Kung Fu Brothers in the Wild West / Kung Fu nel pazzo west (Man Yi Yang, 1973)

Bad_Lieutenant · June 19, 2011, 7:38pm

Database link: Kung Fu nel pazzo west - The Spaghetti Western Database

A couple of weeks ago I received the Dutch vhs of this film, but only now mustered up the courage to watch it. I’ve watched half an hour of it so far and it is unbelievably bad. Horrible cinematography, lousy acting, no pace and a flimsy story. The fights are awful and the main kung-fu guy defends himself against gunmen with a coin. Worse than Tiger from River Kwai? Yes! Fun like Tiger from River Kwai? Hell no! Maybe it’ll get better in the remainder, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

Anybody else seen?

sartana1 · June 19, 2011, 7:49pm

Havent seen this one. The Kung Fu/SW hybrids I’ve seen so far weren’t particularly good examples of either genre. I guess Stranger and the Gunfighter was an ok SW with terrible Kung Fu…

Bad_Lieutenant · June 19, 2011, 8:35pm

Just finished watching it. Wow, I am bamboozled. So many coins wind up in people´s heads the film should have had Loose Change as title. The final fight goes on forever and ever. The film is much like a bad trip.

sartana1 · June 19, 2011, 8:48pm

I see Jason Pai Piao is in that one… Too bad it sucks he’s usually very good. Off topic but using coins as deadly weapons is one of my favorite things in Kung Fu movies! Have you seen Stormy Sun? aka Super Manchu? Super cheesy

ION_BRITTON · June 19, 2011, 8:58pm

Haven’t seen it, but maybe I’ll do it one day to test the limits of my physical and mental endurance.

Bad_Lieutenant · June 20, 2011, 9:27am

Here you’ll geet bored with it really quickly. It is cheesy though, especially because the characters that get coins in their forehead all gaze in disbelief far too long before falling to the ground. Jason Pai Piao isn’t that great here, but at least he fights better than William Berger, haha.
It’s just an incredibly stupid film. Some dudes from the seventies sporting cowboy hats talking about going to a Chinese restaurant, William Berger getting martial arts training in a fight school next to the saloon, LOL.

;D
I strongly recommend you not to. My girlfriend literally got angry because this film was on, yelling at the tv how bad it sucked.

ENNIOO · June 20, 2011, 1:57pm

Not got round to viewing this one yet. It is at bottom of my to watch pile…may stay there for a while .

kung_fu_gunman · December 31, 2014, 4:31am

Cheaply made kung fu/western. Not nearly as good as Shanghai Joe, and I’m not a big fan of Shanghai Joe. The kung fu fights are pretty good. The final fight between Pai Paio and Kao Kang has it’s moments, but it goes on for about 10 minutes too long. And that’s the problem with this movie. When a flaw occurs, it turns into a disaster. I’m glad I saw it, but there’s nothing to recommend. The only positive thing I can think of is that it’s not quite as bad as the John Liu kung fu/western Dragon Blood.

Filmlovr1 · January 1, 2015, 12:18am

In Dragon Blood, the John Liu/Phillip Ko end fight is excellent, and it doesn’t fit the rest of the movie, which, quality-wise, is about the level of a home movie made by elementary school kids (and some kids can probably do better).

kung_fu_gunman · January 1, 2015, 6:29am

Yeah that fight is awesome. It’s been so many years, I should watch it again if I can get the courage. I think the end fight is with Roger Paschy. But I don’t remember anything about it. I do remember being disappointed with Phillip Ko’s death. It’s always sad to see a supreme kung fu performer get defeated by bullets. Speaking of kung fu westerns, this is a bit off topic, but have you seen “Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay”? I’d say this is George Wang’s best role. Really good movie. One of the best east meets west type of movies.

Filmlovr1 · January 1, 2015, 9:07pm

Yes, ‘Have a Good Funeral, My Friend…Sartana Will Pay’ is a very good spaghetti.

Sorry for getting further off-topic, but ‘Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die’ is not an ‘Eastern/Western’, and is a pretty poor film, but is interesting for the fact that the main villain, a Mexican bandit named El Fuego, is played by legendary Japanese actor Tatsuya Nadadai.

last.caress · January 3, 2015, 6:35pm

It’s a magnificent film! Tatsuya Nakadai was, imo, an inspired choice for his role, too. Looked right at home in a Spag.

Filmlovr1 · January 3, 2015, 8:50pm

I thought Nakadai was great in the role, but I felt the movie itself suffered from a very bland leading man. The lead was so bland, in fact, I found myself rooting for the bandit leader. I guess I should revisit it again, though

The_Man_With_a_Name · May 27, 2019, 5:24am

Just got around to watching this. Overall, it’s not that bad. It feels like a typical Kung Fu film from this era with a simple plot and lots of fighting. The biggest complaint I have is that it feels a bit unfinished. What happened to William Berger? My copy is just over 85 minutes (NTSC).

Admin · September 9, 2023, 10:16am

This film’s entry in our database has been updated to the new layout. Our info here is rather thin, so I am hoping some of you can help out enrich the page with information, trivia, facts, reviews, pictures and more.

Mickey13 · November 29, 2023, 4:52pm

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2023 thread:

Spagvemberfest 2023 - or the crows will drink our beers

The movie basically constitutes poor man’s Shanghai Joe, except that it substitutes gore with slapstick and resolutely plunges into pure parody and unabashed absurdity with some superficial references to the Watergate scandal and the assassination of JFK. Out of all spaghetti western productions, it probably incorporates the most abrasive, incohesive soundtrack which recycles themes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Dr. No (yes, the Bond flick), apart from some other material including circus music, Hammond organ riffs and something which sounds an awful lot like Tirol accordion noodlings. At one point before bandits ride into town, there is a scene in which the sound of hundreds of raspberries (or evacuations) is layered on top of the hubbub of multiple toilets being flushed all at once.

As if that were not enough, there is very little continuity in the way most sequences are spliced together, the framing and composition exhibit so much shoddiness and choppiness that it is often tough for the viewer to piece the action together on the basis of provided shots which is not remedied in the slightest by the ferociously vertiginous camerawork. If self-inflicted torture is your idea of having a good time, this might be right up your alley. Possibly one of the most ramshackle trainwrecks this genre ever saw, the filmmaking here is of such contemptible quality the words inevitably fail to reflect the thoroughgoing decrepitude of the execution the likes of which may be seen only in a handful of other projects helmed by genre’s worst directors such as Crea or Lattanzi. In other words, it has to be seen to be believed, though familiarizing oneself with the content of this so-called production is highly inadvisable.