Filthy Guy (1978)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

THE FILTHY GUY is an early vehicle for a pre-fame Sammo Hung, made years before he hit the big time by appearing in the likes of KNOCKABOUT and MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER, films which hold up to this day. Sadly, this film has more in common with the low rent nonsense that Jackie Chan churned out before he achieved fame with Lo Wei and then DRUNKEN MASTER; it's amateurish and largely unfunny.Time has not been kind to THE FILTHY GUY. The plot is one note and poor Sammo plays an extremely dumb character with a filthy head of hair. The only interesting thing is that he's involved in the kind of gruelling training sequences that Jackie would later utilise extensively in the likes of DRUNKEN MASTER and SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW; I never realised Sammo got there first. However, the fight scenes, which are few and far between, are largely lacklustre for those of us who know what the big guy is made of.The film boasts supporting parts for Carter Wong as the villain of the piece and Yueh Hua as his right-hand man. There's the usual dumb comedy involving cross-dressing and animals, but it all largely ambles past without engaging the viewer at all. THE FILTHY GUY also boasts a notably bad dubbing job with some of the most grating accents ever. I'd skip it.

Definitely not one of Sammo Hung's best films but not bad. It was directed by Kim Yung. Although not credited Sammo probably had a hand in the fight choreography which is well done, especially against Carter Wong. The plot is preposterous but a few points like the use of the cattle are original. It is also the only film I can remember where Sammo (suffering from some strange head mange, never explained) goes through a training sequence. Although the film is called Filthy, in the film he is always called 'Dirty Guy'. The females pretending to be men, a common kung fu plot device, is laughable here as the two female leads are gorgeous. But one does tend out to be more than she pretends to be, leading to a good fight with Sammo. Carter Wong is no great actor but can fight well. There are many well known character actors but Dean Shek Tin is under-used. Worth watching but keep the hand on the fast-forward.

This film stars Sammo Hung, an actor and director you might be familiar with, though he isn't a household name. A few years ago, he played the fat cop on the silly TV show "Martial Law". At this point in his long career, he was so obese that many of his stunts seemed to be done by stunt men. However, earlier in his career, he directed many of Jackie Chan's films and made a few of his own. Even in his younger days, he was pretty chunky and far from the typical martial arts hero image. However, with his extensive training as a Chinese acrobat, he was surprisingly light on his feet and could do some interesting tricks in his films. The problem in this particular one is that the movie was supposed to be funny but I never found myself laughing, as the jokes were very broad and the film just bored me to tears. Cheap and forgettable--this isn't one of Sammo's better films (unless you want to see him smashing clay pots over his head--there's a LOT of this in the film).Oh, and lest I forget, the version I saw was the English dubbed one. The dubbing was just awful and the accents sounded a lot like Eric Idle and a lot of working class Englishmen--not the sort of accents you'd expect for this movie and they sounded pretty lame.

This is the worst of the Sammo Hung films of the old-school chop-socky 'fu film era that I've yet seen. Hung is burdened with an ugly wig - a wig conventional to Cantonese comedy, it indicates that the character never washes his hair. This would be mere annoyance, except that the wig is actually the whole point of the movie! Hung is even made to use it as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat! Hung did not write, direct, or even choreograph this mess. The film is clear indication that the chop-socky film producers had not the slightest idea of what to do with the new generation of 'fu stars showing up in the period 1978-1980. Obviously, knowing Hung was beginning to earn a reputation for comedy, the producer decided to hire him for what the producer obviously thought was a funny script. The humor is so low, you can scrape it off your shoe. Hung mugs like the village idiot. This is a far cry from the sophisticated comedy Hung himself writes and directs. And the kung-fu? well, if the dirt on the top of a guy's head counts as a weapon, what sort of fighting can one expect from this? The surviving English-dub video of this film is the worst pan-and-scan job I've seen in a long time, and the dubbing ridiculous.Remember that Hung had already directed the far more polished Iron Fisted Monk by the time he made this film. Clearly he's just picking up a few bucks as quickly as possible. Wish I had known him back then, I'd have paid him not to make the movie! The two stars is for the performance of Carter Wong as the bad-guy of the pic.