Black Belt Jones 2: The Tattoo Connection

Two of the most prominent exploitation genres of the 1970s were blaxploitation and chop socky. With the latter also popular among ghetto audiences it wasn't long until they were brought together as ingredients of the first kung fu film explicitly intended for western rather than eastern audiences, the 1973 Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon.

Being concerned that Lee's name alone might be insufficient to carry the film in the wider (read white) marketplace director Robert Clouse and Warner Bros. brought in John Saxon to add extra appeal while, in an admittedly more tokenistic gesture, 1971 middleweight karate champion Jim Kelly was brought in for the black audience to cheer on.

While it's questionable whether they were really needed, with Lee unquestionably having the star presence to carry the film all by himself, in retrospect the decision proved a wise one in the wake of Lee's tragic death before Enter the Dragon had even been released as Kelly, trading in on his new found fame, gave black audiences their own bona-fide martial arts hero.

Black Belt Jones (1974) saw Kelly reunited with Clouse and once more combining different exploitation formulas. The story of a karate school in the 'hood that the mafia wants rid off, it brought Hong Kong style action into a blaxploitation environment as Kelly proceeded to bust some moves and heads.

Made four years later, this film does it the opposite way round in terms of taking our Kelly and putting him in Hong Kong, with the co-production nature of the piece apparent throughout.

Though marketed as Black Belt Jones 2 in the UK, with the actual English language title The Tattoo Connection relegated a subtitle, it is in fact a completely separate film, Kelly playing a different character who goes by the name of Lucas.

It takes about a quarter of an hour until Kelly makes his first appearance, this being preceded by two sequences featuring the Hong Kong cast.

In the first loyal gangster Tin-hao (Tan Tao-liang – AKA Flash Legs Tan) retrieves his former friend, Fat Dog, who has betrayed boss Lu, from enemy territory and returns him to face punishment. Lu (Chen Sing) is about to have Fat Dog killed when Tin-hao intervenes, offering to deliver his punishment personally, in the form of a broken arm; a red-hot branding iron to his gang tattoo, and permanent explusion.

In the second a group of robbers, connected to the same gang, conduct a daring raid on a diamond courier, George (Norman Wingrove), just arrived in the colony.

Both are characterised by ultra-bad dubbing and gratuitous use of the zoom lens – but would it really feel the same any other way?

The ultra tacky comic book panel styled credits roll, accompanied by equally cheesy music – “Diamonds”, composed and sang by one Anders Nelson – and Kelly/Lucas walks in. An ex-CIA operative now gone freeland who introduces himself as "The black six million dollar man," he's got the job of recovering the missing North Pole Star.

Meanwhile, Nana, a dancer-cum-prostitute at one of boss Lu's joints, has realised her petty criminal boyfriend knows something about the heist and so wants him to spill the beans and collect on the $100,000 dollar reward.

Lucas makes contact, but is noticed by one of Lu's men, who thus prepare an ambush. Lucas escapes but the Chinese is captured by Lu's men, beaten to a pulp and left to sleep with the fishes.

Examining the dead man's body after it's been pulled out the bay, Lucas notices a distinctive tattoo on the man's arm. Making inquiries at various tattooists, he thus manages to pick up the trail again. So Lu sends a bunch of goons. Once again whups their asses.

Tin-hao shows up, allowing he and Lucas get a measure of one another's skills – eh, pretty good kung fu! – before approaching police sirens force them to break off combat. But a rematch is inevitable…

With his afro, retro tracksuits, tight, angular musculature and broad grin, Kelly makes for a pretty damn cool hero, even if he is dubbed only marginally better than the Hong Kong cast. His moves are also pretty slick, his footwork having that kind of Bruce Lee/Muhammad Ali style shuffle to it. Admittedly, he's pretty wooden as an actor – thought the nature of the production probably didn't help matter here – but then you can't have everything…

The bad guys are pretty much what you'd expect. Only the conflicted Tin-hao really shows much in the way of characterisation, the rest being stock laughing sadistic thugs, although Bolo Yeung stands out by way of his distinctive physique and looks.

Otherwise, it's all groovy funky music; bad fashions and designs; gratuitous nudity and violence – all par for the course – with the odd "what the fuck" moment to make it memorable, like a rape scene intercut with stills of Formula 1 race cars or one of the worst falling dummies this side of Zombie Holocaust.

In other words, Baaaddd enough to be worth looking at…

Which, sadly, is rather more than can be said for this Region 0 PAL DVD from UK company Moonstone. The film is presented pan and scan, with some particularly badly cropped compositions, such as when Kelly and Wingrove are seated opposite one another and we can see only their legs and feet at the screen edges. There are also black lines visible on both sides of the image, suggesting they haven't even got the Academy ratio right. Print quality is so-so, with considerable damage evident in many scenes, while the dubbed English audio is just the sort of flat, unimpressive mix you'd expect.

With no extras whatsoever, not even a trailer, the US disc definitely looks the way to go with this one…