Cosa Nostra Asia (1974)

As the title implies, this Philippines/Hong Kong movie features the Mafia tangling with their Chinese equivalents in Hong Kong, as various factions fall out over a drugs deal.  It has to be said that Cosa Nostra Asia (1974) is, plot-wise, an extremely confusing film.  What should be a straightforward scenario - Mafia-Asia  gangsters drug deal is constantly frustrated by undercover Interpol agent playing off one side against the other - is needlessly complicated by the inclusion of a sub-plot involving various Mafia factions plotting against each other as they jostle for control of the organisation.  I say 'sub-plot' in the singular, but in reality there are multiple sub-plots emerge as the film goes on and more and more factions emerge.  To be absolutely fair, the version of the film that I saw was a) dubbed into German with English sub-titles and b) ran only seventy five minutes - after watching it on a streaming channel, I found that an eighty nine minute version, with the original English soundtrack, is currently available on YouTube.  This latter version is, possibly, less confusing.  But I can't face watching it again so soon.

Like many martial arts action movies of the seventies, Cosa Nostra Asia has a very rough and ready feel - all choppy editing, scenes that feel as if they have been assembled in an arbitrary order and patchy production values.  But in terms of its raison d'etre, the action sequences, it doesn't skimp, offering a virtually non-stop parade of furious Kung Fu fights, all of them very well staged and performed with conviction by the participants.  Star Chris Mitchum is surprisingly convincing in his fight scenes - in fact he looks far more comfortable generally than he ever did in any of the US made films he appeared in around this time.  While not exactly charismatic, Mitchum does provide the film with a focus for the plot and action, playing the Interpol agent stirring things up in the Far East.  Also on show are Philippines martial arts star Tony Ferrer, playing one of the Mafia kingpins, who just happens to be an old school friend of Mitchum and is harbouring a secret, and Hong Kong action star Dick Chen, playing 'Dick Chen', a martial arts school owner with dodgy connections co-opted by Mitchum into helping him.  Cosa Nostra Asia might not be a great picture, but if you want to watch lots of martial arts action, all set to a jaunty jazz-orientated score and with a totally bonkers climax, you could a lot worse than to watch it.  Just don't try and make sense of the plot.