Low Blow
Low Blow
R | 01 April 1986 (USA)
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Joe Wong is a private investigator who goes in search of a young girl kidnapped by a religious cult. Destined to save her, he teams up with a Vietnam vet, a pro-boxing champ and a former cop to save her...

Reviews
Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away
BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Bereamic Awesome Movie
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Michael Ledo Based upon the unqualified success of "Killpoint" Fong teams up with Cameron Mitchell to bring us a classic film of the era hitting on all the hot news items. Fong is an ex-cop now a PI. He drives the worst vehicle in town and eats chicken's feet. When Patty Hearst joins Jim Jones' cult, Fong springs into action with a tough guy contest to recruit martial art fighters/boxers to battle guys with assault guns. Our holy man has both a red dot and Star of David tattoo on his check, so we know he is really holy. It's all good clean fun.Originally known as "Savage Sunday" available on multi-packs. It totally smokes "Killpoint". The metal saw on the hood had me scratching my head.
Crap_Connoisseur This movie reeks of 1980s, straight-to-video action: zero budget special effects, "filler" action sequences and some utterly loony acting. It may sound bizarre, but those are also the very reasons why I enjoy this film so much.In comparison the action movies of today, Low Blow seems positively wholesome. There is not much blood, no sex and the emphasis is more on fist fighting than high-tech weaponry. However, the film is never boring. The action is fairly constant and there are occasional touches of humour along the way.Leo Fong plays private detective, Joe Wong. Joe is hired to find a missing rich girl, Karen. Karen not only has a very unattractive hairstyle but is also completely moronic, as evidenced by her falling in with one of the most ridiculous cults ever depicted on film - complete with a black sheet wearing blind guru and a crazy woman played by real life Ghanian princess Akosua Busia. Leo Fong's dead-pan delivery and no frills martial arts style suit his character perfectly. A special mention must be given to Akosua who turns in the most ludicrous performance of her career.After having his butt kicked trying to infiltrate the compound, Joe realises that he needs assistance taking out the wackos and naturally enough, decides to hold a tough man contest to find some extra muscle. The scenes of the contest are some of my favourite in the movie. The fights are brief but varied and amusing. I particularly liked the wrestlers and the bizarre iron lady with the blond mullet. The film then comes to its rather predictable climax with some fun action and a good dose of humour.
Bill A pretty good cast here with ... Leo Fong , Cameron Mitchell , Stack Pierce , Akosua Busia , Troy Donaghue , Diane Stevenett and I think that Hope Holliday plays a small part as a Head Mistress of a school.Four of these actors incl Leo Fong are from the other movie Kill Point ! Cameron Mitchell (High Chapparel 1960's TV Western) as Yarakunda is just plain weird. Akosua Busia (Colour Purple) as the sadistic Karma , is weird as well but SO gorgeous it isn't funny. Diane Stevenett as Joe Wong's secretary Diane is really cute and plays her part fairly well. Stack Pierce as Corky , as always is mean looking deadly and certainly comes up well , as well as can be expected. I'm sure though that his part in the movie has a different name , possibly "Duke". Anyway he throws some good punches. He is a first rate actor !I suppose that you can't expect any Oscar award winning from Leo Fong , but never the less I have seen worse actors. Actually Leo Fong isn't too bad as an actor and even though he's never had the coaching I'd bet he's got more ability than Arnie and JCVD. He can be quite funny at times and has his moments and you realize that you get a liking for the guy.I suppose that he's a little mechanical , but you can see the breaks where he lightens up every so often.The movie is a bit better than mediocre and has some good action scenes. Leo Fong is quite a good martial artist and even though you don't see all of the acrobatics and technical trickery etc ... you get some realistic scenes. Fong as you can see is a pretty strong guy and for his age he does well. The best action part is in the building where Fong takes on a couple of guys an does them over. The part on the stair case is good !All in all I quite enjoyed the movie and his part as Joe Wong. And what a rough scruffy PI he is. You sort of get the impression that as soon as he'd make the money from a case he'd spend it on whatever before the bills etc.I own this on DVD now but I saw it a couple of years back and then I recalled seeing it sometime in the late 80's . I thought that the actor was MA Expert and board breaker Pu Gill Gwon , the author of "The New Forms of Tae Kwon Do" Anyway its not Pu Gill Kwoon or Pu Gill Gwon , Its Leo Fong an I'm glad that I have the movie as I'll watch it again.
vvanpo I own a collection of Beta videotapes with recordings I made back in the mid- to late-1980s. I've been watching through them and I came upon a volume that led off with something called "Low Blow". For the life of me I couldn't remember anything about this movie. Why did I record it? The third name listed on the opening credits told me. I had a thing for Akosua Busia back in the day.The first name listed, Leo Fong, told me to expect some sort of chopsocky effort. Sorry for the stereotype. The first scene proved me wrong of sorts. It is an unintentional comedy.Leo's character, Joe Wong, notices something amiss at the local greasy spoon. Three perps, armed with shotguns and the like, are holding up the joint. Joe, like any sane person, tucks his handgun in the back of his pants, strides in there and proclaims "Where's my ham sandwich?!". Naturally after that he soon gets the drop on all three and bang! bang! bang! problem solved.Next scene is the obligatory chewing out by the brass at the police station. Here is a prime example of "Low Blow"'s greatest weakness of which there are many. Mr. Fong's total lack of screen writing skill. I'd be hard pressed to think of any scene with dialogue lasting more than a minute of two. Here the cops make their empty threats. Joe responds with the excruciatingly wrong-headed "I save a couple of lives in there.", takes back his gun and heads out the door.It turns out Joe is not even a rogue cop but a private eye! To describe him, he's got a hang-dog expression that Mr. Fong steadfastly refuses to change throughout the movie. The lone exception is when he splays a malevolent grin while whacking the baddies' Mercedes with a 2x4. He's built more like a truck driver than an athlete. And he's old. I pegged to be in his 40s but Mr. Fong is 10 years older. His office is a pig sty as is his home that from all appearances is located near the municipal dump.One day on the mean streets of San Francisco, wealthy businessman John Templeton (alright Troy Donahue!) witnesses Joe handily dispatch a couple of yahoos who had mugged a purse off an old lady. Then and there Mr. Templeton decides that Joe is his man to rescue his daughter from a religious cult.It seems she has given up all her worldly possessions to follow the word of Yarakunda (you think I'm making this up?) played by a heavily-sedated Cameron Mitchell. But the real power is held by Yarakunda's right-hand girl, Karma (Busia). She holds the flock in a compound surrounded by armed guards led by Billy Blanks of "Tai-Bo" fame to keep them in and strangers out. Busia gives the most over-the-top performance I have seen. She chews scenery like the bag of candy she always carrying.After visiting, and escaping from the compound, Joe decides on a plan. Put together a motley crew to infiltrate the compound. The switch-blade fighter from the barrio, Sticks the numchuck expert, a huge mound of lumpenflesch named Fuzzy, a boxer even older than Joe, etc. Together they'll take on machine gun-wielding men. Of course, in these types of movies the enemy is always utterly incompetent. There's even a showdown between Blanks and Fong that almost reaches the absurdity of John Cusack vs. Benny "the Jet" Urquidez in "Grosse Pointe Blank".Well now I know why Akosua Busia flamed out after the Color Purple. That always brings me tears, "Low Blow" brought me tears of laughter.