one suspects that if you saw this film in Chinese and in its original aspect ratio, it might not be half bad. But be warned: if you don't enjoy Papa Was A Rolling Stone, this is not the martial arts picture for you.

nasty old-school chop-socky

[winner55 · 8/10 · 27 July 2006]

This is one nasty old-school chop-socky.

Tien Peng approaches this film with the decision to make his Chinese spy in the Japanese-occupied territories as ruthless as any Western "anti-hero". So of course he comes up with an anti-hero that is the worst imaginable.

I mean, the Japanese guard was certainly despicable - but what "hero" could be so cruel as to force the guard to watch the guard's dog being cooked and eaten - before killing the guard with his own sword anyway? I'd like to say the hero kills first and then asks questions later - but he never bothers to ask any questions.

If it weren't for a great sense of timing - surprising from a director so young - this would be almost intolerably vicious. Be prepared for one of the roughest, most violent fight films of its era, utterly unredeemed with any humor or romance, and where the Chinese hero is the hero simply because the Japanese are bad-guys.

Wicked gritty 1974 Asian crime flick

[seanmoliver64 · 10/10 · 4 July 2008]

From the crudely edited looping of the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" (wahka-chakka guitar with space-echo, etc) as the theme music, to the pastiche of every action film style imaginable (noir, spy, gangster even spaghetti westerns etc) this minor-masterpiece of grotesque violence will be quite a hoot for fans of 1970's crime-movie schlock.

I found it copied from an appropriately battered and discolored 16mm print re-titled as 'Hands of Death' on one of those 'Kung Fu 20-movie-DVD pack' for $5.00 used - and worth every penny. The credits are almost nonexistent, other than 'A Sino-American Co-Production by Terry Levene Directed by Roc Tien' (Roc Tien is also known as Peng Tien) It is is clearly a Chinese picture, but different from the typical martial arts flick from Hong Kong (i.e. Shaw Bros) and apparently Taiwanese. There seems to be slightly different prints circulating, but I'm not certain.

'The Tongfather' has the familiar plot which follows a tough take-no-prisoners detective from the Taiwan police as he infiltrates and destroys several opium smuggling gangs and their bosses across Asia, only to discover they are controlled by a single Japanese crime lord, the ruthless Tongfather.

There aren't many fighting scenes (by martial arts movie standards anyway) but there are a few fairly imaginative and original depictions of brutality and pain, including my favorite - the scene where several underling crime bosses meet with their boss the Tongfather. They're all sitting cross-legged Japanese style on the floor in a circle having tea and discussing crime business. One of the underlings shamefully admits that one of his men betrayed them to the police. The Tongfather asks him how he will atone for this failure. The guilty underling slowly and silently reaches down, grabs his own leg and with all his strength slowly bends it upwards until its bones crack while the others stare in astonishment! The man doesn't scream and only grimaces a bit. Nice!

Available as 'Hands of Death' on Tubi as of June 2023.

The Tong Show!

[udar55 · 8/10 · 25 November 2005]

I took in this early 70s Roc Tien (Tien Peng) kung fu flick the other night and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Roc is a government agent sent into a small village to bust up a opium ring after the first agent there ends up dead. That is pretty much it for plot and you can guess where it goes from there. There a tons of nice fights in this one so you won't ever be bored. This is the first film where I have seen Roc Tien as a fighter (I've also seen his pool shark movie EQUALS AGAINST DEVILS and his gun heavy awesomely titled flick SUPER DRAGON'S DYNAMO) and I was impressed. He has a great presence (imagine Chow Yun Fat in the 70s) and isn't too bad when throwing down. There are also a couple of gruesome moments such as a guy breaking his own leg to show "respect" to the crime boss and a bit where Roc Tien inserts his four fingers into a guy's sternum (hence the re-titling HANDS OF DEATH). Definitely recommended.