Chucktastic
Summary
Slaughter In San Francisco is wonderfully trashy and really only worth watching for Chuck Norris playing a villain. The film is hilarious for all the wrong reasons which is why it’s so fun. Eureka have done a great job restoring the film and the special features will keep you entertained for a few hours.
Plot: San Francisco police officers Don Wong (Wong Tao) and John Summer (Robert Jones) save a young woman (Sylvia Chang) from being assaulted by a gang of criminals. Unfortunately, all the crime in San Francisco is run by Chuck Slaughter (Chuck Norris), who doesn’t take kindly to police interfering in his business. Wong is kicked off the force by his corrupt Captain, and Summer is murdered by Slaughter’s men. Using his powerhouse kung fu skills, Wong vows to clean up the streets and take down Slaughter once and for all!
Review: I picked up Eureka’s Blu-ray set of this trashy kung fu classic Slaughter in San Fransico AKA Yellow-Faced Tiger starring Chuck Norris and Don Wong Tao. This isn’t a great movie by any means, but it’s such fun that it’s hard to dislike.
First of all we have Chuck Norris playing a villain and he was damn good at it too; he could come off incredibly sleazy at times, but I also think his chest hair deserves its own spin-off as it was so distracting.
He doesn’t show up until later into the movie as Don Wong Tao is the real lead character. Some of the acting and dialogue are hilariously terrible which adds to the sheer entertainment value.
This Blu-ray from Eureka contains 2 versions of the film – one which is the dubbed version known as Slaughter in San Francisco and the longer cut known as Yellow-Faced Tiger.
There are regular fight scenes and the final showdown between Don and Chuck is worth the wait with some amazing sound effects too.
Special Features are as follows:
- Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Sam Gilbey [2000 copies]
- 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray of both the original Hong Kong theatrical and US export versions from brand new 2K restorations
- Original Mandarin mono audio
- “Classic” English dubbed mono audio
- Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release
- Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng & Michael Worth (Hong Kong theatrical)
- Brand new feature length audio commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema (US export version)
- New featurette by martial artist and actor Michael Worth
- Trailer
- A Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by James Oliver [2000 copies]
The Blu-ray has some enjoyable special features and the chat between Mike Leeder and Arne Venema is a highlight; you can never go wrong with Frank Djeng and Michael Worth either who also provide an informative commentary.
Overall, Slaughter in San Francisco is entertaining for all the wrong reasons with Chuck Norris stealing the show as a villain and it has some fun fight scenes too. You can clearly tell most of the hits don’t make contact which only adds to the hilarity. Eureka have done a nice job here with the film looking and sounding great and enough special features to be worth adding to the collection especially if you’re a die-hard Chuck fan.
