Rare Flix With Kicks: Tiger Claws II (1996)

After five years, could they make more out of this?  Today's Film is Tiger Claws II, the 1996 Sequel to the last Film I covered.  As noted, I bought a physical copy of this- the only one in the Series.  Granted, the DVD is dated 1998, so it is not like these Films are widely available or anything.  To give you an idea about how obscure this Series gets, only the first Film has a Wikipedia Page.  Random Actors who once appeared on Star Trek have more thorough of an online presence than this Film does!  The DVD is notable for crediting Rothrock and Yeung, but not the 'Main Lead' here.  Yes, he's still a Producer on these ones, but nobody seemed to tell the nice folks who made this DVD.  They knew who was more marketable- the Film didn't.  The Plot picks up years after the last ones and many things have changed.  For one thing, our Lead's hilarious '90s hair is now short and boring.  Aw, you pulled a Metallica on us!  A new story brings us new villains.  What changes will come with our old one?  What random Plot Twist will suddenly come up in the 3rd Act apropos of nothing?  To find out, read on...

In the 5 years since the last Film, Bolo is in Prison...which is clearly just in a fake Police Station.  He hasn't killed anyone since, but he does randomly break a Guard's arm for being a jerk.

Our Lead/Producer- Jalal- is still a Cop and tries to catch this Arms Dealer who looks like WWE's Cesaro back when he had hair.

So here's where things get complicated (and contrived)...

He gets away (after killing Jalal's new partner- naturally), but is not giving his guns to the buyer.
Said buyer is in San Francisco.
The Guns are in San Francisco.

Guess where he goes.

As *luck* would have it, Rothrock- who broke up with Jalal between Films- is also a Cop in San Francisco.

In her 2nd Scene, she took a break from her Maxim Photo Shoot to call him and invite him to town.

The bad guys break out Bolo- with relative ease- and take him to San Francisco too, since his Brother is the Buyer.  People would win the Lottery every day with this kind of luck!

This brings both of our Leads there to look around for the baddies.

Bolo is reunited with his Crime Lord Brother who...wait a sec.

One of you is Chinese.  One of you is Korean.
Um...what?

Anyhow, the big event is a- say it with me- Kung Fu Tournament.  Sigh.

There's a twist though.  Since it is Chinese New Year, the 2 Tigers (and the Winners) can activate a magic portal to take them back in time!

Korean Brother invited the Gun Dealer to arm his return...and take over the past!

All done processing how f###king random that Plot Twist is?  Good.

After lots of fighting (in a Film that has had little so far), everyone defeats their respective opponents.  They 'face turn' Bolo by having him save his Mentor and kill the Brother.

Our Leads watch him and the Mentor use the Portal...

...and we get an awkwardly-chopped up close-up of Bolo that could be from literally any other Scene.

That's his final shot in Film (for many years, at least), folks!

The pair apparently return to Ancient China and, I guess, live happily ever after.

How did we get here from 'Guy kills Kung Fu Masters in New York?!?!?'  The End.

So...um, what is the deal with this Movie?  Tiger Claws was about our Kung-Fu Cops fighting an evil Kung-Fu Serial Killer.  It was dumb, but it was fun.  Tiger Claws II is about the same Killer now involved in a plan from his brother to time travel back to China.  So...um, what?!?  After five years, they got a new Writer and boy did they go a different direction with this!  Now we have a Fighting Tournament, an Underground Fighting Maze and- to repeat- a magic Time Portal!  Huh?!?  Getting past this bizarre hurdle, the Film never quite feels right.  With its new Villains, new location and changes to key characters, it barely feels like a Sequel.  No, flashing a Montage of Action Scenes from the previous Film in at the beginning is not enough.  A good Sequel builds off of the previous Films, raises the stakes and improves upon what you liked.  In this case, they throw it all out, change the location and just make up a new Plot.  Part of it might be due to outside circumstances.  This (along with another Film from 1996) was Bolo's final Film for about a Decade and a half.  As such, he doesn't exactly do much here.  He has like 2 fights and, strangely enough, never takes his shirt off.  In his final Scenes, they put him in a full robe and cover him, likely to use a double.  His last shot is that random, cropped close-up I showed above.  Did he do this as a favor and have little interest in doing much?  Regardless, they do weird things to his character even when he's on-screen too.  The biggest thing: he is somehow 'redeemed' by killing his evil 'Brother.'  Jalal even says he's 'suffered enough,' despite, you know, KILLING HIS BEST FRIEND in the last Film.  Right.  Tiger Claws II is not a bad Film per se- it's just bizarre.  Speaking of which, I don't want to be mean, but...I mean...this guy...

Next up, I cover the final Film in the Trilogy.  Will it be a logical ending to it all?  Stay tuned...